Wednesday 7/18

Sidi Touré, Garage Voice, Atlantic Melody

(Crocodile) Living in Seattle, it's easy to forget that there's more to life—and music—than skinny white people singing about their feelings in English through varying degrees of amplification. All the more reason to celebrate a visit from Malian guitarist and songwriter Sidi Touré, who is touring North America this summer for only the second time. Audible joy suffuses his sophomore full-length, Koïma, and its blend of nimble fingerpicking, piquant vocal harmonies, and animated featherweight percussion. Koïma translates into English as "go hear," and whether you're an ardent fan of African music or simply in search of a refreshing change of pace for your summer playlist, you'd be wise to heed that command. KURT B. REIGHLEY

The Soft White Sixties, the Grizzled Mighty, Branden Daniel and the Chics, the Mad Caps

(Barboza) What do you think a San Francisco quintet called the Soft White Sixties sound like? Like a throwback to that city's '60s Haight daze? Not really. The Soft White Sixties' songs aren't lysergic enough for that sort of homage. Rather, they traffic in meaty, sweaty rock and soul that's steeped in the Black Crowes/Black Keys school of faithful revivalism. It's trad, dad. Seattle's the Grizzled Mighty make for complementary openers, grinding out hard-livin', fuzzy blues rock with thick-wristed gusto. You've heard it before and you'll still dig it, even in the nth iteration. DAVE SEGAL

Stickers, Spray Paint, Speedy Ortiz, Detective Agency

(Funhouse) That Seattle trio Stickers' no-wave/sax skronk can make a crowd get right down has been well documented in these pages, but Austin's Spray Paint may be a less-known name to this city. On "Jimi Hendrix's Apartment," one of the few tracks available on the information superhighway, the lovingly thumped drumbeats are more dynamic than the jagged guitar scrapings, which in turn take on more of a rhythmic role here. It's an agreeable destruct and rebuild of the standard rock/punk template, and these guys execute it with a rattled confidence. GRANT BRISSEY

Thursday 7/19

The Intelligence, DreamSalon, Unnatural Helpers, the Wimps

(Crocodile) See Stranger Suggests.

Big Freedia and the Divas, Ononos, DJs Mathematix and Dewey Decimal

(Chop Suey) For those who don't know, Big Freedia is the undisputed Queen Diva of the ridiculously noisy and pleasure-packed New Orleans hiphop known as bounce music, and tonight Freedia brings that world-renowned jiggly ass to Chop Suey for what should be one of the great shows of the summer. Opening the night and helping make the previous sentence true: Ononos, Seattle's intensely theatrical electro band, and DJs Mathematix and Dewey Decimal. Sweat will drip from the ceiling. DAVID SCHMADER See also the Homosexual Agenda.

State of the Artist, Hi-Life Soundsystem, DJ Swervewon, 100proof

(Neumos) The Members Only crew (the folks behind the wildly popular Jet Set weekly, among other things) celebrate three years in the game (ah, one just hearkens back to the sweaty, scene-making underground hiphop parties at Black Lodge and elsewhere from which MO first took their name) with a totally complimentary pop-off at Neumos. The show naturally features a slew of artists whose music they've released (or just appreciated): State of the Artist, Hi-Life Soundsystem, Nite Owls, Shaprece, Thaddeus David, Parker and Lace Cadence (perhaps a set from the Flavr Blue?), plus DJs Swervewon and 100Proof. Congrats to MO founding fathers 100Proof, Big Rob, Pomz, and Swerve—and here's to many more. Their sweat equity as a crew, record label, and party promoter speaks for itself at this point. LARRY MIZELL JR.

