Wednesday 5/8
Os Mutantes
(Triple Door) See Stranger Suggests.
UV Race, Life Stinks
(Barboza) Australia's UV Race sound like they have a fetish for Rough Trade Records' early-'80s rosterâa wholly worthwhile fetish, in my tattered book. What that means is they favor disaffected, fuck-off vocals; scrappy, barbed-wire guitar riffs; chintzy, fairground keyboard coloration; and hypnotic, ramshackle rhythms. Fans of peak-time Fall, Swell Maps, and Blue Orchids should not miss them. San Francisco's Life Stinks probably named themselves after that Peter Laughnerâpenned Pere Ubu song, and what few tracks by them I've heard recall a slightly less nihilistic Flipper. Their riffs spiral downward with a staunch crunch, giving off solid negative energy. DAVE SEGAL
The Laurels, Wooden Indian Burial Ground, Ecstatic Cosmic Union
(Sunset) It's a good night for great Australian rock bands (see UV Race blurb, above). Sydney quartet the Laurels have been making resonant ripples in the psychedelic underground with their Plains album. It's a shiver-inducing blend of trippy shoegaze rock with lysergic-cotton-candy melodies and mellow male/female vocals that sound like extended, distant sighs. The playability factor's sky-high. Portland's Wooden Indian Burial Ground ramble in the greased-lightning zone between garage rock and psychedelia. They took the elevator to the 13th floor and made it look seedy. Get to the Sunset early for Ecstatic Cosmic Union's bliss-toned, floating-in-space jams. DAVE SEGAL
Foot Village, Clipping, Haunted Horses, WaMĂź
(Black Lodge) Have you ever seen LA's avant-noise freaks Foot Village? The new "drum-and-shout" four-drummer, zero-guitar, two-megaphone band made up of former members of Friends Forever and Gang Wizard? Neither have I! Open-minded fans of groups like Lightning Bolt, Boredoms, and Wolf Eyes will happily take marching orders from this stripped-down, almost tribal-sounding hardcore experiment. More mainstream-minded people, and probably any and all of Death Cab for Cutie's fans, will run away screaming. KELLY O
Thursday 5/9
Joe Budden, Neema, Feezable the Germ, JKey, Aquino, DJ Swervewon
(Neumos) See My Philosophy.
Javelin, Helado Negro, Jamaican Queens
(Barboza) Brooklyn-based cousins George Langford and Tom Van Buskirk's past releases as Javelin have been quirky blends of bouncing beats and grooves made up of homemade sounds from samplers, thumb pianos, drum machines, and other instruments. For their latest release, Hi Beams, the duo ditches their DIY approach for a more traditionalâand, unfortunately, much less interestingâstudio-recorded pop sound similar to a sea of other Brooklyn indie acts. The new approach could, however, translate much better to a live setting. South Florida's Helado Negro (aka Roberto Carlos Lange, who's collaborated with Guillermo Scott Herrenâaka Prefuse 73âas Savath y Savalas) makes his own brand of homegrown tropical pop that soothes rather than bores with its breezy, sun-bleached sound and overdubbed, reverb-tinged, (mostly) Spanish vocals. MIKE RAMOS
Black Breath, Rotten Sound, Heiress, Baptists
(Highline) The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal effect pedal aside, Black Breath and Rotten Sound share a crucial component that sets them apart from their peers: They both know how to groove. Granted, many a metal band has taken the groove too far, as evidenced by Max Cavalera's entire postâChaos A.D. career. Groove can be dangerous. But even as Black Breath migrated away from the Swedish-metal chug of Heavy Breathing into the thrash tactics of Sentenced to Life, they retained an infectious rhythmic foundation. Rotten Sound's formula hasn't changed over the course of their last several releases, but why fix it if it ain't broken? The Finnish grind band is one of the few bands of the genre to employ any sort of percussive dynamic; their ability bury a sharp groove in their machine-gun tempos should serve as a template for all blast-beat enthusiasts. BRIAN COOK
Cloud War, Garage Voice, Andy Fitts
(Crocodile) Before hearing even a note of Cloud War's music, I'm intrigued by their songwriting process. The band's frontman, Barry Uhl, writes stories before he writes songs, and only after a collection of stories are written do they get turned into lyrics and put to music. They're like a ragtime-y Decemberists. You can hear the results of their literary approach for yourself at cloudwar.bandcamp.com. MEGAN SELING
Tineke Postma Quartet
(Seattle Art Museum) What should you do after work today? You should head down to Seattle Art Museum and check out the hauntingly beautiful jazz of Dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma. Her quartet is performing between 5:30 and 7:30 pm as part of the Art of Jazz series, which is in its 17th year. The way Postma blows is either direct like an unadorned wall or spooky like a ghost. Sometimes, she becomes so intense that it's like watching a person walk through a wall or pass a mirror without casting a reflection. However, Postma, who has released five albums (the most recent of which being The Dawn of Light), never plays outside of the stable tradition of modern jazz (1947 to 1969). She knows how to explore without getting lost. CHARLES MUDEDE
Friday 5/10
Teddy Riley & Blackstreet
(Showbox Sodo) See preview and My Philosophy.
