THURSDAY 6/29

DIAMOND LANE, ICEAGE COBRA, JIMMY FLAME & THE SEXXY BOYS, VINDALOO
(Nectar) See Rocka Rolla.

CLOUDLAND CANYON, LICHENS, SIR RICHARD BISHOP, ACRE
(Sunset) Cloudland Canyon took me unawares with their 2006 debut disc, Requiems Der Natur 2002–2004. Here was a duo (American Kip Uhlhorn and German Simon Wojan) recording for Tee Pee Records—mainly known for its middling stoner-rock fare—who conjured the soul-inflating drones, meditational fantasias, and synapse-tingling textures of the great American minimalist composers (Terry Riley, Steve Reich, David Behrman, Philip Glass, et al.) and '70s Kraut-rock psychonauts like Ash Ra Tempel and Embryo. Unusual, to say the least. Bolstered by Turing Machine/Juan Maclean drummer Jerry Fuchs, the Double vocalist Jacob Morris, and keyboardist Kelly Winkler, Cloudland Canyon tap into a deep mystical vein of sonic poetry and rare melodic beauty. They make most freak-folkies sound like fey daisy-pickers. Along with equally transcendent drone/guitar/vocal savant Lichens (Robert Lowe) and Sun City Girls guitar maestro Sir Richard Bishop, this tremendous bill provides a prime opportunity to get your brainticket punched. DAVE SEGAL See also Stranger Suggests and preview.

SIRENS SISTER, JONAH MATRANGA, TROUBLETOWN
(Crocodile) Jonah Matranga has a wicked musical resumé. He was the frontman of Far, the star of his solo project onelinedrawing, frontman of both New End Original and Gratitude, and he's also contributed backup vocals to Thursday, and impressively covered Deftones and Jawbox tunes. Some projects have been more successful than others, but no matter in which guise he's performing, his live shows are always these strangely endearing campfire-esque sing-alongs full of chitchat and interruptions of his own songs to share silly, nonsensical stories. It sounds like it could be completely obnoxious, but I promise that it works. He's one of the most charming and honest performers in modern music, and tonight he sheds all his multiple personalities and takes the stage as himself. It's gonna rule. MEGAN SELING

HELLA, THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES, RUSSIAN CIRCLES, EUGENE MIRMAN
(Neumo's) Fuck yeah! The Suicide Squeeze parties at Neumo's are going to rule the weekend! Starting Thursday, the club hosts three consecutive days of rock, featuring a handful of the label's best bands and friends: Hella, Black Heart Procession, Minus the Bear, Earlimart, These Arms Are Snakes... It's going to be completely insane. But the best thing about the weekend is that Eugene Mirman will be performing at all the shows, acting as the gracious host. Mirman is known for his dry delivery of hilarious stories and observations. Sub Pop released his album En Garde, Society! in May, and it's the funniest CD you'll buy all year. MEGAN SELING

SHE WANTS REVENGE, IMA ROBOT, MELLOWDRONE
(Premier) The best goth-pop guilty pleasure since Marilyn Manson in the kinda sucky early years, She Wants Revenge take their silly songs about black eyeliner and deviant sex extremely seriously. The compelling contrast between the band's ludicrous lyrics ("It's cold out/but her Popsicle melts/she's in the bathroom/she pleasures herself") and Justin Warfield's straight-faced stentorian baritone makes the group's songs irresistibly imitable. But while listeners might start singing the spectacularly absurd singles "These Things" and "Tear You Apart" in mocking mimicry, they'll eventually catch themselves unironically humming the hooks. Live, She Wants Revenge never break character, alternating their propulsive post-punk numbers with droning dirges. ANDREW MILLER

OZZFEST
(White River Amphitheatre) I've attended quite a few Ozzfests in my day, enjoying one of the last Pantera performances before their breakup, a superb Marilyn Manson set, and a handful of pleasant surprises on the second stage, but there isn't much incentive to subject myself to the sweaty, shirtless masses this year. This one has a lot more to offer the emocore and Christian kids, what with bloodless bands like Norma Jean and Lacuna Coil on the schedule. Even less appealing: sitting through Disturbed's new cover of Genesis's "Land of Confusion." Who the fuck gave the green light on that one? HANNAH LEVIN

FRIDAY 6/30

BE YOUR OWN PET, WHIRLWIND HEAT, THE LONELY H, EUPHORIETTE, MECHANICAL DOLLS
(El Corazón, early) See preview.