My Best Fiend, the Fruiting Bodies, By Sunlight, Prawnyxx

(Comet) My Best Fiend are certainly one of the most conventional rock bands ever to sign with Warp Records. What does the revered English label, best known for its innovative electronic-music roster, hear in My Best Fiend? On their Warp debut album, In Ghostlike Fading, the Brooklyn five-piece play pleasant enough soft rock marked by expansive melodic beauty and effeminately dreamy male singing that's pitched somewhere between Dean Wareham and Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue. MBF's songs have a way of scaling majestic heights through clanging crescendos, swelling strings, and soaring vocals. This all culminates on the stone classic "Cracking Eggs," which recalls Spiritualized's "Shine a Light" for its vortical, quasi-gospel power balladry. It's one of 2012's most sublime songs. DAVE SEGAL

Friday 7/20

Capitol Hill Block Party: Father John Misty, Black Breath, Allen Stone, Fitz and the Tantrums, more

(Multiple venues) See Stranger Suggests and pullout.

Nacho Picasso, Blue Sky Black Death

(CHBP Vera Stage) See preview and pullout.

Vox Mod

(CHBP Cha Cha Stage) See Sound Check.

Megalodon, Lukki, Headie

(Contour) See Data Breaker.

Saturday 7/21

Capitol Hill Block Party: Major Lazer, Aesop Rock, Beat Connection, Nude, Helms Alee, Lesbian, more

(Multiple venues) See pullout.

The Psychic Paramount

(CHBP Neumos Stage) See preview and pullout.

Dark Time Sunshine

(Crocodile) Dark Time Sunshine's ANX, which drops this week, completes a trilogy of numinous hiphop that begins with Believeyoume (2009) and is peaked by Vessel (2010). True, the album is not as good as Vessel (a masterpiece), but rapper Onry Ozzborn (who calls himself Cape Cowen in this project) and producer Zavala (a Chicagoan who has mastered a beat territory first explored by Prefuse 73 in the early '00s) have not lost their touch or way. There is nothing bad in ANX, and many of the tracks are preternaturally beautiful. Check out, for example, "Take My Hand," which features Aesop Rock and Swamburger from the Solillaquists of Sound. Dark Time Sunshine deserve your love and enthusiasm. CHARLES MUDEDE

Blue Light Curtain, the Silent Numbers, Jetman Jet Team

(Rendezvous) Tonight, the Rendezvous is going to get real shoegazey, just for a change. Seattle's Jetman Jet Team have the gauzy vocals, motorik rhythms, and spangly, phased guitars to evoke that halcyonic, early-'90s space-kraut-gaze rock from Britain (My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab, Ride). Check out their instant classic "Corrosive" on YouTube for proof. Portland's the Silent Numbers rock slightly more down to earth, but their propulsive, jangle-riffic quotient is very lofty, indeed. Local veterans Blue Light Curtain, supporting their new self- and Scott Colburn–produced album Clouds in Our Hair, lend yet more Anglophiliac panache to the proceedings. Their songs blossom into heroic gusts of midnight-blue rock, conjuring the elegant drama of Echo and the Bunnymen and the Chameleons. DAVE SEGAL

The Torn ACLs, Caught in Motion, the Hoot Hoots

(Sunset) Perhaps it was just coincidence, but I like to think the Torn ACLs purposefully timed the release of their new EP, Real Risks, to come out when the Northwest summer was in full swing. It's full of unpretentious pop songs you'll want to listen to as you wander through the city, basking in the sunlight, maybe stopping to cool down under a tree in the park. These songs are full of yellows, greens, and blues, and like Seattle summer, they're a little unstable; they sound so nice, but there are some gloomy lyrics in there. And if you're already a fan of the band, it's not much of a leap in any direction from their full-length Make a Break, Make a Move, so you'll certainly appreciate this, too. MEGAN SELING

Jen Boyd, Susie Kozawa

(Chapel Performance Space) Susie Kozawa is often described as a Seattle treasure: She captures and recasts sounds, she creates instruments from found toys and kelp and whatever else comes to mind and hands, and on this occasion, she's sharing the bill with Oakland-based Jen Boyd, who has a habit of making music out of the sounds you can only hear when you are up inside the canopies of trees. JEN GRAVES

Sunday 7/22

Capitol Hill Block Party: Neko Case, SpaceGhostPurrp, the Lumineers, more

(Multiple venues) See pullout.