Zombie Nation, Nordic Soul, Recess
(Q) See Data Breaker.
Saturday 5/11
Phil Western, Manos, Kadeejah Streets, Rhines, Night Train
(Electric Tea Garden) See Data Breaker.
Laura Stevenson, Field Mouse, Seapony
(Sunset) See preview.
Nonsequitur's Tribute to Lawrence "Butch" Morris
(Chapel Performance Space) The American jazz cornetist, composer, and conductor Butch Morris died at the end of January, at the age of 65. He introduced the idea of "conductions," a type of structured improvisation in which he'd direct an improvising ensemble by offering hand and baton gesturesâa cross between pure classical and pure jazz. Nonsequitur's tribute features improvised conductions for a large ensemble, led by Wayne Horvitz and JA Deane. JEN GRAVES
Seattle Rock Orchestra Performs the Beatles
(Moore) As a child, I thought the Beatles were a kids' band. Those four guys on the cover of my dad's Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band records, with their costumes and rainbows and songs about being a walrus, were the equivalent of today's Wiggles or Yo Gabba Gabba! characters, and I fucking loved them. As an adult, I know they're not a kids' band; they just took a lot of drugs. Tonight, the Seattle Rock Orchestra will tackle two of the most memorable records of my childhood, bringing in guest vocalists John Roderick, Sean Nelson, Hanna Benn (of Pollens), Tamara Power-Drutis, and more, for a program that includes "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and "Penny Lane." It'll be great. There is also a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee performance. Take your mom! She'd like that. MEGAN SELING
The Gary Minkler Combination, the Bellow Brothers, Red Dress
(Royal Room) In 1977, when Kurt Cobain and the gang were still in grade school, the highly influential Red Dress were formed in Seattle's avant-art underground. Fronted by odd genius Gary Minkler (who will also be playing cuts from his new Little Trailer Ruby album with another band tonight) and backed by a free-form band of talented pre-flannelers, Red Dress mix R&B with Beefheart-esque storytelling and totally out-there lyrics. EMILY NOKES
Sunday 5/12
Seattle Rock Orchestra Performs the Beatles
(Moore) See Saturday.
Machine Gun Kelly
(Neptune) See My Philosophy.
Kurt Vile and the Violators, the Fresh & Onlys, Steve Gunn
(Neumos) You're probably going to this show for Kurt Vile and the Violators, and that's cool. Their new album, Wakin on a Pretty Daze, is aural peace, executed with articulate slackness. But you should make a serious effort to hit Neumos for opener Steve Gunn. He's a guitarist of uncommon soulfulness and melodic grace. If he were coming of age 45 years earlier in Britain, he'd be contending with Bert Jansch, Michael Chapman, and John Renbourn for pastoral psych-folk supremacy. Gunn's forthcoming Time Off album proves that there's still juice left in this idiom, when the picker/singer is as skilled as he is. Gunn's pantheon-bound guitar eloquence is aglisten with profoundly peaceful and beautiful vibes. Absorb 'em. DAVE SEGAL See also Stranger Suggests.
