Wednesday 5/18

Devin the Dude, Coughee Brothaz, Sonny Bonoho, Hi-Life Soundsystem

(Crocodile) See My Philosophy.

Poirier, Juakali, Kid Hops

(Baltic Room) See Data Breaker.

The Globes

(Sonic Boom, Ballard) Spokane, Washington's the Globes create expansive, dynamic rock that, in a generous mood, one might call psychedelic. Their new album, Future Self, is one of the strongest things Barsuk Records has released in a couple of years. Produced by John Goodmanson (Unwound, Sleater-Kinney), Future Self recalls bands like the Helio Sequence and Silversun Pickups in its gleaming surfaces, mellifluous melodies, and pronounced rhythmic thrust. This is a big, brash record—radio friendly, overachieving (what a nice change from the indie status quo), and poised to fill cavernous venues. One can imagine some LPs trembling right off the shelves at Sonic Boom this evening. DAVE SEGAL

Thursday 5/19

James Blake, Nite Jewel

(Tractor) See preview.

Friday 5/20

Drop: Salva, Adam Houghton, Andrew Luck, Recess

(Lo-Fi) See Data Breaker.

The Get Down: Evil Eddie Richards, Murdoc, Ctrl_Alt_Dlt, Neiro, Karl K

(Neighbours Underground) See Data Breaker.

Buffalo Tom, the Heavenly States, Kimo Muraki, Tiny Messengers

(Chop Suey) Buffalo Tom will always hold a prime spot in my internal jukebox for two songs: 1988's "Sunflower Suit" and 1992's "Mineral." The former captures the Boston band at the peak of their anthemic, Hüsker Dü–ish powers; the latter enshrines them at the apex of their tear-smeared-ballad form. Besides these towering achievements, Buffalo Tom have proceeded to make a lot of middling-to-good melodic alt rock off and on over the last 23 years. As their eighth album, Skins, proves, they are solid craftsmen of the unspectacularly pretty song, specializing in a kind of business-casual rock that neither dazzles nor appalls—except, of course, with the classic "Sunflower Suit" and "Mineral." Christ, are those songs special. DAVE SEGAL

Jimmy Eat World, Kinch

(Showbox Sodo) Jimmy Eat World are the Green Day of emo—the scruffy band that started out punk and ended up platinum thanks to some seriously stellar songwriting. While Green Day's snotty irreverence morphed into righteous indignation and social commentary, Jimmy Eat World have never really strayed from their original formula—bruised but dynamic tunes exploring mine-riddled relationships and internal landscapes. Other bands have tried to follow in their emo-trailblazing footsteps, but none has been able to underpin that sense of self-doubt and angst with the kind of pop savvy that's repeatedly delivered bona fide hits. Plus, singer Jim Adkins's voice has just the right amount of tremor and determination to give the songs a real emotional core—and isn't that what emocore is all about? BARBARA MITCHELL

Police Teeth, System & Station, Bismark, What What Now

(Comet) The title of Police Teeth's new full-length is fucking right: Awesomer Than the Devil. And they are! I mean, what has the devil done lately when it comes to rock and roll? Ozzy is an old man; Marilyn Manson is a sad bastard. When was the last time Satan made an appearance on your favorite record when you played it backward? Exactly. He hasn't. (Rebecca Black is a different kind of evil.) So if you're looking for something that's indignant and catchy at the same time, some righteous and furious guitars, with bullshit-calling vocals that are as filled with hooks as they are with piss and vinegar, then this is the record for you. Bonus: It can double as the album you buy your little brother or niece or someone when you want to get them into Fugazi but you know they're not quite ready to break it off with their pop habit. Everyone wins! MEGAN SELING

Joan as Police Woman, Bhi Bhiman

(Columbia City Theater) If an individual is judged by the company he or she keeps, then Joan Wasser is an idiosyncratic artist who is thrillingly resistant to being pigeonholed. Her ever-growing cult of fans already knows that. Previously the violinist for 1990s Boston outfit the Dambuilders, Wasser has since supplied arrangements and performed with Antony, Rufus Wainwright, Scissor Sisters, and David Sylvian. Yet this multi-instrumentalist and songwriter shines brightest in the spotlight, releasing a series of increasingly ambitious records as Joan as Police Woman, culminating in The Deep Field. With her soulful, otherworldly voice as the focal point, Wasser fashions musical universes as inventive and all-encompassing as those found on the classic 1970s albums of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, switching fluidly from the crackling sexuality of "Run for Love" to the almost embarrassing tenderness of "Human Condition." KURT B. REIGHLEY

David Bazan, Yuni in Taxco, Point Juncture, Buffalo Tom, Joan as Police Woman, Shabazz Palaces, the Black Crabs, Marshall Scott Warner

(Sunset) KEXP sets up shop in Ballard's Sunset Tavern for a full day of broadcasting spiked with on-site performances. The Sunset opens and broadcasting begins in the morning, with performances throughout the day and early evening, including eloquent man with a guitar David Bazan (7 am!), rejuvenated 1990s power-poppers Buffalo Tom (1 pm), singer-songwriter Joan as Police Woman (3 pm), and hiphop wizards Shabazz Palaces (5 pm). This event is free and all ages. DAVID SCHMADER

Saturday 5/21

TRUST: Scuba, Kid Hops, SunTzu Sound

(Baltic Room) See Data Breaker.

