Thursday 11/18

High Places, Soft Circle, Tiny Vipers

(Vera) High Places vs. Mankind did everything a good sophomore LP should—it pushed Rob Barber and Mary Pearson's distinctive sound in interesting new directions without sacrificing any of the ingredients that made their self-titled debut so beguiling. Mankind's guitars are more distorted and traditionally riffy, and Pearson's smoky high-register vocals enjoy a more prominent position in the overall mix this time out. "On Giving Up" may not top the sentimental wallop of their debut's "From Stardust to Sentience" (with its layers of affecting ambient texture), but it's still an awesomely poppy take on their drippy, dubby style. Tourmate Soft Circle (Black Dice drummer Hisham Bharoocha) plied some new moves himself on a recent (and phenomenal) split 12-inch with High Places, switching from the epically golden vibes of Full Bloom to funkier up-tempo grooves. JASON BAXTER

Bronze Fawn, the Kindness Kind, Eighteen Individual Eyes, Blue Light Curtain

(Neumos) Tonight's show is the last one that local instrumental act Bronze Fawn will ever play. Supposedly. Bands say that all the time and then reunite six months later, so it's hard to ever believe it's true. But for now, let's assume that the breakup is for real and that tonight's show really will be your last chance to see Bronze Fawn grace the stage with their large collection of effect pedals, weird (but strangely fitting) video projections, lovely and dynamic guitar riffs, and spot-on drumming. It'll be sad to see them go, as they've been a part of the local music scene for the better part of five years, but with any luck, the individual band members' talents will soon resurface elsewhere. MEGAN SELING

Friday 11/19

WD4D

(Hidmo) See preview.

Shlohmo, Shigeto

(Space Studios) See Data Breaker.

Lorn, Mochipet, the Great Mundane, Mr. Wu, Absolute Madman

(Chop Suey) See Data Breaker.

Built to Spill, Le Fleur, Cober

(Showbox at the Market) Did you know Built to Spill made a music video for "In the Morning," the delirious, day-breaking opening song off 1994's There's Nothing Wrong with Love? It's true. Beavis and Butthead even ragged on it back in the day. In the video, Doug Martsch looks exactly the same as he always looks, there's some footage of farm animals running around, there's some proto–Tim and Eric intentionally bad no-budget goofiness (cue "normal" people doing half-assed choreographed dance routine). They were really just making music videos for everything back then, weren't they? (Or, as Beavis and Butthead put it, "This part right here, this was already in another video." "Yeah, I think everything in this video was in another video.") The aesthetics of mid-'90s indie-label music-video making haven't aged well (see also: Archers of Loaf's "Web in Front"), but "In the Morning," like all Built to Spill songs, never seems to age at all. Their catalogue is deep, and their live performances are consistently, casually dazzling. ERIC GRANDY

Unnatural Helpers, Partman Parthorse

(Sunset) You'd need an extra set of hands to count all the musicians who have been in Seattle garage institution Unnatural Helpers over the years. Fortunately, they seem to have finally found their golden roster and hopefully won't be changing anytime soon. Tonight is a benefit for the Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation, a fund for the wife and child of the Sub Pop employee who was recently killed in a car accident. It also marks the always terrific Unnatural Helpers' first Seattle show since returning from a whirlwind UK tour with Mudhoney. Finally, although Partman Parthorse are partly crippled (lead singer/shit talker/yogi/underwear model Gary Smith recently underwent ankle surgery), they'll still provoke the audience with verbal jabs and wiry rock action. Tonight's meaty bill is double-stacked, the tastiest, greasiest, most artery-clogging gut bomb of a burger you'll put down your throat this year. Eat, eat, eat! TRAVIS RITTER

We Wrote the Book on Connectors, Hobosexual, Police Teeth, the TG Project

(Blue Moon) Tonight's show has the potential to be the funniest show of the year (especially since Future of the Left haven't made it to Seattle in 2010). We Wrote the Book on Connectors are funny in an "inappropriate They Might Be Giants" sort of way. Their songs will hardly impress you musically, but their lyrics about cake, mustaches, and "Farting Pooping Running Cycling" will at least get you laughing (even if it is at them). The hilariously named Hobosexual's songs aren't funny at all—they're full-on, fuzzed-out classic-rock beasts—but the dudes have proved to be quite humorous in interviews. Here's hoping they showcase their wit in between-song banter. And Police Teeth? That band's fronted by the dude who tried to bribe Weezer into retirement. Hilarious! MEGAN SELING

Saturday 11/20

Built to Spill, Le Fleur, Cober

(Showbox at the Market) See Friday.

