If you're overwhelmed by all of the shows on our stacked music calendar, our music critics have got you covered. Below, find their picks for shows happening between August 15 and 21, ranging from the Columbia City Blues Festival to Kill Rock Star's 25th Anniversary Show to Linda's Fest.
AUGUST 15
Weaves with Guests
In the wake of tUnE-yArDs’ breakthrough, the public has been primed to more eagerly embrace avant-pop units quirking out their twisted melodies, spasmodic rhythms, and loopy female vocals. Count Toronto’s Weaves as another group sneaking deceptively weird song structures into indie rock’s sluggish bloodstream. In Jasmyn Burke, Weaves have an unconventionally charismatic frontwoman given to whoops and well-modulated hysteria. There’s something of the surplus energy and ideas that Pixies flexed circa Come on Pilgrim/Surfer Rosa in Weaves’ nervy approach. I bet they tear it up live. DAVE SEGAL
AUGUST 16
Chico Freemen Plus+tet
A second-generation jazzer, Chico Freeman got his start listening to his father, the late saxophonist Von Freeman. The son learned the father’s instrument, tenor sax, but Chico throws in trumpet and occasionally piano. He’ll be fronting what he calls the Plus+tet, featuring pianist Luke Carlos O’Reilly, Kenny Davis on bass, and drummer Michael Baker. He plays some bop, some blues, some ballads, bits and pieces of things he’s learned from playing with everyone from Wynton Marsalis to the Eurythmics to Sting to Earth, Wind & Fire. He says he can’t find one word to describe his music, because he always finds things he can add. Do drop in and listen to how the numbers add up this time. ANDREW HAMLIN
B-Side Players: A Tribute to Curtis Mayfield
At his best, which was very great indeed, Curtis Mayfield was a top-five soul man, and one of the greatest composers, singers, and guitarists in the field. Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, he humanized and analyzed sociopolitical and racial issues and expressed matters of the heart with one of the sweetest falsettos ever to flutter by a mic, both solo and with the Impressions. And, oh lord, his music could be so damn funky and electrifying—e.g., “Future Shock,” “Mother’s Son,” “Freddie’s Dead,” “If I Were Only a Child Again,” etc. Celebrating and interpreting Mayfield’s powerful, poignant artistry tonight are Industrial Revelation drummer D’Vonne Lewis, guitar deity Andy Coe, bassist Farko Dosumov, vibes player Jacques Willis, and saxophonist Cliff Colon. Move on up with them. DAVE SEGAL
Krallice, Pale Chalice, Addaura, A God or An Other
If you’re familiar with the names Mick Barr and Colin Marston, then your music collection likely veers toward a very particular corner of the metal world, a corner where adept players push further and further into the angular, geometric endpoint, a corner away from the crowds at the center. Marston’s work with Behold… the Arctopus, the reunited Gorguts, and Dysrhythmia are all dizzying and challenging in their own right, but Barr’s work in jazz-violence outfits like Orthrelm and Crom-Tech is even more gloriously incomprehensible. It’s strange that these two virtuosos would tackle the deliberately underdeveloped sounds of black metal, but with their combined effort in Krallice, they successfully harness the genre’s corrosive force while injecting it with an unorthodox level of musicianship. BRIAN COOK
AUGUST 16-17
Freddie Jackson
R&B icon Freddie Jackson shares his decades of experience, stamina, and musical legacy with Jazz Alley, taking on urban contemporary, soul, and jazz.
