Wednesday 10/10

Das Racist, Le1f, Lakutis

(Showbox at the Market) See My Philosophy.

Smashing Pumpkins

(Comcast Arena) "Oooooh, the years burn. Oooooh the years burn! Burn! Burn!" BILLY CORGAN

Morbid Angel, Dark Funeral, Grave

(El Corazón) Until 2011, we could rely on Morbid Angel to consistently bring forth uncompromising old-school death metal—from their stellar 1989 debut, Altars of Madness, onward, Morbid Angel were one of the few that stood proud, waving the flag of brutality. Then, in what should have been their major comeback return to form, they released a monstrous turd bomb in the form of Illud Divinum Insanus, an industrial-tinged effort so confusingly bad it had metal fans everywhere scratching their heads and mocking the Morbid legacy. For Satan's sake, let's hope they stick to the old stuff. KEVIN DIERS

Black Hills, See Me River, Nouela

(Crocodile) Tonight, Black Hills—the new band consisting of members of Minus the Bear, the Lonely Forest, the Quiet Ones, and Black Swedes—play their first all-ages show in the back bar of the Crocodile, and if you're a fan of pop music with a sepia-tinged vintage sound, you should go. What does that sound like? Picture the late '60s or early '70s—hippies, really, but with a little rock-and-roll edge. Just a bit. There are harmonies, an organ, an acoustic guitar strumming along and sometimes breaking down into more intricate riffs. It's the kind of music you'd listen to while driving down the coast to San Francisco in a convertible, probably with a flower in your hair. MEGAN SELING

Thursday 10/11

Pac Div, Mikey Rocks, Eighty4Fly, Aye Logics

(Neumos) See My Philosophy.

Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, Mark Pickerel, Johnny Sangster

(Funhouse) Wreckless Eric is on tour with his wife, Amy Rigby (aww, he found her), and they're playing at the Funhouse! Wreckless Eric was part of the Stiff Records gang (with cool cats like Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe), where he gained notoriety with his best-known single "(I'd Go the) Whole Wide World" in 1977. He left Stiff a few years later, but he has continued to write, tour, and record ever since. Rigby played in punk bands and was a solo musician—she met Eric met when she COVERED THAT SONG! Double aww! As a duo, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby play simple and touching pop music with a wicked sense of humor. They won me over with a song called "Men in Sandals." EMILY NOKES

Michael Chapman

(Easy Street Records, Queen Anne) Under-recognized British troubadour alert! The 70-year-old Michael Chapman, whose fantastic Rainmaker and Fully Qualified Survivor LPs were recently reissued by Seattle/LA label Light in the Attic, brings his distinctively weathered vocals, poignant lyrics, and corkscrewing folkadelic guitar artistry to Easy Street Records. Intimate! If you dig John Martyn, Bert Jansch, Roy Harper, or Richard Thompson, you'll flip for Chapman, whose skills rival those exalted singer/songwriter/guitarists'. Chapman—who was a favorite of the late BBC radio disc jockey John Peel—is also part of the stellar bill happening October 12 at Showbox at the Market to celebrate Light in the Attic's 10th anniversary. DAVE SEGAL

Sean Curley, Jeffery Taylor, Lou-Lou, Jesse Paul Miller

(Josephine) If you're looking for a night of off-center guitar playing and interesting unconventionality, this lineup of locals should keep your ears tingling nicely. Jesse Paul Miller's work with Factums elevates him to the upper echelon of Seattle underground-rock subversion. Jeffery Taylor's scrabbling, free-rock guitar terrorism and down-home lyricism with Climax Golden Twins and Hound Dog Taylor's Hand will force you to cancel your subscription to Guitar Wanker magazine. Lou-Lou, who makes cheerfully disturbing, daydream-hazy electronic miniatures, is the closest thing Seattle has to the Residents. Eccentric guitarist Sean Curley, who has an excellent new self-titled CD to support, coaxes prickly tonalities and lunar drones, and peels off the sort of intricate, cyclical riffs that would make Robert Fripp eat a plectrum. DAVE SEGAL

Friday 10/12

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

(WaMu Theater) See My Philosophy.