J.Phlip

(See Sound Lounge) See Data Breaker.

Mr. Gnome, the Redwood Plan

(Sunset) Cleveland-based Mr. Gnome are a theatrical band—as in a ghoulish-makeup-and-songs-with-names-like-"Vampires" kind of show-business affair. But it's less KISS bombast (or Cure mopefest) and more like Siouxsie and the Banshees: sweeping melodies, whispering vocals transforming into wails, and excellent percussion keeping things tight. With its fits and starts and underlying chorus of voices chanting "Ding dong/Ding dong" like an Oz movie gone hellishly wrong, "Night of the Crickets" wouldn't be out of place on a Banshees album—although singer Nicole Barille's vocals have more to do with Cat Power's ragged majesty than Siouxsie Sioux's otherworldly confidence. If you thought today's music business couldn't sustain this kind of over-the-top, high-production-values baroqueness, you owe it to yourself to come to this show. PAUL CONSTANT

BlackQueen, Throne of Bone, Hellgrammite

(Funhouse) Ready for your first taste of "witch metal"? Here's the recipe: one part '90s death-metal riffing, two parts eerie black-metal soundscapes, and a dozen or so horror-movie clips (thank Mortician for that last addition). Toss everything into a bubbling doom cauldron and out pop local blasphemers BlackQueen, ready to eat your skull. Throne of Bone vocalist Michael Freiburger could be mistaken for a warlock himself, as he wears a long black cloak while terrorizing ears with his signature high-pitched scream. Musically, Throne of Bone are also a mixed bag, funneling together remnants of '80s thrash, Pelican-y post rock, and pure, church-burning black metal. The last time I saw them, they covered both Sepultura and the Melvins. That's what I call heavy. KEVIN DIERS

Sunday 11/21

Robyn, Natalia Kills, Maluca

(Neumos) Blessed with impeccable taste, huge talent, and inherent bad-assery, Robyn is the Swedish pop star who now belongs to the world. With the canny yearlong unveiling of her episodic Body Talk project—three shortish records packed with pop-art pleasures—she's also the only working star giving Gaga a run for her seizing-this-weird-historical-moment money (without burying herself under Halloweeny shenanigans). Tonight Robyn thrills the Seattle faithful at Neumos, where she'll be joined by NYC party-starter Maluca and British polymath Natalia Kills. DAVID SCHMADER

Bear Hands, Black Whales, Rumpspringa

(Crocodile) With their debut, Burning Bush Supper Club, New York quartet Bear Hands have made a well-crafted indie-rock album. Usually, just typing that kind of sentence sends me to zzzzz-land, but Bear Hands somehow assimilate the main elements of Animal Collective (semidistant, earnest-guy vocals from leader Dylan Rau), MGMT (catchy, lighter-waving melodies), and Spoon (punchy, coiled rhythms) and make them congeal into something interesting. Also interesting: the line "You got them long nails/I'm dreaming of your goddamn long nails" (from "What a Drag") satisfyingly digs itself into your memory banks for a long time, their best song is called "Tablasaurus" and features tabla, and "The Internet" tops Bear Hands' thank-you list in their CD. These guys are going places. DAVE SEGAL

Night Beats, Drug Purse, Black Science

(Comet) Night Beats are an amazing group o' "garage-soul-blues" rockers (as Dave Segal put it) who channel the magic of the wailing psychedelic music of the late '60s/early '70s. Drug Purse are a similar, somewhat quieter (maybe more stoned) band from Tacoma. Black Science claim their music "is derived from three major sources: personal power, power gained by tapping the universe's ambient magical energy, and power gained through the tapping of extra-dimensional energy." The Comet Tavern bills this show as a "Hemp Benefit." I'm not sure what kind of funding or help "hemp" needs right now, but if there were ever three bands for the job, these are them! Double, whoa, TRIPLE rainbow. KELLY O

Monday 11/22

Faun Fables

(Triple Door) Oakland's Faun Fables (Spokane-raised Dawn McCarthy and cohorts, with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's Nils Frykdahl helping out for this tour) reverently resurrect trad and 20th-century folk songs and write new ones that could freak you out of your moccasins. McCarthy has one of those throaty voices that seem simultaneously ancient and ageless. It's a beautifully weathered instrument that complements Faun Fables' history-haunted, woodsy compositions. The band's newest album on longtime home Drag City, Light of a Vaster Dark, delves into the nature of changing seasons, lightness, darkness, and more mundane activities over exquisitely arranged chamber folk, augmented by shakuhachi flute, harmonica, clarinet, and exotic percussion. Serious old-world, rustic pleasures await you. DAVE SEGAL