SONIC YOUTH, AWESOME COLOR
(Moore) Like virtually every other release since their unimpeachable early peaks-by-consensus—1987's scrap-pop dazzler Sister and 1988's epochal Daydream Nation—Sonic Youth's new Rather Ripped is splitting opinion like mad. A certain music editor who shares my initials and sits seven feet to my left dismissed it as weaker than The Whitey Album; for me, Ripped provides more instant pleasure than any Sonic Youth since Dirty. Hitting the ground running with a lithe, elegant melodicism and carefully condensed song structures, Rather Ripped carries on the brilliant rebirth of purpose signaled by 1998's boundless A Thousand Leaves, adding another rich, contentious chapter to the band's unparalleled history. And while no two fans claim the same record as their favorite—for every indie-noise snob who gave up after EVOL, there's a freak like me who swears by 2004's Sonic Nurse—no one doubts that in the live context Sonic Youth remain a wonder to behold. DAVID SCHMADER

THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION, CHIN UP CHIN UP, CRYSTAL SKULLS, THE MAGIC MAGICIANS, EUGENE MIRMAN
(Neumo's) See Rocka Rolla.

A DRINK FOR THE KIDS: IRON COMPOSER W/FRED ARMISEN, MARTIN CRANDALL & DAVE HERNANDEZ, DAVID CROSS, TODD BARRY, JON BENJAMIN, PLEASEEASAUR
(Showbox) See Stranger Suggests.

MONSTERZ, PARIS IN ARMS
(Old Fire House in Redmond 6/30, El Corazón 7/2, both shows all-ages) Some bands leave an indelible mark on their hometowns, setting musical and aesthetic standards for their peers and inspiring waves of younger bands. The Blood Brothers had that effect on Seattle's suburban Eastside, and several bands from their old hood have gravitated to their smart, spastic sound. Monsterz, a self-proclaimed "nerd noise" band, follow in the Blood Brothers' earliest footsteps, combining rabid screaming with thrashing hardcore and a minimum of hooks. Paris in Arms ratchet up the guitar riffing and moderate their screaming with occasional sung or spoken lyrics. Both bands hit the road for a West Coast tour following this weekend's shows. ERIC GRANDY

YIKES, THE INTELLIGENCE
(SS Marie Antoinette) Here are at least two bands that revel in the aural murk that materializes when red lights become hyperactive on the recording-session mixing board. Yikes is yet another endeavor for ex-Coachwhips catalyst John Dwyer, and judging by the spaced-out, raucous sway of his new band's guitar dictation, it's apparent he's been listening to the Intelligence (in all ways a good thing). GRANT BRISSEY

RAPID RIC
(War Room) See preview.

SATURDAY 7/1

NEKO CASE, SONNY SMITH
(Moore) Fans of Neko Case's bewitching storytelling and incomparable voice should be grateful that her booking agent lives here in Seattle, because we sure keep giving her lots of reasons not to come back. Her well-documented weather-related problems (a biblical downpour at Woodlawn Park Zoo and an apocalyptic hailstorm at Sasquatch) notwithstanding, it's the fact that we actually made her former home into a condo that truly irks me. Every time I walk by the Pioneer Square space previously known as the Shoe Building, I bristle knowing that Case and a thriving population of visual and musical artists were displaced when a developer tossed them out. So when the former Hattie's Hat employee hits the stage, I for one will consider myself lucky that she hasn't forsaken us for, say, a stage in her real hometown of Tacoma. HANNAH LEVIN

