THURSDAY 11/17

CHINESE ROCKS
(War Room) See Stranger Suggests, page 29.

THE ABODOX, ALDEBARAN, TUNDRA, GREY
(Funhouse) Taking a myriad of disparate influences, Tundra meld Gypsy music and Neurosis together as if the music was created by aliens on a planet where and the notion of "cool" doesn't exist. Tundra take their time to organically build up songs with swells of experimental tinkering before assaulting audiences with lurching and bounding bass lines. Razor-edged guitar progressions stab at the tribal rhythms stumbling into blast-beat drums. Meanwhile, the creaky wooden groan of a viola offers strategic advice like an opinionated elder as two singers trade low guttural barks and high hoarse shrieks. JAMES SQUEAKY

DANNY KRIVIT, DJ SCENE, VSOP, VIOLATE, AUTOMATIC
(Trinity) A DJ since 1971, Krivit follows this tenet: "When the songs are put together they should tell a story, like an emotional journey, and my emotions and subconscious lead the way." Unfortunately, the records that relate Krivit's stories are the dippiest, gooiest house specimens imaginable, intolerable to those allergic to their "up with people" vibe ("Love will always find a way"; sure it will.) I've only heard Krivit's In the House mix album, but it seems like a representative overview of his soft-centered style. But pay no heed to this old grouch, who likes weird, underground electronic music. Have fun! DAVE SEGAL

FRIDAY 11/18

ROGUE WAVE, KELLEY STOLTZ
(Neumo's, early) See Stranger Suggests, page 29 and preview, page 39.

ROCKY VOTOLATO, THE EPOCHS, BLUE CHECKERED RECORD PLAYER, INVISIBLE
(Vera Project) See preview, page 42.

THE STANDARD, THE KINGSBURY MANX, THE HEAVENLY STATES
(Crocodile) See Border Radio, page 55 and CD reviews, page 48.

TOM VEK, THE WILLOWZ, MERCIR
(Chop Suey) Since the unending swarms of "buzz bands" are routinely swatted away like so many mosquitoes on a Louisiana porch, make sure to catch this bill tonight so tomorrow you can tell your friends you saw them before they were "so this afternoon." Tom Vek is yet another electro waver, though his crackling four-track debut, We Have Sound (Startime), gets downright fugly, plus there's humor in his mincing Brit voice and addled-Astaire dance moves. The Willowz ought to be either extremely tired or extremely tight after all the touring they've logged for their swell new CD, Talk in Circles. ERIC DAVIDSON

THE SPACE CRETINS, CLOROX GIRLS, LOS PELIGROSOS, THE ROYAL PAINS
(Funhouse) When you're 16 years old, mad at your dad, and bored with the world, punk rock can save your life. Especially when it warns you not to make your mother cry by becoming yet another "virgin suicide." Portland's Clorox Girls—who celebrate the release of their new CD, This Dimension—are a healthy dose of punk-rock Ritalin, playing up the poppier, snottier, and most importantly, spazzier elements of the genre. Simple song structures, straightforward ideas—sometimes the least complicated concepts can be the most fun. JENNIFER MAERZ

LARRY HEARD, LSDJ
(Trinity) Larry Heard (AKA Mr. Fingers) has bestowed to the world such early house classics as "Can You Feel It," "Washing Machine," "Beyond the Clouds," and "Mystery of Love." While these relentlessly percolating, hypnotic cuts still give people the warm 'n' fuzzies, Heard has gone on to record 16 albums and DJ around the world to adoring crowds. It's safe to say that one of his sets in 2005 will seriously school both newbies and graying clubbers. DAVE SEGAL

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, STARS, DJ THOMAS MORR
(Paramount) Here's a little trivia: Long ago Death Cab frontman, Ben Gibbard, was in a band called Post-Nasal Drip. That's important because it supports the idea that everything big must come from something small. While everyone's romanticizing the early Death Cab days, remembering the delicate, dynamic songwriter and his musical gang as awkward young men who could never end up as guest stars on a hit television show, let alone tour mates with Bruce Springsteen, it's even funnier to think of Gibbard as a high-school kid in Bremerton with a new band named after an awful bodily function. MEGAN SELING

THE RUBY DOE, BULLET CLUB, DJ CURTIS
(Seattle Laser Dome) Who needs a CD soundtrack when you can get live local music at the Seattle Laser Dome? Math rockers Bullet Club and the Ruby Doe team up to bend those colored beams around the room for this all-ages event. Death of the Party's DJ Curtis keeps the momentum going between sets. Show time's early—doors at 6:30 pm. JENNIFER MAERZ

SATURDAY 11/19

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, STARS, DJ THOMAS MORR
(Paramount) See Friday's preview.