Bouncing Souls, the Menzingers, Luther

(Chop Suey) See Stranger Suggests.

Snoop Dogg, Dyme Def, Jay Barz

(Showbox Sodo) See My Philosophy.

Cock Block Party: Diminished Men, Geist & the Particle Beam Ensemble, Phil Manley Life Coach

(Comet) Over the last 20-some years, Phil Manley's manned the guitar for post-rock charmers Trans Am, post-metal dudes Fucking Champs, and krautrock rehabilitators Jonas Reinhardt. In 2011, he finally came out with his first solo project, cheekily named Phil Manley Life Coach. The Life Coach album—on Thrill Jockey—continues Manley's obsession with the myriad permutations of '70s German rock: motorik cruise-control jams; pagan-folk balladry; sonorous, cloud-busting drones; and twinkling, Manuel Göttsching–like meditations. Local avant-rock sorcerers Diminished Men and Geist & the Particle Beam Ensemble (a supergroup in the making) help make this a scalp-scorching nightcap to the Capitol Hill Block Party proper. DAVE SEGAL

Monday 7/23

Dirty Projectors, Wye Oak

(Showbox at the Market) See Underage.

SpaceGhostPurrp, Trash Talk

(Vera) Miami producer/rapper SpaceGhostPurrp and Sacramento hardcore outfit Trash Talk are helping close down the Capitol Hill Block Party for the 21+ crowd the previous night, but this all-ages show (the last stop of their joint West Coast tour) is the superior choice for those really looking to throw down. Expect much fewer mildly interested twentysomethings who have work tomorrow morning and way more teenagers on summer vacation ready to wild out and start circle pits to rap songs. Rap and punk go together better than you think. Rumor has it that a locally based "Key" member of Purrp's Raider Klan might even make a special guest appearance. MIKE RAMOS See also Underage and My Philosophy.

Neil Diamond

(KeyArena) Mock Neil Diamond if you must, but have you written songs as fabulously replayable as "Cherry, Cherry" (covered by the Music Machine, buddy), "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You" (turned into teen-dream immortality by the Monkees), "Sweet Caroline," "Cracklin' Rosie," "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," and "Solitary Man"? No, you have not. But do you want to spend $52 to $117 for the privilege to hear 71-year-old Diamond run through his sublimely hooky folk-pop and bombastic adult-contemporary hits? And if so, can you lend me a hundo? DAVE SEGAL

Owl City, Jayme Dee

(Triple Door) I last paid any attention to Owl City in 2009, when he said in a New York Times interview that, in response to Postal Service comparisons, it's possible Owl City is the "next chapter" of the Postal Service. Then I barfed on myself and ignored him until this summer, when he released a new single with "Call Me Maybe" singer Carly Rae Jepsen. The song, "Good Time," is, wait for it, about having a good time! It's only slightly less obnoxiously saccharine and empty than Rebecca Black's "Friday." Instead of singing about waking up and eating cereal, he sings about waking up with a Prince song stuck in his head and BLECHT! Ah, shit. I barfed on myself again. MEGAN SELING

Tuesday 7/24

Sinéad O'Connor (CANCELED)

(Moore) Thank god this show got canceled. I was unsure if it was ethical to recommend you go see Sinéad O'Connor live in what appears to be mid-breakdown, and now I don't have to decide. She's been having a pretty pope-rippingly rough year—there was that deeply odd posting-a-personals-ad-in-a-newspaper thing ("My situation sexually/affectionately speaking is so dire that inanimate objects are starting to look good... yams are looking like the winners"), some tweets that should definitely have been phone calls ("does any1 know a psychiatrist in dublin or wicklow who could urgently see me today please? im really un-well... and in danger"), and then, reportedly, a suicide attempt. I sincerely hope she's getting some help in place of touring. ANNA MINARD