Del the Funky Homosapien

(Sonic Boom, Capitol Hill) The veteran Del has dropped what sounds like his strongest solo album since No Need for Alarm, which was released nearly two decades ago. The new work, Golden Era, does not have a single wack track and proudly (or gloudly—glowing, loud, and proud) boasts three genuine hiphop gems: the convoluted "Calculate," the bumping "Pearly Gates," and the richly layered "Descending." Great care was taken with this production; on every track, you can't help noticing the absence of anything bad—broken beats, corny samples, exhausted ideas, and leaden rhymes. Indeed, this is the kind of hiphop you would expect from an artist who has been in the game for 20 years. That's a long fucking time. What a great fucking record! CHARLES MUDEDE

Whalebones, Night Beats, Case Studies, DJ CMRTYZ

(Sunset) Whalebones recorded their last album, Morning Man (recently rereleased by Luckyhorse Industries), in the basement of a cabin in a rainy, forever-green forest here in the watery Northwest—I am looking forward to listening to it on a trip I'm about to take to a bone-dry desert in southeast California, to the magical, mystical Joshua Tree National Park. Whalebones' folk rock has always reminded me of Gram Parsons and his Flying Burrito Brothers' special brand of country rock. I will listen to Morning Man under the stars, surrounded by all those Yucca brevifolias, and try to determine if these two bands are branches of the same tree. I think they are. KELLY O

This Will Destroy You, Pure Ecstasy, Sleep Over

(Vera) San Marcos, Texas's finest, This Will Destroy You, hate it when people call them "post-rock." They prefer "doomgaze." So do I, actually. The self-appointed term cleverly conjoins "doom metal" with "shoegaze," accurately depicting the brooding heaviness and gauzy melodicism that distinguish This Will Destroy You's music. TWDY also probably loathe comparisons to fellow Texans Explosions in the Sky, but, damn it, similarities between the two bands do exist. Both groups favor lull-explode dynamics marked by placid passages that build to meaningful crescendos. Thankfully, TWDY imbue said dynamics with great poignancy. Bring earplugs, preferably wrapped in a hankie. DAVE SEGAL

Sunday 5/22

Lauryn Hill

(Showbox Sodo) See preview and Stranger Suggests.

City Center, iji, the Hive Dwellers

(Bread Factory) See Underage.

The Twilight Singers, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's

(Showbox at the Market) My introduction to Greg Dulli's hedonistic yowl was via the Afghan Whigs' excellent 1993 record Gentlemen. As it happens, that was my sophomore year in high school, and I was also introducing myself to marijuana, late-night parties, and a particular forest-green 1965 Volkswagen sedan with a 1.6-liter engine. Whether it's by way of post-Gentlemen Whigs material, his murky stuff with Mark Lanegan under the name the Gutter Twins, or the work of his current project, the Twilight Singers, Dulli's voice will always transport me to that time. The Singers' latest, Dynamite Steps, their first album in five years and first on Sub Pop, is a lovely work, and I'm hoping to build some more memories around it, too. GRANT BRISSEY

Silk Dougie "Ur Dad," Black C, Kokane, DJ Zechariah the Barber

(Neumos) "Create the domino effect if ya smart/Noah's mission would've been pointless with no animals on the ark/So you need ya folks, at least a little bit/You wouldn't have been nothin'/Without the little shit." On the 2009 Shabazz Palaces EPs, the only voice besides Palaceer Lazaro's was that of his longtime cohort Silk Dougie (aka "Ur Dad"), who lent his distinctly Central District big-homie gravity to a number of tracks, bringing both a playfully pimpish, almost Mac Dre–esque flow and an unmistakably ice-blooded, goon-squad-leader menace. Doing his thing for years as part of the crew Left Coast, Dougie's rocking Neumos to celebrate the upcoming release of his second solo effort (after last year's Dougie Doin' Dougie). Teach you how to Dougie? You wish, mark. Game is to be sold—you oughta know the rest. LARRY MIZELL JR.

Monday 5/23

Woods of Ypres, Titan's Eve, Curse of the North, the Willow Collective, Plaster

(El Corazón) Somewhere between the all-out fury of Mayhem and Mastodon lies Woods of Ypres, a progressive, blackened, doom-metal band from Toronto. With the release of their newest effort, Woods 5: You Were the Light, their first on world-renowned metal mainstay Earache Records, we hear these dudes continuing to create epically sludgy jams with an eerie yet driving melodic sheen, an ever-evolving formula of sound that has earned them a cultlike following (much like their peers Agalloch) during the past nine years. Fellow Canadians Titan's Eve play heavy fucking thrash metal—pure and simple. Show up early for local band Curse of the North to hear two-ton riffs lifted straight from the swamps of New Orleans. KEVIN DIERS

Tuesday 5/24

Valmont's Pad: DJ E-Z Action, Explorateur

(Living Room) See Stranger Suggests.

Guitar Wolf, Cheap Time, Jaguar Paw

(El Corazón) Tokyo's Guitar Wolf whomp out their gloriously skuzzy garage punk with more panache than most American counterparts could even dream of. The band has been at it since 1987, when they formed as a three-piece in Nagasaki; they've survived the death of their bassist, and their recordings and live shows still muster an energy that rivals the Grand Coulee. Get plugged in, junior. GRANT BRISSEY

Allo Darlin', the Special Places

(Vera) Crafters of indie-pop songs as sweet and perfectly formed as sugar cubes, Allo Darlin' are the English band built around the compositions of Elizabeth Morris, the Australian singer-songwriter whose songs sometimes get dismissed as "twee," but that word does a disservice to Morris's eloquence and humanity. Also, good taste—the band's cover of "Atlantic City" reimagines Springsteen's monochromatic weeper in heavy-percussion Technicolor that somehow only underscores the original's sadness. Fans of Magnetic Fields, Belle & Sebastian, and love songs about Woody Allen movies and making chili will love them. DAVID SCHMADER