AUGUST 17
Broods, Jarryd James
It’s great to have a gimmick, especially if you’re a part of Broods. Already existing as a sister-brother duo, and then making snap-crackle-electro-pop together? What a world. With their first album, Evergreen, Broods throw nothing new into the void, yet they manage to eke by with a generically enjoyable record of enough boom-claps to keep your whole post–Block Party summer vibe going for a few days. Their latest effort, Conscious, begins triumphantly with tracks proclaiming the exhilaration of freedom, the age of innocence, the glow of youth—thereby cementing their status as a Nicholas Sparks novel set to a discarded Charli XCX backing track. Real talk: There are so many other pop-electronica groups with dance music foundations and R&B influences out there in the world to listen to than Broods. Go spend time on one of them instead. KIM SELLING
FWD: Great Dane, Mumdance
Signed to the solid Alpha Pup label and tight with the Low End Theory crew (he’s DJed that prestigious weekly event), Orange County’s Great Dane is well placed to move the needle slightly leftward on hiphop and trap production styles. His partially dark, partially hype tracks—often embellished with weird percussive timbres—have secured him support from powerful outlets like NPR, Red Bull Music Academy, and BBC Radio 1. London-based Mumdance has associations with the Keysound, Tectonic, Mad Decent, and Fabric labels, so you know he’s playing in the big leagues. His tracks creep in stranger directions than do Great Dane’s. It should be interesting to see how Mumdance’s spacey and bassy abstractions go down in Q’s swanky environs. DAVE SEGAL
AUGUST 18
Kill Rock Star’s 25th Anniversary: Kinski, Wimps, Lithics
I used to sit with the members of Kinski at the Monkey Pub, debating anything musical under the sun. Guitarist/vocalist Chris Martin loves krautrock but not prog rock unless krautrock is prog rock. I told him my two favorite albums were Bat Out of Hell and Astral Weeks, which he dubbed “ludicrous albums.” We were loud, but we had some beer-soaked fun. I lost track of them after a while, still miss ’em. They muster the mating of noise to drone to groove to Matthew Reid Schwartz’s once-in-a-while flute, and just generally out-Sonic Youth Sonic Youth. I foolishly assumed they’d taken a pop turn more recently. I tried the latest album, 7 (Or 8). I was wrong. I’m very glad to be wrong. ANDREW HAMLIN
Elevator: Logos, Marcus Price, Abyss X
Logos (aka James Parker of Keysound Recordings) is coming to fuck with your equilibrium. On his 2013 album Cold Mission, the English producer fuses grime with vaporwave and uneasy ambient passages to create a cavern of otherworldly sonic events. If you like the sound of guns cocking in outer space while intestine-damaging bass frequencies bulge below, Logos is your guy. (He also collaborated with Mumdance [see the 8/17 blurb on him in this section] on 2015’s infernally brutal dubstep opus Proto. The enigmatic Abyss X makes music that’s hard to grasp, which is usually a good sign. She’s a producer who incongruously blends jagged, quasi-danceable rhythms and menacing atmospheres with alluring melodies and creamy vocals, creating a crucial friction. In the last two live sets I’ve seen by Marcus Price, he’s proven himself to be the closest thing Seattle has to Autechre. His productions have become incredibly complex and riveting, offering several terrifying and beautiful thrills on any given night. DAVE SEGAL
Amy Helm, Fife & Drom
Born to singer Libby Titus and drummer/singer Levon Helm, Amy Helm bashed around with her father on tour from a very young age, witnessing mayhem and sometimes genius. She’s worked with everyone from Mercury Rev to Marc Cohn. Her debut solo album, Didn’t It Rain, though, finds her mining a straightforward, meticulously constructed panoply of emotions, moving through regret, desire, anger, jubilation, anticipation, worry, and resignation. Here’s to many more. ANDREW HAMLIN
Ghoulavelii, Shawn Parker, Skkrt, Yung Fern, Ralph Dozer