Com Truise, Poolside, Bonde do RolĂŞ

(Chop Suey) See Data Breaker.

Motor: Patternmaster, Crystal Hell Pool, Mood Organ, DJ Slow, UWE 60D

(Lo-Fi) See Data Breaker.

Rodriguez, Michael Chapman, Donnie & Joe Emerson, DJ Suspence

(Showbox at the Market) See Stranger Suggests.

Mount Eerie, Bouquet

(Cairo) This year has been pretty fantastic for Mount Eerie fans. Not only has the band released two albums, Ocean Roar and Clear Moon (both of which are magnificently intense and gorgeous), but for the second time in six months, Mount Eerie are also performing an intimate night of shows. There will be two performances at Cairo, at 7 and 9 p.m. (both are all ages), and only 65 tickets are being sold for each set. Tickets were, oddly, still available to both at press time, but hurry! Their shows at 20/20 Cycle earlier this year sold out—these definitely will, too. MEGAN SELING See also Underage.

The Corin Tucker Band, Houndstooth, Dude York

(Crocodile) The Corin Tucker Band's debut record—2010's 1,000 Years—found the former Sleater-Kinney yowler toning it down via acoustic ballads and vocal lines that steered clear of ambulance-siren range, with rich results. The band's new Kill My Blues cranks things back up, with jagged interlacing guitar lines and the glorious return of the howl. Among the openers at tonight's Crocodile show: Dude York, described by Stranger music editor Emily Nokes as "GREAT." DAVID SCHMADER

Naomi Punk, Nu Sensae, Peace, FF

(Hollow Earth) EEEEEEEH! It's no secret that I love Naomi Punk. At least I didn't mean to keep it a secret. So in case you did not know: I am wild about them. Their songs are heavy, catchy, and melty—they take their time, unwinding with high airy vocals and oddly gratifying key changes that fade in and out as they please. You know who else I am wild about? Nu Sensae. They blew me away at Capitol Hill Block Party, and their latest album, Sundowning, has been blowing me away ever since—a loud, harsh toke of grunge, punk, hardcore, and unadulterated screaming. This is going to be one phenomenal show. If you have the chicken pox or something, make sure you at least tune in and thrash along online. EMILY NOKES

Tacocat, Divers, Trash Fire

(Rendezvous) Hello, I work here, and I am in one of these bands. Are you okay? Are you still here? Glad we could talk. Now then, Divers are from Portland, and they are rad. SO rad, in fact, that my alternate universe twin, music editor of the Portland Mercury, Ned Lannamann, e-mailed me to say, "Hey YOU, Divers are AWESOME." And I was like, "I KNOW, right?" Then we internet high-fived and music notes shot out of our computers. So there you have it: Two people who talk about music in two free weeklies in two Pacific Northwest cities CAN'T BE WRONG. Divers play big punk rock 'n' roll—suitable for dancing to, sweating to, losing your voice to, and fist-pumping in your white T-shirt like it's the '80s and the Boss is your actual boss and you just got a bonus. EMILY NOKES

Dinosaur Jr., Shearwater

(Neptune) For a couple of years in the '80s, Dinosaur Jr. were one of the greatest fucking rock bands in the world. You're Living All Over Me? It's an all-time classic of post-"Like a Hurricane"/post-hardcore maelstrom-mongering. Bug is almost as cataclysmically brilliant. But ever since those twin towers from 1987–88, Dino Jr. have steadily declined. Which is not to say they've lost it, but even with the original lineup's return on 2007's Farm, the songs just don't hit with the power and fire of yore. The new I Bet on Sky kind of sounds like it's ready for a nap, but live, Dinosaur Jr. can still sporadically spark like something's actually at stake. DAVE SEGAL

