THURSDAY 8/3

CIRCA SURVIVE, THE RECEIVING END OF SIRENS, PORTUGAL THE MAN, KEATING
(El Corazón) The Chinese concept of xiao xin, or "small heart," involves avoiding emotional attachments. Anthony Green named his hardcore band Saosin, maintaining the "say-ocean" pronunciation while Americanizing the spelling, then promptly tested the moniker's tenets by splitting after one EP. Saosin soldiers on stoically, while Green found a more suitable vehicle for his androgynous, oddly adolescent vocals. On 2005's Juturna, his first full-length with Circa Survive, Green wails like a woodland nymph over labyrinthine dual-guitar harmonies and driving yet distant drumbeats. Like the similarly eunuch-fronted Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive mate punk and prog, generating the sonic equivalent of a sporadically rabid griffin. ANDREW MILLER

FRIDAY 8/4

JOHNNY DOWD, MARK PICKEREL & HIS PRAYING HANDS, DANNY SCHMIDT
(Tractor) See preview.

CURTIS SALGADO
(Triple Door) You may not have heard of Curtis Salgado, but you've definitely felt his influence. The Portland-based blues singer/harmonica legend was the inspiration behind John Belushi's "Blues Brothers" character (the two met when Belushi was in Eugene filming Animal House.) He's also played with Robert Cray and Santana, and the list of musical peers who are his biggest fans and supporters is staggering. (A recent benefit for Salgado, who's battling liver cancer and waiting for a transplant, featured performances by Steve Miller, Taj Mahal, Cray, and Everclear.) His passion, soul, down-to-earth grace, and humor are truly out of this world. BARBARA MITCHELL

SATURDAY 8/5

DIPLO, CSS, BONDE DO ROLE
(Neumo's) Diplo has become something like the David Byrne of the global dance underground. He's developed into one of the trustiest bellwethers for various clubland subgenres, just as Byrne fruitfully scouted worldwide to fill his Luaka Bop Records roster. Whether training klieg lights on Baltimore club music and Brazilian baile funk, mashing up Dirty South joints with new-wave nuggets, or providing beats for Sri Lankan/Anglo vocalist M.I.A., Diplo has ascended to a heady level on the DJ food chain, and hence has drawn many haters and accusations of sonic colonialism. But the Hollertronix cat has never disappointed in the five times I've seen him spin, serendipitously mixing the obscure with the ubiquitous and making them all flow like a (fever) dream. DAVE SEGAL See also preview.

AUDIOASIS LIVE: MON FRERE, FLEET FOXES
(High Dive, early) If there were a World's Strongest Man contest for vocals, Mon Frere singer, Nouela Johnston, would be pulling a plane with her teeth. She's got the sonic makings to be mega. Mon Frere is a synth-pop power bar. Drummer Dustin McGhie has mountains of chops and guitarist Kyle Swisher "Sweet" is tasty and deft. Mon Frere's first full-length, Blood, Sweat & Swords, is out on Cake Records now and catching many ears. The High Dive will be full of action Saturday, with early and late Audioasis shows. Come down and get airborne. Bring your jet and Nouela will pull it with her vocal cords. TRENT MOORMAN

AUDIOASIS LIVE: ABYSSINIAN CREOLE, FCS NORTH, UNNATURAL HELPERS
(High Dive, late) FCS North have recently ditched their mellow, jazz-inflected IDM roots for a more dance-floor-friendly sound: fun, funky electro with live bass and drums driving their shows. In a perfect world, they would be remixing !!!, touring with the Rapture, and signed to DFA. Until then, these veterans of Seattle's DIY punk scene record for their own label, Mass.Mvmnt, out of a homemade basement studio. "ARC," the first single from their new full-length, Say Go, has been a modest hit on KEXP, and this Audioasis showcase to benefit the Vera Project is an excellent opportunity to hear what FCS North have been up to lately. ERIC GRANDY

THE SALTEENS, TULLYCRAFT, BOAT, VOXY
(Sunset) Boat has a new record out called Songs That You Might Not Like, and while it's nice that the boys feel it's necessary to warn the listener that the music contained therein really isn't for everyone, I think they're putting up a few too many self-doubting walls. Boat's songs are great: part solid and charming melodic pop drenched with narratives and part goofy but endearing indie rock laced with the sounds of a drunken orchestra. So thanks for the warning, Boat, but next time, don't be afraid to put yourselves out there. You're pretty fuckin' rad. MEGAN SELING

JOHN WESLEY HARDING
(Tractor) Former Seattle denizen Wesley Stace—AKA witty troubadour John Wesley Harding—is bouncing back and forth between Portland, where he is recording a brand-new album, and our fair city all week. This appearance caps his Northwest visit, and promises to include a slew of new songs, with accompaniment by members of Minus 5, plus Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and longtime sideman Robert Lloyd. Having recently sired a baby daughter ("a real girl, as opposed to a boy disguised as one," à la Rose in his critically acclaimed 2005 novel, Misfortune), Wes reports he is "very excited to play live" again after the initial rash of diapers, feedings, and, um, rashes. KURT B. REIGHLEY

DANIEL HIGGS, ARRINGTON DE DIONYSO, FREEJAIL
(SS Marie Antoinette) What sort of performance will Daniel Higgs visit upon us? Higgs—Dischord's Renaissance man and Lungfish's lead sage—is a singer, painter, poet, tattoo artist, and player of the jaw harp. His presence fronting Lungfish's transcendental rock is heralded and harrowing. With lyrics that function more like poetry, and poetry that dances along the surreal and envelops its contradictions and reader whole, Higgs doesn't inspire fandom so much as religious devotion. Expect to count yourself among the converted whether he sings, moans, or has the metal arms of a jaw harp bent between his teeth, droning and distorting as he howls to the sublime. CHRIS HONG

SUNDAY 8/6

THE COUP, COMMON MARKET, DJ INDICA JONES, BEYOND REALITY
(Neumo's) See preview.

