Wednesday 1/16

Shelter: Jacques Greene, J. Alvarez

(Q) See Data Breaker.

Los Lobos

(Benaroya) The beautiful Chicano sounds of Los Lobos have the power to transport you to sandy beaches, romantic vacations, and dentist's office waiting rooms—Los Lobos (Spanish for "the Panthers") are everywhere. I chose to write this blurb because I have a memory of my mom owning a Lobos CD, but when I called to interview her about them, she said it was actually my aunt that liked them and that the band was actually Los Lonely Boys. Oh. Oops. BUT, I do vaguely know of the Wolves (I was just kidding about them being panthers), and they seem like nice and talented guys. In fact, they still have pretty much the same lineup they had in high school! Which is where they met, more than 40 years ago! EMILY NOKES

Geist & the Sacred Ensemble, Ohioan, Angelo Spencer

(Comet) Have you ever seem Race with the Devil—the 1975 cinematic gemstone starring Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, and Loretta Swit? The movie kicks off with Fonda and Oates stumbling upon a satanic cult out in the woods, you know, minding their own business and sacrificing a beautiful, naked virgin. As they lift her body high above a roaring bonfire—her breasts bouncing in the firelight, their satanic cloaks flapping in the cool night breeze—the group of satanists whirl and hum some strange song, not unlike a Gregorian chant. When I listen to local psych rockers Geist & the Sacred Ensemble, all I can picture is this vintage virgin—the music creepy, sexy, and just the right amount of evil. KELLY O

Thursday 1/17

The Spits, the Girls, Communist Eyes, DJ Brian Foss, DJ Fenter

(Chop Suey) See Stranger Suggests.

DJ Sliink, the Dowlz, Tony Goods, Jameson Just

(See Sound Lounge) See Data Breaker.

Rough People, ÂĄMugatu!, Pores

(Blue Moon) Real talk: I'm a sucker for a website that uses animated rollovers. After looking at a million Bandcamps expertly designed with hip triangles and faux-'60s-filtered photos, sometimes you just want a black background and some flashing neon doodles! Like their website, ¡Mugatu!'s songs also lack frills. Or maybe they're ALL FRILLS—frills attached to nothing but other frills. I can't decide. Their self-described "lo-fi hi-energy pseudo-psych cock-rock glam-punk" seems to be composed entirely of bridge (y'know, that place where extra hooks or breakdowns might go), as if the recordings all begin in the middle. Whoaas, yeaahhhs, nananas, and various yips/yelps are the only vocals, but it all sounds SO FUN. Frill rock. Get into it. EMILY NOKES

Chris Forsyth, Particle Being Ensemble, Karnak Temples

(Gallery 1412) One of America's most interesting guitarists who probably won't appear in Guitarist magazine, Chris Forsyth (Peeesseye, Phantom Limb) applies minimalist techniques to psych rock, folk, and drone. On albums like Paranoid Cat and Kenzo Deluxe, Forsyth imbues exceptional emotiveness into his stripped-down 6- and 12-string mantras. His music sounds like that of an elite music college graduate who later went on a nature retreat in Nepal to reject all that academic stuffiness and get in touch with his inner mystic. Locals Particle Being Ensemble and Karnak Temples—both of whom have crucial releases on Seattle's Debacle Records—provide the ideal prelude to Forsyth with their own astral jazz and exploratory drone poetry, respectively. DAVE SEGAL

Friday 1/18

Rickie Lee Jones, Jesse Dee

(Jazz Alley) See preview.

FaltyDL, novaTRON, Alex Ruder, Nordic Soul

(Lo-Fi) See Data Breaker.

Yo La Tengo

(Easy Street Records Queen Anne) You've likely heard the bad news: Easy Street Records will soon be closing its huge and beloved Queen Anne location. But tonight brings a glorious consolation prize: a free in-store performance (the venue's last ever!) by Yo La Tengo, the great American band that's been making gorgeous, one-of-a-kind music for a quarter century. This will be magical evening. (It will also very likely be a packed evening, so wear comfortable shoes and get there early.) DAVID SCHMADER

Mythunderstandings

(Chapel Performance Space) Mythunderstandings is an "oral history–driven multimedia performance featuring the Tiptons Sax Quartet breaking out all of their instruments, in collaboration with Coastal Salish storyteller and musician Paul 'Che oke ten' Wagner, and video artist Adam Sekuler." JEN GRAVES

Two Gallants

(Barboza) San Francisco's Two Gallants finally grabbed my attention and held it with their latest record, The Bloom and the Blight. Released last fall (and their first record in five years), The Bloom and the Blight proves what Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel have hinted at all along—dudes can really rock. "My Love Won't Wait" might fill that heavily distorted White Stripes-shaped hole in your heart, and the fuzzy, bluesy "Ride Away" sounds like something you would hear on a classic rock radio station's throwback weekend among Zeppelin and the Stones. If you've always shrugged them off before, give Two Gallants another try—they've strengthened their backbone. The new songs should be even more zealous live, especially in the confines of Barboza's tight, underground showroom. MEGAN SELING

Saturday 1/19

Gaytheist, Argonaut, Princess, Transient

(Comet) See preview.

Mythunderstandings

(Chapel Performance Space) See Friday.

Rickie Lee Jones, Jesse Dee

(Jazz Alley) See preview.

