(Neptune) DJ Mustard’s post-snap, “ratchet” style of minimal, melodic rap production is reaching market saturation, with rappers from Young Jeezy to Young Thug hopping on the bandwagon, with varying levels of success. One of the better MCs to ride these sleek, synthetic beats is Compton’s YG, whose raspy, snarling flow always manages to find the pocket. Being a rapper from Compton still carries certain expectations re: subject matter, even post-Kendrick, and for the most part YG’s lyrics don’t surprise. Nonetheless, he wears the street-smart gangster crown well, and he corralled some excellent guest spots on recent album My Krazy Life (Schoolboy Q, Rich Homey Quan). While it'd be nice to hear his sensitive, thoughtful side come out a bit more, as on the excellent "Sorry Mama," sometimes you just need a good dose of knucklehead rap. KYLE FLECK
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(Neumos) Edmonton duo Purity Ring started as a side project of producer Corin Roddick’s former group, Gobble Gobble (now renamed Born Gold), in 2010. But it took a couple years for the world to catch up with their futuristic, hard-hitting, electro-dream-pop sound and propel them to the popular, internationally touring entity that they are today. Now they’re able to do things like headline one of Seattle’s major venues while performing only a DJ set and still charge $15 (advance) per ticket for it. The fact that their tastes are literally years ahead of “the norm” might actually make it worth the price of admission. Local electronic duo USF are personal friends of/ideal openers for them. MIKE RAMOS
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Pull My Hair Back, Jessy Lanza's 2013 debut album on Britain's respected Hyperdub label, was an excellent debut by this Canadian producer/vocalist. On it, Lanza works in that lubricious realm where R&B engages in frottage with house music, but she keeps her voice in a hushed, tremulous register rather than in ululating-in-ecstasy mode. Melodically and rhythmically over these nine tracks, which were cowritten and coproduced by Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan, coy understatement trumps bravura gestures, but Pull My Hair Back benefits from Lanza's nuanced restraint. She's more animated than James Blake, but less brash than peers like Nite Jewel and Miracles Club. Lanza's beat-savvy torch songs put a refreshing chill in your heart and limbs. With Saint Pepsi. Barboza, 8 pm, $12 adv, 21+. DAVE SEGAL
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And read the rest of Data Breaker's coverage here »

(Lo-Fi) Veterans of Portable Shrines’ 2010 Escalator festival, Jeffertitti’s Nile are supporting their new album, The Electric Hour, their most accomplished batch of nerve-frazzlers yet. They may be based in LA, but their music’s far from the slick industry fodder that sluices out of that city, clamoring for radio and licensing action. These Cali psych-rock freaks believe more is more, so they fill out the sound spectrum with loads of trebly, well-contoured chaos, but without altogether vanquishing melody. The record’s a high-wire balancing act coupled with risky pyrotechnics, and includes a combustible cover of Bessie Smith’s “Blue Spirit Blues.” The rest of tonight’s bill’s is rounded out with reliable local low-key mind-expanders Low Hums, Ecstatic Cosmic Union, and Rose Windows’ vocalist and main songwriter. DAVE SEGAL
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(Showbox at the Market) When you think of competent ’90s “alternative rock,” you should flash on bands like Failure. The LA group cut three albums in that decade—Comfort, Magnified, and Fantastic Planet—that earned them medium-sized commercial and critical success, until they split in 1997. Failure’s 16-year hiatus ended in 2013 and now they’re on the road again. Their middling, quasi-shoegaze/psych-rock sound’s all plateau and no peaks or troughs. Guitars fuzz and swell nicely in a de-fanged Killing Joke way, melodies cruise in a narrow range of okayness that never attains “anthemic” mode, and Ken Andrews’s vocals occupy a middle distance in the mix and register a kind of anodyne annoyance, like Kurt Cobain on sedatives. It’s… all right, and that’s good enough for a lot of people. DAVE SEGAL
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(Columbia City Theater) Portland’s Black Pussy are part of a gaggle of bands with the P-word in their name: Nashville Pussy, Pussy Galore, Mannequin Pussy, Thunderpussy, Alabama Thunder Pussy, Pussy Riot, Perfect Pussy, Pussy Wizard, and Harry Pussy. The thing these five non-wimpy white dudes often have to clarify is that their name “Black Pussy” isn’t meant to offend—and was chosen because it was the rumored original title of the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar.” The problem, though, with that Stones’ song being called “Black Pussy” is that it would kill the argument that the lyrics refer to heroin addiction; instead, it’d be a song about raping young slave girls. In any case, Black Pussy are a heavy, LOUD stoner-rock band (sometimes playing with 44 speakers!), and if you dig loud stoner rock, you should probably stop worrying about the name and give the actual music a chance. KELLY O
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And here's all our recommended music events—tonight, tomorrow, this weekend, and beyond!