KELLY CLARKSON, ROONEY
(White River Amphitheatre) Like a lot of other people, I was pretty much gob-smacked the first time I heard Clarkson sing "Since U Been Gone." There's something really magical about pop songs that are so empirically well constructed that even the most curmudgeonly critic has to acknowledge their worth (see also Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" and, dare I say it, Britney Spears's "Toxic"). That being said, I hope that wasn't her high-water mark—a singer that revered by young women could do a lot of good if she really pushes herself beyond her comfortable pop-rock conventions. HANNAH LEVIN

MONDAY 8/7

Ain't nothing to it but to do it.

TUESDAY 8/8

I swear—I'll never miss another deadline.

WEDNESDAY 8/9

THE DEAD SCIENCE, THE CURTAINS, FOOT FOOT, FLYING
(619 Western Ave) Led by soft-spoken Deerhoof guitarist Chris Cohen, the Curtains have sired a stylistically scattered grip of releases due to their revolving-door membership policy. They were once a fragmented microfusion group that left many audience members scratching their heads, but the Curtains' new album, Calamity, is sugary indie pop of the finest caliber. Equally charming is New York's Flying, whose kaleidoscopic whirl of pianos, glockenspiels, and fetching boy-girl vocals channels some of the spirit of their hometown peers, Animal Collective, but with a voice all their own. JOSH BLANCHARD

APHISKKYU-BOT, SIBERIAN, FORTRESS OF VICTORY
(Funhouse) Aphiskkyu-Bot once told me they came up with their name by drawing letters out of a hat. I'm completely gullible, so true or not, I'm gonna believe it. By the sound of it, they write songs with the same sporadic and unpredictable nature, letting their minds just randomly piece together that which they find inspiring in each quick second. It's spastic and loud hardcore, but it's a maze of math rock, metal, and excruciating noise, too—delivered with the hardest punch the band could summon from their core. You'll want earplugs, not to drown out the sound, but to keep yourself from going deaf. MEGAN SELING

PEACHES AND HERMS, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL
(Showbox) The unfortunate reality is that the new Peaches record isn't very good. Okay, I'll just say it—it's terrible. Her sly brand of raunchy electro-pop was a delicate balance from the beginning—she was always teetering on the edge of making herself the butt of her own jokes, or just running out of witticisms, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that she's a little low on inspired vulgarity this time out ("Hurt so bad I got a soregasm" just doesn't really cut it). That being said, who gives a shit? I'm sure "Fuck the Pain Away" is still on the set list and packaging her with the Eagles of Death Metal was a brilliant move. I'm there. HANNAH LEVIN

MASSIVE HABIT, THE LIVING BLUE, THE TREATMENT
(Sunset) I'm pretty sure that if Burke Thomas touched a silver spoon, it'd turn to gold. And if not to gold, then at least into some of the most dense and catchy synth-heavy power pop in the world. That'd be a sight. The former drummer for Vendetta Red has put his signature on many a project including Pris and Muzzle. His most recent project, though, is a female-fronted outfit called the Treatment, who sound much like a poppier Pris with, duh, a woman singer bringing a little more pretty and a little less angst. MEGAN SELING

NO AGE, SOILED MATTRESS & THE SPRINGS
(SS Marie Antoinette) The lo-fi aesthetic, once a necessary crutch for aspiring yet penniless recording artists, was pretty much blown out of the water with the rising affordability of the home computer. So when confronted by digital slabs from Los Angeles's No Age, with fidelity so blown out you can barely distinguish one instrument from another, one can only assume they're drawing a very deliberate line in the sand. A duo splintered off from the now-defunct Wives, No Age seem to be on the line between punk and shattered electronic implosions, à la Liars or XRXBX. I would like to tell you more, but now I've got to round up a boilermaker and couple of Tylenol to get this white noise out of my head. JOSH BLANCHARD

MORE

ENDFEST: RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, THE MARS VOLTA, SNOW PATROL, WOLFMOTHER, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL, ROCK KILLS KID, NINE BLACK ALPS, THE SUBWAYS, THE GOSSIP: Sat Aug 12, White River Amphitheatre

GORILLA BISCUITS, SINKING SHIPS, SHOOK ONES, THE VOWS: Wed Aug 16, El Corazón

COMETS ON FIRE, KINSKI, 16 BITCH PILE UP: Sat Aug 19, Neumo's

WOLF PARADE, FROG EYES: Mon Aug 21, Showbox

CRACKER: Tues Aug 22, Crocodile

HASTE THE DAY, SCARY KIDS SCARING KIDS, AUGUST BURNS RED, DESTROY THE RUNNER: Thurs Aug 24, El Corazón

MAE, THE NEW AMSTERDAMS, VEDERA: Fri Sept 8, El Corazón

DEVO: Sat Sept 9, Paramount

DRAGONFORCE, ALL THAT REMAINS, HORSE THE BAND: Wed Sept 13, Showbox

MOE.: Fri Sept 15, Showbox

MARITIME, SPEAKER SPEAKER, BOAT: Tues Sept 19, Paradox

RANCID, THE AQUABATS: Tues–Wed Sept 26–27, Showbox

CANDLEBOX, DRIVEBLIND, WHITESTARR: Thurs-Fri Sept 28–29, Showbox

SUFJAN STEVENS, MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND: Sun Oct 15, Paramount