Saturday 10/13

The Numbs, Black Hat, Lou Lou Hernandez

(Cairo) Former U member Jeff Johnson's decision to go solo under the name the Numbs has yielded fantastic dividends. In a music scene largely hell-bent on treading the most trodden sonic territory possible, Johnson has opted for the path way less traveled, and what a bizarre side street it is. Like a Northwest cousin to New York's Black Dice, the Numbs warps every sound on his People cassette into grotesque simulacra of "real" instruments. The resultant emissions align into an unsettling sort of exotica that subverts your tidy notion of what "music" should do. DAVE SEGAL

Seattle Opera: Fidelio

(McCaw Hall) Beethoven's only opera is an election-season natural. It tells the rousing story of a political prisoner saved by his wife, who masquerades as a prison guard to spring him. There's gender bending and the pumping of fists about the downfall of oppressors and tyrants. "No relevance to anything contemporary, whether in the Middle East or anywhere else, I'm sure," quipped Seattle Opera's Jonathan Dean in a note about the production, which is set in the here and now. It will climax in a big finale involving more than a hundred people onstage, many of them in their own regular contemporary clothes. (This old thing?) Through October 27. JEN GRAVES

Sunday 10/14

Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock

(Neptune) See My Philosophy.

JEFF the Brotherhood, Diarrhea Planet

(Crocodile) See Underage.

Woods, Night Beats

(Barboza) Brooklyn lo-fi psych-folk quartet Woods have always sounded just all right to me on record. Their live shows are a different story, however, mostly thanks to the tape manipulation wizardry of member G. Lucas Crane. Hunched over a table (or sometimes curled up on the floor) full of effects pedals, mixing consoles, and a couple old-school tape decks, Crane loops, sequences, and mixes samples he previously recorded to cassette, delivering vocals through one side of a pair of headphones wrapped sideways around his head. It's pretty wild to see, but even better to hear the analog weirdness blending in with the rest of the band's live instrumentation. MIKE RAMOS

Shaky Blankets, Town Forest, Carolyn Mark, the Pine Hearts

(Comet) Not only is rootsy Victoria, BC, songwriter Carolyn Mark just as comfortable in front of huge Canadian festival crowds as she is playing to a handful of patrons at some dive bar, she actually shines brighter when confronted with the latter. She fires off jokes and anecdotes, interacts with patrons, and knows when to drop a well-chosen Elvis or Nancy Sinatra cover. Mark's chops as an entertainer, however, are only part of her artistry. She can switch from a folksy holler to winking jazz purr in a single ditty and a bittersweet humor—an intuitive grasp that comedy equals tragedy plus timing—permeates her seven studio albums, the swinging "The Cereal Is the Prize" from her just-released The Queen of Vancouver Island being an especially stellar example. KURT B. REIGHLEY

Monday 10/15

Faust, Midday Veil, Dull Knife

(Comet) See preview.

András Schiff

(Benaroya Hall) This recital is a major occasion, one for the books: Tremendous pianist András Schiff will perform the tremendous entire Book II of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier—24 Preludes and Fugues—in a single night. JEN GRAVES

Tuesday 10/16

Grimes, Elite Gymnastics, Myths

(Neumos) See Data Breaker and Stranger Suggests.

The Trashies, Lindseys, Ubu Roi

(Funhouse) Seattle trash punks the Trashies have a song called "Steal Your Bike." Recently, much to the dismay of bassist Andrew Sullivan (aka Billy Goat Trash), the song hit a little too close to home. "I caught a man in the act of stealing my bike at Bartell Drugs at the Harvard Market. The thief was riding away, when I caught him from behind, and got my bike back." The Trashies are exactly the sort of band that will chase you down and knock you off a stolen bicycle. That's what makes them so good. Don't miss this last opportunity to see them in Seattle's trashiest and best (and about to close its doors) punk club, the Funhouse. KELLY O