Of Montreal, Wild Moccasins
(Vera) I'm so curious as to how the over-the-top pop spectacle Of Montreal is going to fit into Vera's mama-bear-sized space. But however it happens, hooray! I know it's popular to scoff at Of Montreal's increasingly electronic efforts, but shhh, they've always been neatâeven as mid-'90s Elephant 6 youngsters jingling out songs that were a step above indie nursery rhymes. Always skewing psychedelic, OM, somewhere along the way, started to sound as though they had locked themselves in a spaceship made of LSD and recorded until it hurt; the contents of frontman Kevin Barnes's beautiful tie-dye brain are best experienced on Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? and Skeletal Lampingâstill some of the best albums to feel "I'm way too high to be dancing, but whatever" to. EMILY NOKES
Richard Thompson Electric Trio
(Showbox at the Market) Thanks to revelatory local shows by Patti Smith and Prince, 2013 has announced itself as the Year of the Elder Statesperson, and now it's Richard Thompson's turn to keep the theme going. This should be no problem, as Thompson's never less than stellar musically and is forever generous about lacing contemporary sets with eternal classics. According to online set lists, tonight's show will include a few key numbers from his new record, Electric, along with a bunch of gems from his solo and "and Linda" years. DAVID SCHMADER
Monday 5/13
Colleen Green, So Pitted, Blooper, White Fang
(Heartland) Solo bedroom-pop-maker and sunglasses-wearer Colleen Green captured our hearts with her first few extremely lo-fi releasesâCujo, Green One, and Milo Goes to Comptonâall of which were made from the same extra-simple-drum-machine/stoned-sweet-vocals recipe and are extremely likeable. Green's newest full-length, Sock It to Me, has even more to like, and it keeps her laid-back themes of fuzzy heartache/love floating around unpolished while stepping up her pop game up to a new level of blown-out, '80s-synth-assisted melodies. With upbeat garage-poppers Blooper, and the noisy, scruffy, slightly uncomfortable/fully enjoyable So Pitted. Bring your bestie! EMILY NOKES See also Underage.
Black Angels, Hanni El Khatib, Wall of Death
(Neptune) The Black Angels hit the map eight years ago with a self-titled EP on Light in the Attic Records. Their soundâdrone-y psych rock that sounds as if it's been calculatedly transported from the 1970sâdidn't change a whole lot over three subsequent records. That's different with this year's Indigo Meadow. True, the traditional psych-rock signifiers are still present, but the tempos are amped up and the song lengths are truncated. In general, things here lean toward the Angels' poppier tendencies, and it's another fine brick in a solid, if not particularly groundbreaking, discography. Still, the Angels are known more for their live performances than for their songwriting, and by far the best way to experience this stuff is via one of their heady and impressive multimedia performances. GRANT BRISSEY
Tuesday 5/14
Mobb Deep, DJ Topspin, Thaddeus David
(Crocodile) We must not forget that A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip essentially discovered Mobb Deepârappers Prodigy and Havoc. This fact is important because it reminds us of the diversity that long ago departed from hiphop. In those days, a rapper at the center of a vital love movement in hiphop could promote a pair of rappers at the center of a very violent movement. These days, gangster rappers only know other gangster rappers. Also, you will not find current gangster rappers who are as brilliant and artistic as Mobb Deep were during their moment in the sunâbetween 1993 and 1997. Though their second album, The Infamous, is a masterpiece, its lead single, "Shook Ones (Part II)," is what made Havoc and Prodigy immortal. (It was even covered by Everlast.) Indeed, "Shook Ones" formed the foundation for Mobb Deep's third and greatest album, Hell on Earth. The gothic facade of "Shook Ones" was transformed into an entire cathedral on Hell on Earth, a cathedral in which we saw not the stories of saints, but those of hyperviolent street thugs. CHARLES MUDEDE See also My Philosophy.
OCnotes, WD4D, Jason Justice, Ohmega Watts, Introcut, absoluteMadman, Suntonio Bandanez, Kid Smpl
(Lo-Fi) See Data Breaker.
The Round: Daniel Blue, River Giant, Mary Lambert
(Fremont Abbey) There's a reason there have been 95 installments of the Roundâit's consistently awesome. Every month since 2005, Fremont Abbey has brought together musicians, poets, and painters for an earnest evening of collaborative art making. Something magical happens when talented individuals are all thrown together in front of a small but appreciative crowd. I've seen a haunting Nirvana cover and a joyous XTC cover. I've been hypnotized by brushstrokes, watching local painters spontaneously create as the live music inspires them. I've heard some impassioned, smart spoken word that made me reassess the often-disregarded art form. Even if you aren't familiar with any of the names involved when you first walk through the door, you'll leave with lasting impressions. MEGAN SELING