Lisa Dank, Control Keys, 5H1F7Y

(Comet) The world needs performers like Lisa Dank to provide us with those large-scale Lady Gaga dance-floor thrills in more intimate venues. Now that Gaga's an international superstar, playing enormous stadiums, the way her music was clearly intended to be played, there's no chance to hear her turn a space like, oh, say, the Comet, into a glitzy, sweaty disco. Dank is like a human-sized Gaga, singing about how we can't stop dancing, how her sexuality is unstoppable, how she wants to feed you her chocolate-dipped cookies (?), and how she wants to go to Space Camp. It's pure fun, on a scale that doesn't make you feel like one of a million booty-shaking ants. PAUL CONSTANT

Tuesday 11/23

Whiskey Tango, Constant Lovers, Prison

(Comet) Must be rough being a band in Fairbanks, Alaska. You've got a population a quarter the size of Tacoma, maybe one or two proper venues, and zero access to the touring circuit. No wonder firebrand punks Whiskey Tango relocated to Seattle in the early 2000s. But here they found the opposite problem: a scene so large that bands tend to get lost in the shuffle. So, after years of slugging it out in dive bars and opening slots, Whiskey Tango went on hiatus in 2008. But now they're back in action for a hometown show before heading off on a Pacific Rim tour to Alaska and Japan. Just because Seattle never caught on to their Recess Records–brand of combustible pop doesn't mean they're not appreciated elsewhere. BRIAN COOK

Wednesday 11/24

Blonde Redhead, Óläf Arnalds

(Showbox at the Market) See Sound Check.

Truckasauras, THEESatisfaction

(Chop Suey) The great paleontologist Stephen Gould described the Burgess Shale in Yoho National Park, British Columbia—the site that preserved a marine world that existed 500 million years ago—as a Lagerstätten

, a mother lode ("[these are] rare windows on the fullness of ancient life"). The Burgess Shale contained a mother lode of fauna strange, bizarre, and beautiful. Is this not one way of describing the music made by THEESatisfaction? The duo, Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White, have hit on a mother lode of strange, bizarre, and beautiful sounds. Again and again, they present us with rare windows into the fullness of lo-fi hiphop. Their latest release, a mixtape called Transitions, is yet another such window. True, it's not as great as earlier productions—particularly the masterpiece THEESatisfaction Loves Stevie Wonder: Why We Celebrate Colonialism—but it's very much packed with small wonders: "On What It Means to Be Black," "Courting in Red Square," and "Do You Have the Time," which samples the windy and mystical Georgia Anne Muldrow. One hopes this terrific mother lode, this rich deposit of queer beats and rhymes, never runs out. CHARLES MUDEDE

Dimmu Borgir, Enslaved, Blood Red Throne, Dawn of Ashes

(Showbox Sodo) My friend and I have this tradition of going to see Norwegian black metallers Dimmu Borgir while really, REALLY stoned. I'm not sure when we started this, but now every time they come to town we do it. The first time, it was real scary—the band all covered in corpse paint, upside-down crosses, giant spiky things. The crowd was scary, too. Dimmu Borgir have got some pretty serious-faced fans. Wandering around that first show high-as-a-kite was terrifying, but it was good-terrifying—like the haunted-house ride at the county fair. The last time, though, I think I might have smoked a little TOO much, 'cause I just stood in front of the keyboardist giggling for most of the show. The crazy faces he made and his dramatic up and down hand gestures as he played his bombastic electronic symphony were just too much for me. Pure evil comedic gold. KELLY O

April Smith and the Great Picture Show, Lemolo

(Sunset) While their European folk-flavored songs are a little more polished and have a poppier sensibility than, say, Hey Marseilles—they're not above sticking a Balkan-flavored "You Spin Me Round" reference in the middle of a breakdown, a questionable impulse when you're doing old-timey music—there's still a lot of fun to be had with an April Smith and the Great Picture Show song or two. Sure, it's music from the past all dolled up in a glossy, inauthentic studio-buffed shell (there's a kind of Squirrel Nut Zippers vibe on many of their tracks), but they're zippy and spunky and they move along quickly, with lots of hand claps. It's like a Disneyfied version of folk-music history, but if you have a couple beers, you'll have a great time. PAUL CONSTANT