MINUS THE BEAR, EARLIMART, HEADPHONES, METAL HEARTS, EUGENE MIRMAN
(Neumo's) Earlimart take their name from a town in California's San Joaquin Valley—a part of the country where summer means blistering temperatures, where mirages rise from the seemingly endless expanses of asphalt, and where you can see the heat shimmer upward from concrete and dirt. There's a similar dusty, ephemeral, and quivering quality to Earlimart's music: arid and expansive, it can conjure the fragile, fleeting beauty of Elliott Smith and move to discordant and driving terrain with equal ease and dexterity. Live, Earlimart exude a charm and energy that's too often missing in indie rock. Maybe the band's just happy to have escaped those valley summers. BARBARA MITCHELL

SUNDAY 7/2

NA, BILL HORIST, WALLY SHOUP & DAVE ABRAMSON, BEAST, PLEASE BE STILL,COCK & SWAN
(Chop Suey) The newish nine-piece Seattle unit Beast, Please Be Still traverse the ambitious orbit that many of Montreal's Constellation Records' artists do; they're all about busting out of rock's gritty urban confines and heading out to the country—and, occasionally, deep space. Beast, Please Be Still (even their name requires patience) strive to embroider the rock song with beguiling textures, imbuing their elongated passages with poignancy rather than bathos, as many of their ilk are prone to do. Na fuse Dadaist whimsy, twisted pop hooks, and restless dynamics to subvert your expectations about rock trios. Horist/Shoup/Abramson are phenomenal improvisers with awe-inspiring repertoires of strategies, and the chops to execute them. Heady times are guaranteed. DAVE SEGAL

MONDAY 7/3

FIONA APPLE, DAVID GARZA, DAMIEN RICE
(Chateau Ste. Michelle) It's nice to see Fiona Apple taking a second lap in support of last year's long-awaited Extraordinary Machine (Sony), given all the hurdles involved in getting it released. The question on the first leg of the tour was what sort of band she would bring on the road. The answer was, unfortunately, not a full orchestra or even a band with a string section, but a slick, compact rock outfit with two keyboardists, a semi-funky drummer, and a head-bobbing bassist. Even so, the show is worth the price of admission, not only to see Fiona belt out the album's standouts like "Not About Love" and "Oh Well," but also to see the borderline-religious fan response. WILLIAM YORK

TUESDAY 7/4

Go be patriotic: Watch shit blow up and listen to the Ramones. We suggest "Blitzkrieg Bop."

WEDNESDAY 7/5

LILYS, HUMAN TELEVISION, GHOST STORIES
(Crocodile) Previously pegged as everything from late-to-the-party shoegazers to shameless Ray Davies disciples, Philadelphia's Lilys finally sound like a band truly becoming comfortable with their own identity (granted, it took 15 years, but who's counting?). Their latest effort, Everything Wrong Is Imaginary (Manifesto), capitalizes on their greatest psych-pop strengths, embellishing solid, sly songwriting with fractured keyboard lines, compelling, quirky beats, and deeply infectious bass grooves. Justifiably drawing comparisons to the Smiths (wry, Anglo-inspired lyrics) and the Wedding Present (for their lucid, lush guitar harmonics), newcomers Human Television show plenty of promise in the field of smart pop. HANNAH LEVIN

MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE, KILL HANNAH, SCHOOLYARD HEROES
(Showbox) While touring in support of 2000's Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy, Mindless Self Indulgence actively incensed System of a Down fans and Insane Clown Posse's Juggalos with their hiphop swagger, hard-pulsing disco beats, fluttering falsetto vocals, and sexually ambiguous stage presence. The follow-up album finally arrived, boiled in bile, last April. On the title track of You'll Rebel to Anything, MSI harangue the Hot Topic hordes for their allegiance to corporate co-opted countercultural affectations. When they play this song at headlining gigs, their followers shout along, many obliviously wearing mall-bought T-shirts. When there isn't a hostile audience to agonize, receptive-yet-clueless crowds will suffice. ANDREW MILLER