THURSDAY 3/17


PLAYLIST HAPPY HOUR
(Mirabeau Room) See Stranger Suggests, page 21.

IRON COMPOSER: SEAN NELSON VS. GINO YEVDJEVICH, SPANK THE WHIPPLE
(Crocodile) You're no doubt familiar with the shenanigans that happen at an Iron Composer show--sloppy, drunken shenanigans that require two performers to get ridiculously sloshed off of shots while composing an original song (based on a quick interview with an audience member) over the course of a few crazy hours. All artistic efforts are thwarted by "Mystery Chaos" (as if the five shots in 45 minutes isn't enough), which are various distractions performed by "the Interloper." It's insanity. Gloriously entertaining insanity. Some great local musicians have graced the Iron Composer arena, and tonight puts Harvey Danger frontman (and my Stranger coworker) Sean Nelson up against Kulture Shock's Gino Yevdjevich. And at the request (actually it was more like a demand) of Nelson, legendary band Spank the Whipple is making a one-time comeback to open the show. MEGAN SELING

JAN NORBERG, ILYAS AHMED, GUST BURNS
(Gallery 1412) Ziggy was generous with his stardust on local songwriter Jan Norberg's debut CD, Jan Made Sacred Spring (Antenna Farm). One half of old-timey country duo Gold Rush, Norberg trades one vintage-tinged musical style for another, retooling early Bowie gone acoustic, but especially channeling the Thin White Duke in the vocals. The album was recorded in San Francisco with Jason Albertini (Duster) and its sun-gilded tone is as warm as song titles like "Strawberry Blonde Express." JENNIFER MAERZ

FRIDAY 3/18


THE DECEMBERISTS, OKKERVIL RIVER
(Showbox) See preview, page 29, Border Radio, page 45, and Stranger Suggests, page 21.

THE HUSBANDS, THE TURPENTINE BROTHERS, INVISIBLE EYES
(Fun House) Three-and-a-half chord trash rock is a tricky thing. Were you a beginner to the genre and chanced upon either the Turpentine Brothers or the Husbands, it'd be easy to lay the old, "Shit, I could do that" theory of art criticism on the mess. San Diego's Husbands have their garage history encoded, though: Snotty gal vocals front cranky Gories rip-offs and that caveman pound. But there are trainloads of these kinds of combos out there, and when the train's zipping by, it's hard to catch which car the Husbands have jumped. In comparison, the Turpentine Brothers are a notch above in the experience department--possibly because drummer Tara McManus is also the beatkeeper in the fine gutter folk duo, Mr. Airplane Man, but this Boston trio makes the mess seem trickier. ERIC DAVIDSON

JOHN DIGWEED, LUKE FAIR, DJ EVA
(Element) One of the world's most well-traveled and popular DJs, Digweed (with or without his equally renowned partner, Sasha) seems to be taking more risks as he ages. I mean, what's he got to lose at this stage, eh? His new entry in the esteemed Fabric DJ mix series, Fabric 20, includes selections from labels like Kompakt, Merck, Substatic, and ELP, which practically never get aired in the mega clubs and festivals jocks like Digweed play. Not that he's threatening Richie Hawtin or Michael Mayer for techno-spinning supremacy, but Digweed's Fabric 20 represents a welcome detour into tougher, deeper territory for the superstar jock (fortuitously, he includes the same Mayer remix of Superpitcher's "Happiness" as does Damian Lazarus). This is Digweed's first Seattle appearance since 2001. DAVE SEGAL

JUCIFER, BURIED INSIDE, AKIMBO
(Crocodile) Jucifer are an attractive married couple who possess the ability to crush your godforsaken carcass in live settings with a high-volume attack that could melt the boil off Lemmy's face. On records like I Name You Destroyer and War Bird, though, Georgia-based guitarist/singer Amber Valentine and drummer Ed Livengood display more finesse, as My Bloody Valentine's sweet-as-molasses melodies ooze within PJ Harvey-like dynamics and Black Sabbath-esque heaviness. The times I've seen Jucifer live, however, they've eschewed their more nuanced stylings for marathon-lengthed pummelings (song breaks are for wusses, you know) that have a masochistic allure. Onstage, Valentine looks like Nancy Sinatra's glammed-up daughter, and the fact that such a hottie's inflicting so much cranial damage lends a supercharged thrill to Jucifer's live show. DAVE SEGAL

SPANISH FOR 100, KINGSLEY
(Cafe Venus) On their five-song EP Metric, produced by wunderkind Phil Ek, the Seattle band Spanish for 100 sound gloriously prairiebound. While only guitarist Aaron Starkey hails from the Midwest, the quartet taps the deep and leisurely vein that bands such as the Jayhawks mined so effectively in their original lineup. Singer/guitarist Corey Passons and bassist Ross McGilvray harmonize with a similar off-kilter beauty that the Jayhawks' Mark Olson and Gary Louris did on their earliest and best albums. While the songs have some slide and the voices careen with twangy longing, the material has a rockier core that adds heft when the band lands their punches. NATE LIPPENS

