Up & Coming

Thursday 9/11

Common Market, Total Experience Gospel Choir, Thee
Emergency,
Feral Children, the Tallboys Old Time String
Band

D.Black, Spaceman, People$, DJ Evil Twin Bros

Three Legged Dog, the Bill
Bondsmen, Cyanide
Destruct

(Funhouse) Break out the egg yolks and getcher liberty spikes all
sharp ‘n’ pointy for THIS show… locals Cyanide Destruct, who rip some
solid hardcore, Three Legged Dog, and Detroit’s Bill Bondsmen, who also
rip the hardcore, ’90s style! Rumor has it, backed by the Bill
Bondsmen, will be special guest “thee” Al Milman. Al gets special guest
status, as he will be performing a few of his Al Milman Sect hits, some
goodies, I’m told, from the time when he invented “punk” rock… 1946 I
think it was. His cameo is a bit of a celebration of this past July’s
welcomed release of the Al Milman Sect/Man-Ka-Zam complete discography.
Oh, and don’t forget which way the pit rotates… AGAINST THE GRAIN!
MIKE NIPPER

Friday 9/12

A1 Bassline, Levi Clark

(Re-bar) See Data Breaker.

Red Bull Big Tune Beat Battle:
Elzhi, Black
Milk

(Neumos) This year, Big Tune is even bigger than Big Tune—the
hometown edition of this now-national, head-to-head producer battle
also features some heavy-caliber hiphop performances. Black Milk and
Elzhi (he of Slum Village) are both Detroiters who benefited from the
late, great Dilla, and two of the most buzz-heavy talents coming
up—Milk as a hotly sought-after producer and Elz as simply one of
the very best cats touching a mic right now. While this event is
dedicated to the beatsmith, the producer, it can’t hurt to have an
MC—one who could so easily eat Kanye’s, Game’s, or Lil
Wayne’s lunch without even offering them so much as a
bite—gracing the stage. LARRY MIZELL JR.

Rancid, Less Than Jake, the Bloodclots

(Showbox Sodo) It’s been nearly a decade since I’ve been able to
publicly declare I like Less Than Jake without receiving scorn from my
music-snob peers. For a while, the Gainesville, Florida, ska band lost
their way—they ditched their horns, they lost their sense of
humor, and they polished their records to a ridiculously clean degree.
Sigh. Even they didn’t seem to like their songs, live shows were
performed with a “going through the motions” slackness. Sigh again. But
things might be looking up! The dudes have returned to the sound and
the songs when they seemed happiest—their latest album GNV
FLA is packed with horns, addictive choruses, humor, and lots of
that chika-chika guitar playing that was all over
Pezcore. I still might get shit for saying so, but
whatever—I fuckin’ like Less Than Jake. Again. MEGAN
SELING

Old Time Relijun, the Lights, the Whore Moans

(Comet) Doomsday cults and fire-and-brimstone preachers have been a
part of American pop culture ever since England got rid of the
Puritans. But few apocalyptically minded ranters are as much unhinged
fun as Old Time Relijun. Band leader Arrington de Dionyso and his mates
are firmly of the fiddling-while-Rome-burns tradition. On albums like
2012 and Catharsis in Crisis, the band turn the terminal
mess of the modern world into a freaked-out, primordial funk racket, a
toxic swamp boogie full of dancing demons, wicked witches, and feral
fauna. Live, OTR are marked by wobbling upright bass, steady rhythms,
bleating saxophone, stabs of guitar, and de Dionyso’s wild-eyed,
devilish howling. If the world is going to end, Old Time Relijun at
least want you to have one last ecstatic dance. ERIC GRANDY

The Abodox, Patrol

(Jules Maes) It seemed like a waste for jazz-metal mathletes the
Abodox to get a second guitarist. Even if it was Blaine Patnode from
mythic shredders Swarming Hordes, it just seemed unnecessary. But then
they started playing live. Maybe it was coincidental, or maybe because
two-thirds of the trio had been sharpening their horns with the
psychedelic doomscapes of Lesbian, but when the Abodox became a
quartet, their tightly packed shitstorm of epic grind and schizo rock
finally made perfect sense. The band is a blood-soaked Trojan horse
with time changes and genre shifts that are often baffling but never
contrived, with the precision of four dead-eyed snipers. For nearly 10
years, the Abodox have been tweaking and polishing their sound. They
knew what they were able to sound like; now everyone else has the
chance. SHANE MEHLING

George Duke, Anthony Hamilton

(McCaw Hall) Though this evening’s concert is listed by local
smooth-jazz station KWJZ as the “smooth summer finale,” both of the
featured artists are capable of a great deal more vitality than that
may suggest. There will likely be some real musical merit underneath
the wind chimes and cowbells. Keyboardist George Duke transitioned from
soul-jazz beginnings alongside Les McCann to full-bore jazz rock with
Frank Zappa and Jean-Luc Ponty to virtuosic funk with Stanley Clarke,
though the last few decades have found him in an often mawkishly mellow
tone. Singer Anthony Hamilton has made some good music in his career
but is an always unusual and exquisite singer, most recently evinced on
his work in the film American Gangster and as vocal foil to Al
Green on Lay It Down. SAM MICKENS

Saturday 9/13

Milanese, Cyrus, the Milkman, Cursed Chimera, and
Clobber

(Oseao Gallery) See Data Breaker.

