Hi! It's me, Emily! The last person you would expect to be writing the column whose jurisdiction covers the electrooonic-muuusic spectrum [insert Twilight Zone theme, Home Alone face]. Since Dave Segal is on a tropical vacation to Detroit, I reached out to my best robot-music-expert guy DJ Bankie Phones (GIF-master Frankie Crescioni), who helped me figure out: WWDSD?
NIGHTMARES ON WAX'S BEACHY DREAMS
Bankie tells me Nightmares on Wax is "classic triphop," a definition that syncs up with Larry Mizell Jr.'s "OG triphop-reggae-soul crew" assessment over in the My Philosophy column. I think that means hiphop mixed with electronica! So I ate a pot cookie and braced myself for a nightmare—but the name deceives. It's peachy and positive—dusty funk, mellowed-out soul, a hammock, some bubbly reggae, a Cuban beach, real voices and instruments, all melted together in the sun. Neumos, 8 pm, $20 adv, 21+.
MORE LIKE YAWN OF MIDI
Brooklyn trio Dawn of Midi's album Dysnomia made the New Yorker's Best Albums of 2013 list and NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums of 2013. Well well. Bankie says it's something like "future jazz" or "traditional instruments covering electronic music," but I'm thinking this is more obsessive-compulsive sconce-cleaning music. Pot cookie and I were nervous about these ultra-repetitive, pretentious-seeming sounds. Are we stupid for not "getting it"? Do we need a deep V and a copy of Finnegans Wake? To be fair, once you get past the initial whyyy-is-this-record-skipping? annoyance, DoM are kind of an interesting exercise in organically changing minimalism and pestering the boundaries/expectations of instruments. Kind of. Tractor Tavern, 9 pm, $12, 21+.
CASHMERE CAT'S WARPY POP
Norway's Magnus August Høiberg is Cashmere Cat, and Cashmere Cat makes music that sounds like futuristic fireworks in the shapes of actual cats. Within one track, you might find rainy-day classic piano, rubber and plastic noises, flirty R&B, bouncy pop somersaults, and all the playful warpy warps you can handle. Dave Segal would never say warpy warps. Sigh. Neumos, 9 pm, $15 adv, 21+.
THE RARER THE AIR, THE SPACIER THE HAIR
Hooray! A chance to further embarrass this column's usual author! Did you guys know that Dave Segal ("the voice of a generation," as Bankie calls him) is also an ear-confounding/challenging/delighting DJ called Veins? He and DJ Explorateur host Rare Air, Seattle's only ambient and new-age night. Tonight marks RA's third installment and will feature Hair and Space Museum—Emily Pothast and David Golightly of Seattle's Midday Veil—which Bankie says can be classified as "new-age synthscapes." With DJ Love. Q Nightclub, 9 pm, free, 21+. 