PEARL JAM, PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ANN AND NANCY WILSON, BILL FRISELL
(Paramount) It's been over a decade since hometown heroes Pearl Jam have played a show for profit in Seattle. Their collective activism and philanthropy is pretty well known, but the assortment of local and national organizations that have benefited from their goodwill is mind-boggling. The list is way too long to fully name here, but it certainly represents the band's interests: justice (West Memphis Three, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation), the arts (Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls, Seattle Center Arts Academy), politics (Voters for Choice) and good times (Seattle and Montana skate parks, Surfrider Foundation). The band celebrates their 15th anniversary this year and they show no signs of slowing down, as evidenced by tonight's benefit for the Northwest School. Don't even try to get a ticket--this one's been sold out forever. KERRI HARROP

JEFF SAMUEL
(CHAC Lower Level) I've been following Jeff Samuel's developments as a DJ since the mid '90s when we were both living in that electronic-music mecca known as Cleveland, Ohio. The vast potential Samuel showed then has bloomed magnificently over the last few years, as bookings at the 2004 Mutek festival and throughout Europe and Japan attest. Samuel creates warmly melodic microhouse productions for world-class labels like Trapez, Spectral, Morris Audio, and Poker Flat, and that style often slips into his DJ sets--but he's also just as likely to pull out some weirdly contoured, pounding techno from the Cristian Vogel school. Whichever approach he takes, Samuel always brings the high-quality wax, and his mixing skills are tighter than yours. DAVE SEGAL

LARRY CORYELL
(Triple Door) Coryell was an A-list jazz-rock guitarist who provided six-string fire and melodic finesse to countless elite sessions from the genre's heyday (1968-75). He's rightly applauded for his contributions to select Charles Mingus and Chico Hamilton's albums, but what interests me most is Coryell's involvement with Wolfgang Dauner's Et Cetera on Knirsch. An unjustly overlooked experimental jazz-rock ensemble from the early/mid-'70s, Et Cetera created some of the most inventive, beautiful, and psychedelic music ever (their out-of-print LPs go for big money on eBay). Anyone who's plugged in with Et Cetera deserves utmost respect. Even at this late date, it would be wrong-headed to miss a chance to witness Coryell's versatility, dexterity, and ultra-vivid tones. DAVE SEGAL

SATURDAY 3/19


DEGENERATE ART ORCHESTRA
(Moore) See Stranger Suggests, page 21 and the Score, page 51.

HERNAN CATTANEO, DJ CHRONUS
(Club Medusa) His record company hails Buenos Aires' Hernan Cattaneo as "South America's #1 DJ/producer," but my vote goes to Chile's Ricardo Villalobos. Sure, Cattaneo plays to larger crowds and sells more records, but when music historians recount the glories of '90s/'00s electronic music, they will certainly lavish more praise and critical exegesis on Villalobos than they will on Cattaneo. That being said, Cattaneo is a competent curator of smooth progressive house and trance, a slick mixer of said tunes, and possesses a head of luxurious dark hair. He's in town supporting the release of The Master Series Vol. 2 (Renaissance/Thrive), which debuted at 18 on Billboard's Electronic Albums chart. DAVE SEGAL

HORSES, THE BLESSED LIGHT, HENRY HANKS
(Crocodile) Henry Hanks is what you get when you combine certain members of two defunct (and still very missed) Seattle bands, Juno and Automaton. The outcome sounds nothing like the members' previous rock projects, because this time around they've turned down their turbulent, loud attacks for a raw and sad country swagger with touches of haunting steel guitar and well-worn melodies. MEGAN SELING

ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES, CHIXDIGGIT, THE HOLLOWPOINTS
(El Corazòn) Tonight's headliners are less Me First and the Gimmick Gimmick (although they don't put any effort into hiding their shtick) and more the $2 beer drinkers' good-time party band. For nearly a decade now they've taken the wilting concept of playing in a cover band and altered it to a covers band--where everything from Led Zeppelin to show tunes to old white dudes like Dylan and the Beach Boys are given a speedy pop-punk (and sometimes pop-punk-polka) makeover. The all-star band comprises members of the Swingin' Utters, Lagwagon, and the Foo Fighters, as well as Bay Area record-label icon Fat Mike. Their latest CD, Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah, contains the same punchlines the band's been tossing around since 1997--with funny skits about a 13-year-old's birthday party thrown in between songs--but if it ain't broke, the fixed formula can still lead to a grand old time. JENNIFER MAERZ

SMASH TV, DAMIAN LAZARUS, DJ RECESS, DJ MISHA, DJ SCORPIO, DEREK FISHER, THEPERFECTCYN
(Re-bar) British DJ Damian Lazarus (Crosstown Rebels, City Rockers) has found a congenial way to commingle techno, electro, and house on his Rebel Futurism--Session Two mix disc. Featuring tracks by Steve Bug, Anthony Rother, Superpitcher (remixed by Michael Mayer), and DJ Koze, Rebel Futurism stokes parties with subtle insistence rather than with raging bangers. Lazarus' style is ideally suited for spinning long sets that gradually build euphoria. Ellen Allien collaborator Smash TV, who recently issued the eccentrically excellent Bits for Breakfast (BPitch Control), explores the more camp and libidinous areas of techno and electro. Smash TV (Holger Zilske) has the thrilling ability to lace weird textures and tones into rhythmic patterns that cause people to move in spazzy yet ebullient ways. This makes him a perfect fit for the Shameless promoters' aesthetic, where fun and adventurous styles are fused at the hip. DAVE SEGAL

