Thursday 9/24

Grand Archives, the Most Serene Republic

(Crocodile) See preview.

Decibel's dB in duB Pt. 1: Mad Professor, Benga, DJ /rupture, Kid Hops, Deepchord Presents: Echospace

(Neumos) See preview.

Diminished Men, Spoils, Climax Golden Twins

(Sunset) Tonight's show celebrates the release of Seattle quartet Diminished Men's second album, Shadow Instrumentals, on Alan Bishop's Abduction Records. And what an accomplished set of spaghetti-eastern instrumentals it is. Produced by Randall Dunn (Master Musicians of Bukkake, Sunn O))), Earth, Secret Chiefs 3), the LP (issued on thick vinyl only) conjures crepuscular atmospheres tinged with undercurrents of intrigue and menace, as if the Ventures became inhabited by the spirit of early-'70s Ennio Morricone. The playing throughout Shadow Instrumentals is taut, supple, and acutely emotive. This sort of thing can easily descend into pastiche, but through sheer instrumental prowess and innate soulfulness, Diminished Men succeed as film-noir-soundtrack/surf-rock maestros. Quick, somebody get a copy to Quentin Tarantino. DAVE SEGAL

Decibel's Ghostly 10: Opening Gala: Michna, Lusine, Clark Warner, the Sight Below, Tycho

(Seattle Art Museum) The kickoff gala for this year's Decibel Festival showcases local and visiting artists on the esteemed Ann Arbor–based electronic label Ghostly International. Repping the home team are Lusine and the Sight Below. The Sight Below has spent the past year touring in support of his quietly stunning debut, Glider, a Gas-eous ambient album with just the slightest rhythmic pulses submerged in its gauzy tonal textures. The act is currently working on a follow-up with Simon Scott of shoegaze heroes Slowdive. Lusine's latest album for Ghostly, A Certain Distance, finds the producer furthering his elegant fusions of IDM, ambient, and ever more dance-floor-oriented, vocal-splicing electro. Out-of-towner and headliner Michna mixes digitally dusted hiphop beats, deep dubby bass, and unexpectedly bright, jazzy instrumentation to create some kind of inexplicably sunshiny cousin of dubstep. ERIC GRANDY

Bone Cave Ballet, People Eating People, Patterns, Pill Wonder

(Comet) Tonight Seattle's Bone Cave Ballet release their debut record, The Echo of Entropy. The music's overall tone is dark, with haunting, atmospheric guitars and quick, anxious drumming. Jacqui Gilroy and Kristie Werner's harmonizing vocals, although pretty, only up the eerie factor, as they sing about hating to make breakfast and other such unpleasantnesses. Speaking of debut CDs, People Eating People (aka former Mon Frere frontwoman Nouela Johnston) will be releasing her first full-length November 3. Finally. I've been in love with the song "For Now" for a year already, and tonight will be a great opportunity to get a sneak peek at some of her latest songs. MEGAN SELING

Alice in Chains

(Moore) Grunge icons Alice in Chains' new album, Black Gives Way to Blue, offers a good chance for many up-and-coming hard-rock bands to get a feel of what a fine, contemplative group can achieve without making it seem like their nads were cut off in the process of creating the music. Jerry Cantrell has always been the driving force behind AIC, and the band have had years to jell with new lead vocalist William DuVall. So while they might not sound exactly like the group you're used to, chances are this album and performance will sound very much like the Alice in Chains you know and (possibly) love. ALEXANDER P. BROWN

Friday 9/25

Decibel's dB in duB Pt. 2: Dubstep Massive: Caspa, MC Rod Azlan,N-Type, MC Juakali, Boxcutter, Monkeytek, DJ Collage, dubtek

(Motor) See preview.

Old Fire House Anniversary Show: Schoolyard Heroes, Sleepy Eyes of Death, Loving Thunder, Tradewinds for Zephyr

(Old Fire House) See Underage.