Tacoma’s Ghoulavelii blends big productions reminiscent of Clams Casino with grungy trap lyricism to create a unique hiphop sound. His instrumentals are filled to the brim with elaborate bass, dark synths, and crazy drum patterns that can become erratic at times. He is an underground talent and maintains a level of rawness that comes with recording in friends’ closets instead of big studios. His catalog provides a nice balance of in your face aggressive tracks and slower heavy anthems that feel warm and muggy like overcast summer days. His live shows are hype, so be prepared to jump around and swap some body sweat as you enjoy some of Tacoma’s finest mosh-pit trap. M. ANTHONY DAVIS
Band of Horses, Wild Feathers
Groups like Band of Horses fascinate me, because they seem to put so much effort and money into sounding as bland as possible. Hell-bent on mediocrity! Well, it’s one way to make a living in this rigged-against-the-artist industry. Back in their mid-’00s Sub Pop days, though, Band of Horses actually wrote an interesting song or three. I especially liked “Detlef Schrempf,” and not just because I’m into basketball. Those earlier BOH records had a causal grandeur and aching tunefulness that could lower your defenses toward stadium indie rock. But follow-ups Infinite Arms and Mirage Rock made Crosby, Stills & Nash sound like the Velvet Underground. I downloaded the new Why Are You OK from the group’s publicist, but it was untagged and unfindable in my iTunes. Apt metaphor. DAVE SEGAL
Hockey Dad, Muuy Biien, Moon Darling
From the sunny eastern shores of New South Wales come Hockey Dad. The Australian duo’s clap-along rhythms and jangly guitar licks joyfully belie their icy name—which happens to reference a mid-era Simpsons episode—alone making them a natural pick for your trans-Pacific summer playlist. But HD’s debut full-length, Boronia, goes beyond the beach foam and sand-in-your-shorts fun their Dreamin’ EP provided, at times diving into a more jammy pool of indie pop (“Grange,” “Two Forever”) while continuing to weave melancholy lyrics for contrast. Hockey Dad thrive in a rowdy mode, full of big, happy guitars and punchy drums, where growing up may be inevitable but the snooze button is always within arm’s reach. TODD HAMM
Prom Queen, Soft Lions, The Bougies
Prom Queen (aka Leeni Ramadan) shows grand ambition on every release, including 2014’s Midnight Veil, in which she corrals some of the city’s top players to forge alternate-world John Barry and Ennio Morricone soundtracks, rife with Ramadan’s Nancy Sinatra–esque vocal flourishes and noir-rock suspense and glinting guitar coloration from Ben Von Wildenhaus and Jason Goessl. DAVE SEGAL
AUGUST 19
Marielle V Jakobsons, Chuck Johnson, Medina/Walsh, Blessed Blood
When bliss-generating Bay Area drone specialists Date Palms dissolved in 2013, it dealt a blow to their small die-hard fan base. Thankfully, violinist/flautist/synthesist Marielle V Jakobsons has emerged as a formidable solo artist. She proved on 2012’s Glass Canyon that she’s one of the country’s deepest practitioners of drone-based composition. Her subtle yet profound gradations of timbres and distant, eerie melodies possess a transcendental power. Jakobsons’s new album, Star Core, finds her music ascending to a more celestial plane and, for the first time, includes her diaphanous vocals. After one listen to Star Core, it’s clear Jakobsons has been assimilating the astral elegance of Alice Coltrane’s most sacred works and buttressing her compositions with sonorous Charlie Haden–like bass. The result is one of the best albums you’ll hear in 2016. DAVE SEGAL
Rock Against the TPP Rally
Rock Against The TPP as a movement is a nationwide uprising and concert tour organized to halt the Trans-Pacific Partnership in its tracks. RATTPP as a show, though, is a star-studded line-up of celebs and artists throwing their considerable weight behind this social movement, featuring the performances from Talib Kweli, Evangeline Lilly, Anti-Flag, Downtown Boys, bell's roar, Taina Asili, Evan Greer, and more.