TOMASZ STANKO QUARTET
(Triple Door) Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko rose to prominence in the mid-'60s as a member of Kryzsztof Komeda's group. That ensemble made ripples throughout Europe's avant-garde and turned highly evolved American jazz heads, too. In the early '70s, Stanko worked with jazz illuminati such as Cecil Taylor, Gary Peacock, and Michael Urbaniak. Stanko's music is marked by a midnight-blue soulfulness that recalls Miles and Chet's starkly beautiful tones. On the Stanko Quartet's latest release, Suspended Night (ECM), the master and his young cohorts Marcin Wasilewski (piano), Slawomir Kurkiewicz (double bass), and Michal Miskiewicz (drums) amble elegantly through a twilight haze, with each member showing utmost delicacy, restraint, and sensitivity for his instrument. (The youthful Polish threesome also have just issued a fluidly graceful understatement of a debut album titled Trio, which contains a cover of Björk's "Hyperballad.") DAVE SEGAL

SUNDAY 3/20
Please let me get what I want.

MONDAY 3/21
Please.

TUESDAY 3/22


GIFT OF GAB, LATEEF THE TRUTH SPEAKER
(Chop Suey) Anytime I meet someone who swears that they'd never get into hiphop, instead of writing them off, I sit 'em down and make them listen to "Alphabet Aerobics" off of Blackalicious' A2G EP. Like Billy Dee Williams says, works every time. Gift's lung-stretching stanzas, impeccable cadences, and sheer lyrical bombast are enough to make anybody rise up off that bullshit. 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up was the album to beat last year, but y'all knew that. Lateef is well known from the work he's put in as one half of the unfuckwittable Latyrx, or from his Maroons album (with Blackalicious' Chief X-Cel). Look, am I speaking Chinese up here? Go to the show, motherfucker! LARRY MIZELL JR.

ATREYU, UNEARTH, NORMA JEAN, SCARS OF TOMORROW
(El Corazòn) Norma Jean love the Lord, and unlike many of their haloed hardcore peers, they demonstrate their devout faith with jarringly violent lyrics. The band prefers a PG-rated Passion, in which blades are "gently inserted" and narrators are "stabbed by grace." On their divinely inspired recent release O God, the Aftermath, Norma Jean experiment with making two words into oneword. (The song titles are all Scrabble cheats such as "Murderotica" and "Absentimental.") Similarly, they stuff two tracks' worth of signature shifts, scorched-larynx shrieks, and surgical-scalpel-sharp riffs into every tune. While most hardcore groups follow a format that's as predictable as an Old Testament lineage passage (…and the verse about betrayal begat the shout-along chorus, which begat the breakdown), Norma Jean twists and tangles its inscrutable compositions until they become revelatory. ANDREW MILLER

HOOD, STRATEGY, ORIGAMI GHOSTS
(Neumo's) If you're going to Neumo's tonight to catch Hood, don't sleep on Strategy. This Portland multi-instrumentalist (real name: Paul Dickow) for IDM trio Nudge and funky fusioneers Fontanelle records solo for the estimable Kranky and Outward Music Company labels. Strategy's album for the latter, Strut, finds interesting ways to come to grips with IDM's conflicted relationship with hedonistic dance tropes. Drumsolo's Delight (Kranky) ranks as one of the decade's finest ambient-dub excursions (ambient dub ain't what it used to be, but still). When it's not subtly disorienting you, the disc immerses you in a subaquatic tranquility, inducing both sensual and cerebral pleasures. It's safe to say many cannabis sativa plants were harmed during the making of this record. DAVE SEGAL See Data Breaker, page 35.

ED RUSH & OPTICAL
(War Room) If it were 1996, this bill would be cause for mass hysteria. In 2005, though, the morbidly dark tech-step experimentations wrought by British producers Ed Rush & Optical have faded in their power to excite and surprise. Still, whether you're a jaded old-school junglist or a fresh-faced newbie, you should come to see if these drum 'n' bass legends have any juice left in their engines--and to catch an early glimpse of the new Capitol Hill club, the War Room (722 E Pike St), which officially opens March 27. DAVE SEGAL

WEDNESDAY 3/23


GRAHAM COXON, 22-20s
(Chop Suey) See preview, page 35.

JESSE SYKES AND PHIL WANDSCHER, ROCKY VOTALATO, FAITH AND DISEASE, MATT BROOKE, BLACK NITE CRASH, GUESTS
(Neumo's) See Live Wire, page 39 and Stranger Suggests, page 21.

CHRISTY McWILSON, JEN WOOD, PELUSA, ROSYVELT, NORTH 19, AARON WALD, HOLLIS BROWN, THE FEMURS, DATELESS, DANGERBIRD, DOUBLEWIDE, MURDERER'S ACCORDION
(Sunset) See Border Radio, page 43.