Wednesday 6/19

Street Eaters, Tender Hips, Acapulco Lips

(Heartland) See Underage.

Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley & Stephen "Ragga" Marley, Ghetto Youths Crew, the Green

(Marymoor Park) I do not much care for Stephen Marley's new dubstep remix of his father's classic "Buffalo Soldier" on Legend Remixed because he employs the American version of dubstep and not the earlier and more dubby (meaning much closer to the original Kingston dub) British version. But I will always have the deepest respect for his brother Damian's massive 2005 tune "Welcome to Jamrock." Indeed, I have often wondered if it can be considered the last great song by Bob Marley, because it is here that the genes he deposited in Damian are almost fully expressed. The mightier-than-god toasting, the deep dub-space between the beats, the elongated but hiphop-heavy bass line, the powerful political message—it all sounds as if the genetic spirit of Bob Marley had taken command of Damian's body and successfully communicated through the 21st century cultural medium that had conditioned it. The rastaman possessed the rastaman. CHARLES MUDEDE

Fall Out Boy

(Showbox Sodo) After a not-long-enough hiatus, Fall Out Boy are back with a new record, bravely titled Save Rock and Roll. Are they asking for rock and roll to be saved? Or are they saying that they, Fall Out Boy, are saving it with this album? Either way, the most notable thing about the record is the guest appearance by Courtney Love, who opens the song "Rat A Tat" with a Britney-esque "It's Courtney, bitch" line and then rants about PowerPoint Suicidal Tendencies–style. What? Yeah. Elsewhere on the not-rock-and-roll Save Rock and Roll: "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)" sounds like a Nicki Minaj remix of a DragonForce song, "Alone Together" is a less memorable Chris Brown song, and Big Sean and Elton John make appearances. Honestly, though, if this is rock and roll, let the motherfucker die. MEGAN SELING

Thursday 6/20

Io Echo, CSS

(Columbia City Theater) See Sound Check.

John Grant, Judson Claiborne

(Barboza) If pain makes you beautiful, John Grant is a supermodel. On his 2010 solo debut, Queen of Denmark, the former Colorado resident forged addiction, homophobia, and bad boyfriends into '70s AM radio reveries that underscored the transcendent power of pop music. A new set of woes informs its follow-up, Pale Green Ghosts, and while his lyrical bite remains as sharp as Greta Garbo's cheekbones, this time the brooding baritone renders his hurt and frustration in different timbres. "Ernest Borgnine" and the murky club cut "Black Belt" reflect Grant's love of electronic music and film soundtracks more than childhood comforts—think John Carpenter, not the Carpenters—and now his live show features a full band, rather than the self-effacing entertainer seated alone behind a keyboard. Beautiful? More like drop-dead gorgeous. KURT B. REIGHLEY

Big Business, Lesbian, Gaytheist

(Crocodile) You may have forgotten about Big Business, the loud-as-fuck two-piece made up of metal-maniac funny guys Jared Warren (Karp, Tight Bros From Way Back When) and Coady Willis (Murder City Devils, White Shit). You may have forgotten NOT because you're eating too many pot cookies, but because Warren and Willis joined the Melvins a few years ago and bounced around the world several times in the King Buzzo bandwagon. Well, lemme tell you, THEY didn't forget their biz. Noooo! They've added another guitarist, a longhair named Scott Martin, and now they're touring and playing new songs from a record due out this fall called Battlefields Forever. I say Big Business forever. Oh, and whoever finally put Lesbian and Gaytheist on the same bill: high fives! I've been wondering when that would happen. KELLY O

Friday 6/21

Infinity Ink, Xan Lucero, Adrian Rowe, Aarta, OFDM, Polly

(Neumos) See Data Breaker.

Gregory Porter

(Jazz Alley) See preview. Through Sun June 23.

Colin Stetson, Justin Walter

(Barboza) You may know Justin Walter as the guy who worked the Electronic Valve Instrument (an '80s-era synth/horn instrument) for exuberant Michigan Afrobeat extrapolators NOMO—or maybe not. Either way, you need to familiarize yourself with Walter's new solo album for Kranky records, Lullabies & Nightmares. The title captures the double-edged nature of the tracks therein: melancholy, turquoise-toned meditations that are at once soothing and subtly disturbing. Fans of mutantrumpet player Ben Neill's warped electro-jazz, fourth-world ambient-exotica genius Jon Hassell, or Boards of Canada's queasy-listening electronica should investigate. DAVE SEGAL See also Stranger Suggests.

SexPop Vol. 2: Hey Champ, WMNSTUDIES

(FRED Wildlife Refuge) SexPop offers you a night of synth bliss in the form of "sun-kissed electronic beats with heavy doses of bleached out dance vibes." SexPop Vol. 1 back in April was such a success, they're ready to do it again, this time with Canada's WMNSTUDIES (a duo that makes viscous remixes out of R&B bedroom jams—Usher's "Nice & Slow" has never sounded so terrifyingly sensual) and Chicago's Hey Champ (ready to slather you with nonstop jubilant electro indie pop). The word "nu-disco" is used a lot in this event's descriptions—I had to look it up to be sure, but if you like dance music that is "associated with a renewed interest in '70s/early-'80s disco and synthesizer-heavy Eurodisco," then tonight is the night. EMILY NOKES

Mamma Casserole's Birthday: NighTraiN, Fela Kooties, Tramp Kings

(Comet) My favorite Mamma Casserole memory is from many years ago. I was at one of her DJ nights, and she started playing "Find It!" from the soundtrack to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. That's when I realized that song is still SO incredible out of movie context, and it takes the coolest DJ to spin the Carrie Nations, aka the most awesome fictional band ever. And while Mamma Casserole is already notable for booking the amazingly rowdy punk shows at the Comet, her birthday party will be all the more rockin' because it will be graced by a new batch of songs from the party-starting goddesses/"locomotic punks" of NighTraiN. Happy birthday, Mamma!! BREE MCKENNA

Saturday 6/22

Th3rdz, Neema, Sonny Bonoho

(Barboza) See My Philosophy.