JOSH WINK, FUNKSTORUNG
(Chop Suey) See Data Breaker, page 61.

LAURA VEIRS & THE TORTURED SOULS, GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS, KARL BLAU
(Tractor) See preview, page 40.

THE INTELLIGENCE, DEAD PEOPLE, STABMASTERARSON
(Comet) See preview, page 47.

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS, SLENDER MEANS
(Pyramid Alehouse) Perhaps there is such a thing as a disappointing New Pornographers show, but I've never experienced it. With the exception of their criminally abbreviated performance at this year's Tinkle Benefit, Carl Newman and company consistently deliver generously sized sets fueled by equal portions of technical precision and euphoric whimsy. Local rising stars Slender Means are probably both thrilled and terrified to be opening for a band so revered for their meticulously crafted pop manifestos, but they've certainly earned the honor. HANNAH LEVIN

DAZ-I-KUE, HVW8 PAINTERS, SUNTZU SOUND
(Baltic Room) Part of nine-member London broken-beat pacesetters Bugz in the Attic, Daz-I-Kue is a crucial architect of that collective's fractured, future-funk productions (including the Radio1 hit "Booty-La-La") and remixes (including tracks by Fela Kuti, Basement Jaxx, and Jazzanova). A DJ since 1983, Daz has expansive knowledge of reggae, house, R&B, and hiphop. Whether he spins or busts out his own tracks, Daz is sure to broaden your horizons. Artist crew HVW8—Gene Pendon, Tyler Gibney, and Dan Buller—will be painting murals onstage as the music plays. DAVE SEGAL

PROPAGANDHI, THE GREG MACPHERSON BAND, GUESTS
(Neumo's) Propagandhi canceled the final dates of their 2001 tour after 9/11, proving even the band behind melodic thrash's most indelicate antimilitary anthems knows when to practice solemn silence. Potemkin City Limits, their first release since that hiatus, spits pent-up venom at the U.S. government. Propagandhi also skewer NOFX's Fat Mike, which is bold, given that he owns the label for which they record, yet counterintuitive, because he campaigns for the same progressive causes. Fat Mike probably knows not to take Propagandhi too seriously, given their history of balancing serious statements with slapstick stunts and alternating acrobatic eloquence with gratuitous profanity. ANDREW MILLER

SUNDAY 11/20

DAMIAN "JR. GONG" MARLEY
(Showbox) Earlier this year, Jr. Gong's "Welcome to Jamrock" went off like a bomb—lyrically painting a stirring portrait of poverty in Jamaica's townships, and musically signaling a shift back to the roots of that country's sound. A crop of young roots rockers has emerged to lead the massive back to more organic sonics and conscious messages, with the scion of reggae's royal family in front. Marley's album is just as sturdy and steady as his anthemic single—and its stateside success makes one realize just how welcome this shift in consciousness is right now. LARRY MIZELL JR.

THE TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS, TULLYCRAFT, TIM SEELY
(Chop Suey) The Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players return to Seattle from their newish home in New York, bringing with them a whole new set of wacky garage-sale slides and fictional stories with which to narrate them. One of the goofiest cabaret acts going, this family of three is earnestly silly and so much fun live, they practically lift the weight of the world from your shoulders, depositing made-up stories about Japanese vacations in its place. JENNIFER MAERZ

XAXIS WYE
(Rendezvous) Seattle's Xaxis Wye (Jeff Mueller) is an aural spelunker whose lowercase music (what I've heard, anyway) burrows, drifts, and shivers in cryptic, eerie ways, like a Northwest version of Zen dronemeisters Zoviet France and Rapoon. Xaxis Wye soundtracks the subconscious in its most uneasy and disturbed states. Tonight's the CD release party of his album Radio Songs, with additional "theatrics, visual, and DJs" promised, including Butoh dancing by Briana Chittenden, metal sculpture by Noah Mickens, and vocals by Susan Dumett. DAVE SEGAL

MONDAY 11/21

CHILDREN OF BODOM, TRIVIUM, AMON AMARTH
(El Corazón) See CD Reviews, page 48.