Generifus, Seahouse, Masters and Johnson, Jeff Stillwell,
Gio Ricci

(Old Fire House) See Underage.

These Arms Are Snakes, sBACH, Helms Alee, Skull
Kid

(Hell’s Kitchen) Helms Alee are one of the most interesting bands in
Seattle. Some songs on their debut, Night Terror (recently
issued on Hydra Head), are as heavy as singer Ben Verellen’s old
project Harkonen—the drumming will tremble your feet, the bass
will make your head throb—but on some tracks (“A Weirding Away,”
“Big Spider”), the band break up their intense explosions with moments
of beauty via layers of glimmering guitar, piano, and loud, confident
vocals. Helms Alee prove intensity doesn’t always equal anger. A
different breed of intensity (the spastic kind) marks These Arms Are
Snakes, who will soon release their new album, Tail Swallower and
Dove. Kids lose their shit at TAAS shows and singer Steve Snere is
like the fucked-up punk-rock evangelist pulling their strings and
causing convulsions. MEGAN SELING

Sunday 9/14

Spiritualized, Grand Ole Party

(Neumos) Since 1997’s landmark album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are
Floating in Space, Spiritualized mastermind Jason Pierce has been
excising the qualities that made his god-and-smack-inflected psych rock
sublime. Surely he thinks recent albums like Amazing Grace and
Songs in A&E represent Spiritualized’s more “honest” side.
Perhaps, but in the process of stripping down to the “essentials” his
once lush approach to songwriting, Pierce inadvertently has highlighted
his weaknesses (limited vocal range, parched timbre) at the expense of
his strengths (inflating minimalist melodies into orchestral splendor,
deploying effects to potently dramatic impact). Live, Spiritualized
used to provide brain-scrambling soundtracks to acid trips. Now,
they’re about as trippy as decaf coffee. Bring back the “Electric
Mainline,” in the name of all that is hole-y, Jason! DAVE
SEGAL

House of Low Culture, Mamiffer, Hemingway

(Rendezvous) House of Low Culture is the solo project of ISIS
guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner. Armed with his six-string, a pedal
board, and a tabletop full of electronics, Turner reexamines the sonic
opportunities contained within the guitar through extended studies in
looping and unorthodox technique. Mamiffer are the product of creative
mastermind Faith Coloccia, pianist for Palm Springs’ defunct
experimental noise-art troupe Everlovely Lightningheart, and These Arms
Are Snakes drummer Chris Common. Coloccia’s new project is rooted in
her elaborate and solemn piano melodies and embellished by a rotating
cast of auxiliary musicians. Hemingway open the show with their
signature mix of caustic dissonance and deconstructed outsider pop.
Fans of the obtuse, take note: This is not a show to be missed.
BRIAN COOK

Monday 9/15

Nothing happens today.

Tuesday 9/16

Squeeze

(Showbox at the Market) Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford
are the new-wave Lennon and McCartney. Thank you and good night. Oh,
you need more? All right. Back in late-’70s Britain, these masterly
songwriters had the gumption to skirt punk’s bumptious fury and focus
on crafting ingenious melodies that make critics reflexively type “the
new-wave Lennon and McCartney.” Squeeze’s first four albums (spanning
the years 1978 to 1981) yield a treasure trove of some of the sweetest
tunes that will ever carom around your gray matter. Whether Squeeze can
do these classics—and their lesser, later material—justice
nearly three decades after their prime is the (at least) $40 question.
DAVE SEGAL

Wednesday 9/17

Japanther, Shearing Pinx

(Vera) See Stranger Suggests.

Miss Kittin & the Hacker, Colby B,
DJ
Julia

(Neumos) See Data Breaker.

Goldfrapp, Jaymay

(Showbox Sodo) See preview.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? Team Robespierre

(Chop Suey) Does It Offend You, Yeah? look like a last gasp/cash
grab for “nu rave”—patterned hoodies, (Ed) banger big beats,
vacuous synth hooks—with one killer dance single, “We Are
Rockstars,” whose vocoder hook is just unfuckwithable. Team Robespierre
are a different animal entirely. The Brooklyn five-piece recall Atom
and His Package’s geeky take on youth-crew
hardcore—finger-pointing, sing-along choruses, and breakdowns
filtered through synth-heavy geekiness—as well as the endearing
ADHD spasticity of their fellow Brooklynites Matt & Kim or
Japanther. That hyperactivity is especially pronounced live: At SXSW
this year, the band incited what was likely the weekend’s first mosh
pit on opening night; later, playing a rooftop pool party, they
repeatedly blew fuses, killing the sound and leaving the revelers
dangling their legs in the water in the dark. ERIC GRANDY