THE VALUE OF BLACK LIFE
Sat Feb 7 at 8:30 pm at EMP Sky Church
"[Talib Kweli] was last seen on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri—maybe you've heard of it—having police threaten to "blow [his] fucking head off," dissing how the media was covering the Mike Brown protests, and flaming the helmet of CNN house anchor Don Lemon like it was going out of style. I'm looking forward to what he and Draze have to say on the value of black life—because we getting changed out here on the daily."

DREAMSALON, GAZEBOS, AND GANG CULT
Sat Feb 7 at Blue Moon Tavern
Seattle’s best band named after a yard structure (sorry not sorry, Fences), Gazebos are Shannon Perry (formerly of Butts), TV Coahran and Jordan T. Adams (formerly of Spurm), and Shane Herrell (of Bread & Butter). Think dancing and post-punk soaked in pink wine—soft angles, fall-apart endings, the good kind of nervous, the good kind of arty, and Perry channeling a more reasonable Amy Winehouse or someone reading a letter to themselves out loud while smoking a cigarette from one of those long holders. Their live shows are A+. With theparanoid/jittery surf music of Gang Cult, and the distorted, controlled burn of Dreamsalon.

LETTUCE AND BREAK SCIENCE
Sat Feb 7 at 9 pm at Neptune Theatre
Lettuce is perhaps not the most evocative name for a funk unit, but the way they happened upon it is a charming window into the band’s hustle: during their early years around Boston, they’d harangue various club owners to simply “let us play.” Get it? Let us/lettuce? Sure, the road grind ain’t exactly romantic, but the workmanlike commitment to the craft unquestionably worked in their favor. Over the course of the past two decades of constant gigging the boys of Lettuce honed their talents into one of contemporary funk’s most reliably groovy instrumental ensembles, as unafraid of breaking down for jazzy interludes or cosmic Rhodes contemplations as they are of letting the rhythm section attack a backbeat from every conceivable angle. Lettuce be thankful for their commitment to the boogie and the bass.

MORGAN DELT AND STARDEATH AND THE WHITE DWARFS
Sat Feb 7 at 7 pm at Barboza
Poor Stardeath & White Dwarfs—forever destined to be associated with the Flaming Lips, thanks to Wayne Coyne’s nephew Dennis being their lead singer. As it turns out, Stardeath sound like a scrappier, less bombastic Lips, with whom they recorded a cover of Pink Floyd’s totemic Dark Side of the Moon LP. The Oklahoma City quartet mess around with psych-pop tropes with a Foxygen-like abandon, adorning catchy melodies in a dizzying array of effects. Ultimately, though, Stardeath are a charming if not mind-blowing band who will probably always be consigned to opening for more interesting and exciting acts of their ilk—like Morgan Delt. The recent Sub Pop signee has only one album to his name, but it’s a stone classic. Every second of every song sounds like it’s being run through a console with LSD and candy floss in its circuits. Morgan Delt music is one of the sweetest ways to get disoriented in 2015.

THE MALDIVES, DUKE EVERS BAND, AND GUESTS
Sat Feb 7 at 8 pm at Neumos
Some things I'll never understand: intelligent people who smoke cigarettes; folks who take Sarah Palin seriously; how anyone can convert the 7–10 split; and the bubbly enthusiasm many Northwesterners have for the bland country rock of the Moondoggies and the Maldives. These Seattle bands are not bad, by any means, but they're honor-bound to a tradition mired in aesthetic conservativism. Sure, they're great players and singers who seem sincere in their appreciation for this dusty, twangy, wistful music, and they're probably nice people who vote, recycle, and pay their bills on time. But the Moondoggies and the Maldives represent to this listener a pernicious sort of nostalgia for a musical style that was never thrilling to begin with.

For our complete list of things to do today, check out The Stranger's events calendar.