FRIDAY 1/21


RTX, GUESTS
(Neumo's) See preview, page 33.

METALFEIST III
(Manium Warehouse, Olympia) Death to false metal. Or at least a sharp ice pick to the eye sockets for bands that needed a can of Aqua Net to make hair stand on end, right? Olympia's Metalfeist III is an all-ages overload of NW talent--spanning the grindcore, death metal, hardcore, and prog spawns of the metal genre. Overall, two days (Jan 21-22) of horn-raising talent (Akimbo, Wormwood, the Abodox, Book of Black Earth, Iron Lung) all crammed into one sweat lodge of a warehouse. JENNIFER MAERZ See All Ages Action, page 47.

FALL OF TROY, JOULES, RAKING BOMBS, ANCILLE
(Ground Zero) See All Ages Action, page 47.

KISS HER FOR THE KID, THE PROTOMASONS, THE WEAPONS
(Blue Moon Tavern) The Weapons are kind of for the No Depression set, but don't be scared to attend this show if you are more into Fader. Their songs are rooted in straight pop, but they use different influences (hard rock, whiny country) to layer on a more complex sound. The singer/guitarist Theo Prince uses the voice that the lord gave him--a little scratchy, a little high-pitched, but the rest of the band evens it out nicely, using rawer sounding bass and drums. Be on the lookout for an album in early spring, because this band would be a really good listen on a road trip. ARI SPOOL

BOWLING FOR SOUP, AMERICAN HI-FI, RIDDLIN' KIDS, MC LARS
(Studio 7) Taking the term emo-rap literally, MC Lars samples songs from emo groups like Piebald, Hearts That Hate, and Brand New and smushes 'em into suburban-hiphop frameworks. (In the process, he makes Cex seem like Nas.) The result on his U.S. debut, The Laptop EP, is novelty music that sticks in your head for minutes at a time and makes you begrudgingly admire its geeky cleverness. Lars is a pop-cult-obsessed name-dropper and wittier than he looks, quicksilver-tongued if bland-voiced, and hyper-aware of music-biz machinations and his own culpability in the game. Can any major-label A&R schmuck hear the spiffy spoof "Signing Emo" and not hang his/her head in shame? DAVE SEGAL

SUFFERING AND THE HIDEOUS THIEVES, SUPINE TO SIT, DEAR DARLING, THE WESTERN STATES, HIDARI MAE
(Paradox) Late last summer, Kevin Barrans, president of the Mosquito Fleet (Seattle's moped gang) and drummer for Suffering and the Hideous Thieves, was in a tragic motorcycle accident. He sustained serious injuries, including a shattered knee and broken pelvic bone (ouch), but survived and continues to heal. Since he's without medical insurance (and his injuries made it impossible for him to work for quite a few months), Barrans' friends and bandmates have billed tonight's show as a benefit, with all proceeds going to help take a chunk out of his growing mountain of bills. The show only costs seven bucks, but it wouldn't kill ya to pay $10 for the good cause. MEGAN SELING

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS, THE SHORE
(Showbox) As they say in the business--ouch. The last time the Psychedelic Furs came through was only a few months ago at EndFest, and frontman Richard Butler could not hit the high notes. Or the low notes. Or any notes. It was like he was singing for a completely different band than the Furs; it was heartbreaking for anyone who used to love that band. I say the guy should pull some Ashlee shit and just get all those vocals prerecorded by some nubile goth type. Then he can just lip sync over the top and everyone who wants to relive the past through his moody, broody songs can leave shows like this one happy. JENNIFER MAERZ

LHASA, CUCHATA
(Triple Door) Mexican American vocalist--excuse me, chanteuse--Lhasa de Sela possesses a voice invariably described as "smoky." Actually, words like "husky" and "understatedly lusty" are more accurate. She sounds like Nico or Lisa Germano with a heavier reliance on drama-school inflections. Whatever the case, Lhasa rivets you every time she opens her mouth to intone her trilingual (Spanish, French, English) songs. Her band teases out strangely formal-sounding art songs suffused in Old European melancholy and yearning. Lhasa's latest album, The Living Road (Nettwerk America), is powerfully emotional in a subdued way--and all the more effective for it. Even when she's singing in a language you don't comprehend, Lhasa & Co. induce a bittersweet pain that's almost too exquisite for mortals to bear (immortals will be able to handle it just fine). DAVE SEGAL

THE HOLLOWPOINTS, DREADFUL CHILDREN
(Comet) The Hollowpoints are growing up--and by that I don't mean maturing away from punk rock, but more like maturing their approach to it. I don't want to give away too much, but the band's upcoming record blends spectacular poppy undertones with a street- and politically smart approach to songwriting. This dark horse deserves the spotlight this week. JENNIFER MAERZ

SATURDAY 1/22


METALFEIST III
(Manium Warehouse, Olympia) See Friday's preview.