Eric Cloutier

(Electric Tea Garden) See Data Breaker.

Blooper, Sleuth, Cool Ghouls, Weird Bug

(Heartland) See Underage.

Andy Stott, Bryan Zentz, Kid Smpl

(Crocodile) The wide acclaim that Andy Stott's trudgingly dubby techno on Luxury Problems attracted in 2012 has been one of the industry's most surprising developments recently. No longer just the province of underground heads, Stott's centrifugal, slo-mo quasi-dance tracks exert a powerfully subliminal force. Portland producer Bryan Zentz's style is more conventionally adrenalized in the lean and mean tech-house vein, keeping the bpms in the 130 to 140 range. He's always great. Seattle phenom Kid Smpl has become one of the most accomplished creators in the "night bus" subgenre. His debut album on Hush Hush Records, Skylight, is, to quote myself, "profoundly smoldering and tender—ectoplasmic wisps of R&B drifting through a nocturnal haze... If tears could articulate, they'd sound like Skylight." Play it for all the simpletons who still think all electronic music is "cold and unemotional" (not that there's anything wrong with cold and unemotional music). DAVE SEGAL See also Stranger Suggests.

Parquet Courts

(Cairo) How pissed is Hardly Art that it didn't put out Parquet Courts' instantly day-brightening album Light Up Gold? This record sounds so solidly in HA's wheelhouse, it's scary: Dig this shaggy, nonchalantly tuneful garage rock augmented by genetic material in vitro'd from the Fall, the Feelies, and Wire's seminal works (sorry, it'll probably happen again). It must be especially galling to HA because guitarist Andrew Savage—whose other band, Fergus & Geronimo, issued two albums with the Sub Pop subsidiary—also lends six-string and lyrical eloquence to Parquet Courts. Oh well, Hardly Art will get over it. Meantime, you should shoehorn yourself into Cairo's minuscule confines and tap the hell out of your foot to Parquet Courts' compact, fuzzy bundles of sonic joy. DAVE SEGAL

Beck's Song Reader

(Royal Room) In December, Beck released a unique project: a collection of sheet music for an album, published in a beautiful bound edition by McSweeney's—an album you can hear only if you or someone you know can play it. This week brings two performances of Song Reader, one at the Crocodile on Friday, and one jointly presented by KEXP and Columbia City's wonderful Royal Room tonight, which will have an all-ages set at 7 p.m. and a 21+ show at 9:30 p.m., both backed by the Royal Room house band. Beck told McSweeney's in an interview, "I thought a lot about making these songs playable and approachable, but still musically interesting. I think some of the best covers will reimagine the chord structure, take liberties with the melodies, the phrasing, even the lyrics themselves. There are no rules in interpretation." ANNA MINARD

Sunday 1/20

Rickie Lee Jones, Jesse Dee

(Jazz Alley) See preview.

Charlyne Yi, Hi Ho Silver, Jon Pontrello

(Vera) If the name doesn't ring a bell, surely you'd recognize Charlyne Yi when you saw her. She's an actress who's had bit parts in Knocked Up and 30 Rock, and is a regular on House, and, more notably, she wrote and starred in the film Paper Heart, costarring Michael Cera. But she's also a comedian! Yi uses songs and storytelling to make the crowds laugh, and it comes off so effortlessly and charming that you forget you're at a "show" and feel like you're hanging out with a new friend who just happens to be really entertaining. She has both original material and some covers up her sleeve, and if the recent postings on her YouTube channel are any indication of what she'll perform on tour, we'll get covers of "Be My Baby" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and she'll probably forget some of the words. MEGAN SELING

Monday 1/21

Revamp your website already.

Tuesday 1/22

Niki & the Dove, Vacationer, Nightmare Fortress

(Crocodile) Sometimes the usually astute Sub Pop makes decisions that make you scratch your head—and not in a good way. For example, signing Swedish duo Niki & the Dove. If you wrinkled your nose at CocoRosie getting a deal with Jonathan Poneman's company, you may shake your noggin senseless at the secretary-friendly Niki & the Dove (vocalist Malin Dahlström and keyboardist Gustaf Karlöf), who make Zola Jesus sound like Diamanda GalĂĄs. On their self-titled debut album, Niki & the Dove make that antiseptic, blandly cute electro pop at which Scandinavians often excel. The best way for Sub Pop to atone for this gaffe would be to issue a Love Battery box set with a bonus disc of previously unreleased gems. DAVE SEGAL

Daughters of the Dead Sea, the Stevedore, Mannequin BBQ, A Breakthrough in Field Studies

(Tractor) Daughters of the Dead Sea evoke an early-'90s vibe, spilling out dark and cloudy riffs with vocals that are at once sweetness and angst, reminiscent of a rough-edged Sleater-Kinney. The Daughters' first EP, The Killroom Sessions, debuted last October and the five songs pack a punch, each telling a story—painful, brooding, and raw are the overall tones, with some good old-fashioned heartache mixed in for good measure. I looked into Mannequin BBQ because of their intriguing name, but I may have come away with more questions than answers. Here's what I learned based on two poor-quality videos: kazoos, washboards, clapping/cup games, twangy a cappella harmonies, accordion, jazzy piano. Well, all right. EMILY NOKES