AUGUST 19-21
Columbia City Blues Festival
The fourth annual Columbia City Blues Festival allows the Royal Room to do what it does best: spotlight important historical music developments and put them into contexts 21st-century folks can comprehend. The event’s three nights will explore—with key contributions from Wayne Horvitz and his coterie of scholarly musician pals—the crucial impact that blues pioneer Robert Johnson had on his fellow American bluesmen and how he and Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, and others influenced rockers such as the Yardbirds, PJ Harvey, and Nick Cave. The final night will delve into how late, legendary New Orleans composer/musician Allen Toussaint’s inspired many modern blues-rock groups. DAVE SEGAL
AUGUST 20
Fitz & The Tantrums with Phases
Yet another case study in the old lesson that you shouldn’t let a band’s success stand in the way of taking them seriously. This massively talented group offers a rich marriage of soul, rock, dancehall, and pop sounds, and puts on a dazzling, energetic show. It’s a pleasure to see a band work this hard for your good time. SEAN NELSON
Linda’s Fest
Capitol Hill brunch-and-brews institution Linda’s Tavern continues to give back to the community with a yearly sample of free local music. And while the average income of the restaurant’s neighbors continues to change, the sonic fare of Linda’s Fest does not—heavy, rhythmic, and loud continue to be adjectives of consequence. Because, really, what is the sound of brunch? It is the aural equivalent of that which quenches the hangover: grease, carbon, caffeine, and further blood-borne ethanol. This year’s amp-worship seminar features Fred and Toody Cole of Dead Moon as keynote speakers. Support comes from extra-reverb surf-punk outfit Acapulco Lips, bile-spewing queercore group Sashay (see this band live at all costs), and others. Maybe Steal Shit Do Drugs will cover Cop Shoot Cop and achieve peak sassy name power. JOSEPH SCHAFER
Recloose, Cylc, Will Winston
Back in the late 1990s and early ’00s, Recloose (aka Matthew Chicoine) ranked as my third favorite artist on Planet E, behind label boss Carl Craig and Moodymann. That’s not a bad placing, as both of those Detroit producers created some of the most emotionally moving and elegantly crafted techno and house music of that era. Early releases like So This Is the Dining Room and Spelunking found Recloose engaging in low-key club heaters that spanned stark electro to quirkily funky house, all reflecting his facility for unexpected jazz touches via his saxophone playing; “Soul Clap 2000” still sounds fresh. I lost track of Recloose after 2002’s suave avant-house opus Cardiology, but Chicoine’s kept a fairly regular release schedule after he moved from the Motor City to New Zealand and then to Brooklyn. He brings an organic musicality to club music and, yes, a looseness that results in interesting broken-beat complexities. A scan through recent Recloose output reveals that he’s slickened his sound somewhat, but clever ideas continue to percolate through his work. DAVE SEGAL
AUGUST 21
Jeff Beck, Ayron Jones
For all his pop-cultural weight, what with his guitarsonist chops and maintaining his iconic hairstyle for more than 50 years, Jeff Beck mostly has kept, in the clichéd sense of a “rock star,” a low profile, as he’s spent his career challenging himself, not the charts. He first found footing in 1965 when he joined the Yardbirds, where he became much bolder as he helped the band turn beat music over, under, and sideways down. After departing the Yardbirds, Beck formed his own group and played heavy, syncopated progressive blues and eventually began playing fusion. Well, he’s just release a new album, Loud Hailer, and it’s full of deeply layered, textured blues-based tracks and almost all cowritten with much younger musicians Rosie Bones and Carmen Vandenberg. MIKE NIPPER
Sonny and the Sunsets, Boots to the Moon
Although I would normally be the first to willfully ignore a “garage revival” act, scene veterans Sonny & the Sunsets’ lovable and summery slacker-esque indie rock and lo-fi garage shtick are done better than most. It’s hook-intensive, unobtrusive music created by and for dad rockers, but that’s not a bad thing. Since 2009’s folksier and 1960s-garage-oriented Tomorrow Is Alright, the band has shimmied from cutesy, sad-bastard-tinged mellow jams into a more mid-tempo, post-punk-leaning party vibe. Their latest release, Moods Baby Moods, is their most multidimensional to date, moving beyond merely listenable garage rock homage to something more layered and playfully cross-genre. One song, “Nightmares,” even takes Joy Division–esque drum-machine patterns into effect, showing that Sonny and the Sunsets still have surprises left after six records. BRITTNIE FULLER