Decibel's Dirty Dancing International: Wighnomy Brothers, Alex Under, Robert Hood, Noah Pred

(Neumos) Germany, Spain, the United States, and Canada represent! These nations each donate a fantastic techno producer for this gig, which will surely be a Decibel flash point. Spaniard Alex Under peddles suave, minimal cuts that somehow are ideal for suspenseful cinematic chase scenes and bedroom acrobatics. Canadian Noah Pred makes driving, dance-floor-detonators with a surplus of fresh-sounding percussive accents. Germany's the Wighnomy Brothers played one of the most exciting sets at this year's Movement festival in Detroit; they're excellent, diverse DJs skilled in the arcane art of ecstatic crowd control. And American Robert Hood is the god-father of lean, mean, machinelike techno. DAVE SEGAL

Lumerians, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Kinski, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Treetarantula

(Lo-Fi) Part of Portable Shrines' Escalator Fest, tonight's bill boasts some heavy psych sounds. Lumerians tend toward brawny, bass-heavy hallucinogenic rock with eerie keyboard and haunted vocals, at times with a hint of Can-like drone. Portland's Jackie-O Motherfucker, who've mellowed some since 2003's Magick Fire Music and Wow! (a gathering of two previous vinyl-only releases from 1999 and 2000), now play slightly more even-keeled meandering folk that's interjected with all manner of other genres. Some music-critic types refer to this as "New Weird America." Seattle mainstays Kinski create sweeping instrumental-rock soundscapes that leave bruises. With their pleasantly harried constructions, Purple Rhinestone Eagle hold down the scuzzier side of things here. GRANT BRISSEY

The Let Go, Canary Sing, Outrageous, They Live!

(Rendezvous) The more I listen to They Live!, the more I think of them as the Pacific Northwest's most academic hiphop group. Dro Boy (aka Gatsby of Cancer Rising and Larry Mizell Jr., who's also the The Stranger's hiphop columnist) and Bruce Illest (djblesOne) are essentially hiphop historians, or closer yet, processors of hiphop's cultural history. For example, one quick line by Gatsby in "Meth Heads": "Are you in good health?" Where is this chip, this little bit from? The 1988 song "Hey Young World" by Slick Rick, and there are many other such references, echoes, and reflections, not only from '80s hiphop, but also from the pop culture (or junk culture—here I'm thinking of Rem Koolhaas's idea of "junk space") that shaped and defined that period. CHARLES MUDEDE

Saturday 9/26

Decibel's Bass Lovers Unite Showcase: Mary Anne Hobbs, Daedelus, Nosaj Thing, Megasoid

(Neumos) See preview.

Kim Cascone

(Olympic Sculpture Park) See The Score.

Wooden Shjips, Eternal Tapestry, Prince Rama of Ayodhya, Cloaks, Midday Veil, Geist & the Sacred Ensemble, the Slaves, Story of Rats, oKo yOnO, Lord Jeff

(Vera) See Stranger Suggests.

Broken Penis Orchestra, Slates, Thunder Grey Pilgrim, Red Squirrels, Wind Swept Planes, Forrest Friends, Chaostic Magic

(Josephine) A friend recently suffered what the doctor at his emergency-room visit called a "broken penis." It all started with a broken blood vessel (swelling, severe, acquired during some particularly vigorous sex with his recently moved-in girlfriend). Two weeks later, again in the act of lovemaking, he sustained "urethral trauma," (things weren't quite done healing), which caused a condition called gross hematuria (blood in the urine)—"hematuria that is so plentiful that it is visible grossly with just the naked eye." Only in his case, there was no urine, only blood. He has now been instructed to abstain from sexual intercourse for the next four to six weeks. Broken Penis Orchestra (one dude with a laptop) collects found sounds and mashes them into textural soundscapes that—while they exhibit some anxiety—don't sound nearly as uncomfortable as my friend's ordeal. GRANT BRISSEY See also The Score.

Dave Aju, Codebase, Struggle, D'jeronimo

(Sole Repair) Dave Aju has a big mouth. So big, in fact, that along with his sampler, he put together an album consisting entirely of noises made with teeth, tongue, lips, and throat, called, what else, Open Wide, out last year on Circus Company. It's gimmicky in places, sure—what music made to test conceptual limits isn't? But it's also roaring good fun, especially when he apes deadpan Chicago house on "Anyway" or treating his "bass line" till it sounds like a bionic spring in "Crazy Place." The methodology succeeds in bringing a sense of mischief back into what can be a pretty stale area of latter-day house. MICHAELANGELO MATOS See also Data Breaker, page 43.