DAVE ALVIN AND THE GUILTY MEN, LOS STRAIGHT JACKETS
(Tractor) See Border Radio, page 39.

THE RUBY DOE, AKIMBO, NEW FANGS
(Crocodile) See CD Reviews, page 34.

THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES, BIG BUSINESS, THE RUBY DOE
(Hell's Kitchen, early show) See CD Reviews, page 34.

SUNDAY 1/23


DAVE ALVIN AND THE GUILTY MEN, LOS STRAIGHT JACKETS
(Tractor) See Border Radio, page 39.

TRUCE, AMBER PACIFIC, LUCKY FOR NOTHING, THE CLASSIC CRIME
(Studio 7) I declare 2005 the year that ends shitty music. If it's boring, generic, contrived, fake and/or annoying, then it's over. I don't care if bands playing are young, I don't care if they're "at least out there trying to do something," because what they're doing is lame and it doesn't count. You either get good or you get out. So, Amber Pacific, you've got some work cut out for you. I hear you're in the studio recording your debut full-length. After hearing Fading Days, your debut EP, lemme offer a tip: Don't try to make a record that proves you're capable of being just like your heroes Something Corporate and New Found Glory. Those bands already exist and we certainly don't need any more like them. You don't wanna be like those bands anyway, because they suck. Be you, take a chance. And for chrissakes, can you PLEASE avoid lyrics like, "I faintly remember yesterday/Oh so close yet far away." I mean, really. MEGAN SELING

MONDAY 1/24


CALVIN JOHNSON, EMMA ZUNZ
(Gallery 1412) Opening for the always interesting, and sometimes downright bizarre, Calvin Johnson is Emma Zunz, which is a band, not a person. Emma Zunz is named for the Borges tale, which first appeared in The Alpha and offers some pleasingly metaphysical mind-fucks--a description that suits this duo handily. Cristin Miller plays guitar and sings and Annie Lewandowski plays guitar and accordion and sings. Think Snakefarm with fewer mannerisms or Two Pale Boys without David Thomas' outsized ego, and you are on the right track. NATE LIPPENS

TUESDAY 1/25


KINGS OF LEON, THE FEATURES
(Neumo's) See CD Review, page 34.

ELEFANT, RADIO 4, THE PREONS
(Chop Suey) So, we're all together on the pronunciation of this band, right? It's eh-leh-FAHN, with a silent, French "t" at the end. I don't know if that's how they pronounce it, but after I saw them play in their hometown of New York a few months back, at a show in which the lead singer preened and posed like a world-class phony throughout the set while his cohorts churned out a Xerox of all the fashionable influences that have been coming out of that part of the country for the past couple years, I resolved to insist on that pronunciation, sometimes even attaching an L-apostrophe to the front, for maximum bullshit. RANDY OCTOGENARIAN

HANGAR 18, ONE BE LO
(Rainbow) Consisting of three members (a DJ, paWL, and two rappers, Alaska and Wind'n'Breeze), Hangar 18 is well established in New York City's underground hiphop scene. Like most groups signed to the Def Jux label--a label founded in the late '90s by E-LP, former lead rapper of Company Flow--Hangar 18's music is informed by a grimy, post-futurist, post-human aesthetic. The urban world of their debut (and thus far only) full-length CD, The Multi-Platinum Debut Album, is overpopulated with rusting robots and spent humans, and has streets that are suffocated by the kind of rundown modernist towers that suffocate the streets of São Paulo--it is a place with very little light and lots of junk from the 20th century. CHARLES MUDEDE

JAY FARRAR
(Tractor) While I was always a Son Volt fan and I'm pleased to hear that they are regrouped and recording, I've grown accustomed to the weirder meanderings of Jay Farrar solo. His Terroir Blues was a minor personal obsession when it came out and his excellent live album Stone, Steel & Bright Lights cemented that feeling. If at first I was disappointed that the set focused only on his solo material with no detours into Uncle Tupelo or Son Volt's catalogs, I see now what a great and strangely meandering thing that material is. The songs drawn from Sebastopol and Terroir Blues, with lap steel, maracas, and some subtle keyboards and well-placed percussion, are some of his finest. He's a giant talent. Farrar still has one of the best voices around, which would have been a classic country voice in a different era. But fortunately for us, he plays to a small, devoted, and lucky audience of fellow travelers and seekers. NATE LIPPENS

WEDNESDAY 1/26


JAY FARRAR
(Tractor) See Tuesday's preview.