LIVING LEGENDS, ACEYALONE, PEANUT BUTTER WOLF
(Showbox) The Living Legends are one of the few crews who have created their own grassroots movements over time; Legends fans are notoriously loyal to the prolific Cali collective. The Legends also crisscrossed the globe to international renown, hustling tapes out of their backpacks. Just peep the old tape Worldwide Underground from proto-Legends group Mystik Journeymen for the proof—titles like "Slang'n Tapes at the Czech Border" and "Midnight Flight to Seoul" says it all. Murs's emergence as indie-rap darling has boosted his crew's profile, but no man eclipses another in this Everyman collective—it's always a family affair. LARRY MIZELL JR.

GWEN STEFANI, MIA
(KeyArena) Although her music with No Doubt has an impenetrably dull mainstream-pop veneer, Gwen Stefani's solo album, Love.Angel.Music.Baby, offered some genuine dance-floor fun. It's not brain surgery, but the peroxide fashion diva never promised to crack skulls with ingenuity; she'd rather rally the call for a Harajuku Girls' night out to dish the dirt on beauty secrets and boy toys. Opener MIA offers less shine, more substance; her last show in town was one of the most enthusiastic performances I've seen at the Showbox. Truly excited to take the stage, Maya Arulpragasam brings world dance music (dancehall, electro, grime, baile funk) together for one high-energy audio-visual experience. JENNIFER MAERZ

TUESDAY 11/22

MILEMARKER, THE MAE-SHI, THE POPE, MON FRERE, THE BRAILLE TAPES
(Vera Project) See All Ages Action, page 63.

CAGE, CAMU TAO, SLOW SUICIDE STIMULUS, ONRY OZZBORN, DJ CRAZY GLUE
(Chop Suey) See preview, page 47.

BAND OF HORSES, PHOSPHORESCENT, THE CASTANETS
(Crocodile) See preview, page 44.

WEDNESDAY 11/23

HYPATIA LAKE, TARANTULA A.D., STARS OF TRACK AND FIELD
(Crocodile) See Stranger Suggests, page 29.

FIONA APPLE
(Moore) See CD Reviews, page 48.

THE DRIFT, BRIAN MILLER/ANNIE ROSSI/KEVIN SHIELDS, BONUS
(Gallery 1412) The Drift take inspiration from Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies and Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, and those touchstones hint at their becalmed post-rock/ambient meanderings that strive for surrealistic effect. But more often than not on their new album, Noumena, the Drift settle into lethargic stretches of gentle guitar ripples or placid Bark Psychosis–like peregrinations that rarely rise above pleasantness, though "Transatlantic" points to a promising Don Cherry-esque direction. Seattle's Bonus torment the ghosts in their machines, triggering cryptic subsonic utterances and ultrahigh frequencies that inevitably make most citizens feel uneasy. They'll never get radio play this way. DAVE SEGAL

IAN MOORE, TOM BROSSEAU, MARK PICKEREL & STEVE TURNER
(Tractor) Ian Moore has had an exceptionally successful fall. He spent September touring with the Jam's legendary frontman Paul Weller, an accomplishment that Moore describes as "one of the highlights of my career so far." From there he spent the balance of the season traversing Europe with his friends in Richmond Fontaine, playing well-received shows in Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, and England, and generally furthering his international reputation as one of the most instinctively gifted singer-songwriters working today. Every time I walk into one of his sparsely attended Seattle shows, I'm thoroughly perplexed why the room isn't packed to the rafters—he's truly one of this city's most undervalued treasures. HANNAH LEVIN

MORE

THE CHARIOT, EVERGREEN TERRACE, AS CITIES BURN, UNDERMINDED: Wed Nov 23, El Corazón

ANDREW W.K., PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES, THE SCHOOLYARD HEROES: Fri Dec 2, University of Washington

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN, INNAWAY: Sat Dec 3, Neumo's

!!!: Sat Dec 3, Crocodile

DAVE IN, DOOMRIDERS, LORENE DRIVE, PLAYING ENEMY: Mon Dec 5, El Corazón

THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS, ROONEY, THE ACADEMY IS...: Wed Dec 7, Showbox

ROSIE THOMAS, DAVID BAZAN, ESTER DRANG: Fri Dec 9, Crocodile

KANYE WEST, FANTASIA, KEYSHIA COLE: Sat Dec 10, Everett Events Center