Colonies, To the Sea, Kids and Animals

(Piecora's) I miss Second Avenue Pizza and its often-crowded, usually-poor-sounding back-room all-ages shows. Despite the venue's flaws, the shows were always a great time. But Piecora's to the rescue! The Capitol Hill pizza joint has been hosting shows in its back room for some time, and tonight Colonies play with To the Sea and Kids and Animals—three local bands that will appeal to fans of guitar-driven indie rock. The show starts at 10:00 p.m., it's all ages, and the bar is open for older folks. It isn't nearly as (charmingly) shoddy as Second Ave's back room was, but it'll still bring back fond memories of watching live music to the smell of pepperoni and garlic. MEGAN SELING

Sunday 9/27

Sawako, Christina Vantzou, Lissom

(Seattle Asian Art Museum) See The Score.

Living Colour, Sekond Skyn

(Studio Seven) Hey, when am I going to be able to purchase the entire run of The Arsenio Hall Show on DVD? Among the dozens of performances and interviews that shaped my soft, gelatinous forebrain as a sprout—Eazy-E in a hockey mask, Busta Rhymes doing "Scenario," Bill Clinton playing the fucking sax—one of the sights most seared into my lobe was that of four crazy Negroes in neon Body Glove ensembles, doing the one thing I didn't know my people were capable of: playing rock music. Living Colour were playing the fuck out of some rock music, in fact. At age 11, I didn't know Bo Diddley or Bad Brains, so "Cult of Personality" was for me the absolute scorched ground zero of black rock. Shit, still is. To this day, I'm mad that I can't pull off the Day-Glo wetsuit look. LARRY MIZELL JR.

Alter Ego, Reagenz, Tim Exile, Jerry Abstract, Derek Michael

(Neumos) Many folks will unfairly remember German duo Alter Ego only for their 2004 track "Rocker," a completely fucking crushing and rightfully inescapable club anthem that foreshadowed the kind of riff-intensive techno later run into the ground by Justice and a sea of less-worthy imitators. Dig deeper, and you'll find that since then, Alter Ego have in fact released two albums and two accompanying remix discs of totally solid, hook-heavy techno, full of squealing, maniacally gleeful melodies and CPR-certified chest-compressing beats. Their latest, 2008's What's Next?!, finds producers such as Carl Craig, Supermayer, Modeselektor, DJ Koze, and Joakim remixing tracks from the 2007 album Why Not?! to great effect—no surprise given the wealth of great material to work with on the original. There's probably an afterparty, but as the last proper act of this year's festival, expect Alter Ego to blow Decibel out in high fucking style. ERIC GRANDY

Monday 9/28

Ladyhawke, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head, Semi Precious Weapons

(Showbox at the Market) This show is part of a tour sponsored by famous internet tool Perez Hilton, so you should probably avoid it just on moral/aesthetic grounds... But, if you must go, here is some information about the headliner. Ladyhawke is New Zealand–based electro-pop artist Phillipa Brown. Brown was raised by musician parents and used to be in a punk band; she plays all the instruments for her recordings. Ladyhawke comes to America by way of highly successful Australian label Modular Recordings (Cut Copy, Wolfmother, the Presets, etc.). Her breakout hit was 2008's "Paris Is Burning," a dance-floor readymade that received complimentary remixes from Cut Copy and Chicken Lips. Her material is fine but not particularly wowing synth-pop stuff. Hey, remember that time will.i.am sonned Perez Hilton and you kind of liked will.i.am for just a second in a total lesser-of-two-terrible-evils sort of way? Good times. ERIC GRANDY

Tuesday 9/29

The Blakes, the Purrs, Strong Killings

(Neumos) If you think it's impossible to be a Britpop band from Seattle, you haven't heard the Blakes, who cheerfully chop up hooks and riffs from early Who/Kinks/Beatles to create shambling rockers all their own. Tonight's show celebrates the Blakes' brand-new LP, Souvenir, scheduled for release by Light in the Attic records on October 13. Opening the show: Seattle's Purrs, who pull their influences from a later era of Britpop; the band's forthcoming Amused, Confused, and More Bad News comes on like an eager-to-please Stone Roses, all psychedelic shimmer and guitar-driven melody. DAVID SCHMADER

Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard, Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers

(Tractor) Jeffrey Lewis's latest album, Em Are I, finds the lo-fi anti-folkie (buzzwords!) teamed with backing band the Junkyard. At its most drastic, the arrangement adds rumbling, fuzzy electric bass and loose, driving drums to Lewis's rapid-tumble, almost atonally nasal singing. On other songs, Lewis's voice is left alone with little more than acoustic guitar, some subtle electric accents, and a gently brushed snare. As always (except, I suppose, on his album of Crass covers), the draw is Lewis's freewheeling lyricism, which is equal parts irrepressible, stream-of-consciousness improvisation and careful, thoughtful songcraft, as often wide-eyed and childlike as it is morbid and neurotic. ERIC GRANDY

Telefon Tel Aviv, the Race, eR DoN

(Chop Suey) This comes as a bit of a surprise—a bittersweet one. At the beginning of the year, Chicago duo Telefon Tel Aviv released Immolate Yourself (Bpitch Control), a moody, gothic-informed left-field album that was the night to the day of the bright, in-your-face IDM of TTA's previous work. Unfortunately, Charlie Cooper of the group died right before the disc's release—not from suicide, partner Joshua Eustis has clarified—which put the brakes on things, understandably. Now Eustis is touring under the TTA banner, and since Immolate Yourself would be one of the year's more stirring records even without its tragic context, the live show will likely have a similar effect. MICHAELANGELO MATOS

Sondre Lerche, JBM

(Triple Door) If I had a dollar for every band or artist that cites the Stooges as an influence, I'd have more money than the Stooges made in their entire lives. But if I had a dollar for every band or artist that cites bookish British pop-twerps Prefab Sprout as an influence, I'd have one dollar, courtesy of Norwegian pop twerp Sondre Lerche. (Thanks for the dollar, Sondre! I love them, too!) Tonight at the Triple Door, the widely praised Mr. Lerche showcases his just-released sixth LP (if you count the Dan in Real Life soundtrack), Heartbeat Radio. DAVID SCHMADER

Wednesday 9/30

Jack Penate, Miike Snow

(Neumos) Last time Miike Snow (two dudes from Sweden and one dude from New York; the former, Bloodshy and Avant, responsible for producing Britney Spears's "Toxic," among other pop singles) rolled through town, I was fixated on their song "Animal" and its remixes (especially the Punks Jump Up version). Then as I was waiting in line recently at the coffee shop, this nagging, sunny, playfully descending guitar melody was playing, and I knew I had heard it before but couldn't place it (Peter Bjorn and John, maybe? No), so I asked, and it was Miike Snow's "Song for No One." It remains a great little melody, but it's not really much of a song, and the same might be true for "Animal," really. Jack Penate is British singer-songwriter, in the pejorative sense of the term. ERIC GRANDY

Toubab Krewe, Danny Godinez

(Tractor) This is a jammy little lineup: Danny Godinez plays acoustic-guitar compositions that derive from the blues, but sound lighter, with little Latin touches and pop-song changes. It's groovy, but not in a bad way: harmonics and muted strings, picking out arpeggios and slapping the neck for rhythm. The worst that can be said about it is that it would make excellent background music on a warm winter night at an excellent outdoor restaurant run by Italians on a beach in the Caribbean. And that's not so bad. Toubab Krewe are a bunch of dudes from Asheville, North Carolina, who play instrumental Afrobeat with dashes of zydeco and surf rock. These guys spent a lot of time creating their website, and before you can read anything on it, you have to watch a stylized digital tree grow. Which seems a bit presumptuous. What if I don't want to sit and watch your tree grow, Toubab Krewe? Does that make me uptight or square or something? BRENDAN KILEY