Noise for the Needy: "The Rolling Stones," the Maldives, the Blakes, Sassparilla, the Chasers, Ole Tinder

(Hattie's Hat) See Stranger Suggests.

Ostad Hossein Omoumi, Jessika Kenney

(Cornish PONCHO Hall) Omoumi is a Persian classical music master who was born in Iran in 1944 and has performed all over the world. He's now based at UC Irvine, but he comes regularly to Seattle, and one of his students here is the remarkable vocalist Jessika Kenney, one of this year's Stranger Genius Award finalists for music (see page 17 of A&P). Go! JEN GRAVES

Camera Obscura, Marissa Nadler

(Showbox at the Market) After a four-year hiatus, the Glasgow dreamboats are back. Their new (and fifth) album, Desire Lines, drifts along with the hazy heartbreak you're used to, and yes, Tracyanne Campbell's lovely, shy voice is just as sweet as you remember. I'll always have a soft spot for Camera Obscura's lemony, mellow pop, and this album fits right in with the others along their decade-plus career (with tasteful guest vocals from Neko Case and Jim James). Although there's a little more sadness soaking through Desire Lines, it's balanced with a winking confidence that assures you everything is going to be all right. Bring your best boy or girl and wear a pastel cardigan. EMILY NOKES

Noise for the Needy: Julia Massey & the Five Finger Discount, the Great Um, the Jesus Rehab, Tangerine

(Conor Byrne) This is just one of the many Noise for the Needy shows happening around Ballard this evening. While you should definitely stick around to hear Julia Massey & the Five Finger Discount's bright, keyboard-laden pop (preview it at juliamassey.band camp.com), you should also wander down to the Sunset for Princess and Gladiators Eat Fire's crushing noise, or check out "The Rolling Stones" and the Maldives in Hattie's Hat's parking lot. Go to all the shows you can, because every cover you pay is a donation to the Ballard Food Bank, thanks to Noise for the Needy. But even if you come down to Conor Byrne and make yourself comfortable for the night, you'll be doing something good. MEGAN SELING

Noise for the Needy: Case Studies, Horse Feathers, Pretty Broken Things

(Tractor) Case Studies auteur Jesse Lortz seems like a nice guy with an agreeably lugubrious, deep voice that splits the difference between Lee Hazlewood and Leonard Cohen, so I feel bad for not being able to get into his music. Albums like 2011's The World Is Just a Shape to Fill the Night and Case Studies' new This Is Another Life have struck me as overly dry and lethargic. But if you're into stripped-down, intimate, trad folk rock, Lortz should satisfy. His songs definitely convey a gravitas and attention to craft that prove he's in this for the right reasons. I just wish Lortz would write more tunes like "Driving East, and Through Her," a buoyant cruise-control jam that's as calmly exhilarating as Gordon Lightfoot's "Carefree Highway." (Better believe that's a compliment.) DAVE SEGAL

Sunday 6/23

Pharmakon, Lust for Youth, Grave Babies, Perpetual Ritual

(Narwhal/Unicorn) See Data Breaker.

Pressed And, It Is Rain in My Face

(Rendezvous) See Data Breaker.

Naomi Punk, Ruby Pins, FF

(Black Lodge) See Underage.

Indian Jewelry, This Blinding Light, Kingdom of the Holy Sun, Miracle Falls

(Comet) Indian Jewelry's music reeks of drugs and sex—strictly the upper-echelon stuff. These Houston miscreants create a kundalini-mongering strain of psych rock that will get your third eye weeping in tongues. Indian Jewelry's latest full-length, Peel It, maintains the disorienting, heat-hazy vibe of past releases. Miracle Falls leader Paul Dillon's résumé includes stints with Mercury Rev, Sparklehorse, and Longwave, so his psych-rock credentials are solid. His music carries an immediate catchiness and melodic congeniality that position Miracle Falls on the lighter end of the psych spectrum. It's more easygoing than the output of local psych stalwarts This Blinding Light and Kingdom of the Holy Sun, who conjure a dense and serpentine rock hypnosis. DAVE SEGAL

John Prine, Dustin Bentall and Kendel Carson

(Woodland Park Zoo) "Through no wisdom of my own but out of sheer blind luck, I walked into the Fifth Peg, a folk club on West Armitage, one night in 1970 and heard a mailman from Westchester singing," wrote Roger Ebert in 2010. "That night I heard 'Sam Stone,' one of the great songs of the century. And 'Angel from Montgomery.' And others. I wasn't the music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, but I went to the office and wrote an article. And that, as fate decreed, was the first review [John] Prine ever received." The man who wrote Prine's first-ever review—an unmitigated, highly specific rave—left us last year. John Prine is still here. This is reason enough to go see him play his one-of-a-kind songs. If you need a supplementary reason, listen to "Sam Stone," or "Angel from Montgomery," or "Hello in There," or... or... or... DAVID SCHMADER

Monday 6/24

Scream Queen, Warm Soda, Fuzzy Cloaks, Fury Things

(Chop Suey) The wandering psych pop of Fuzzy Cloaks—Scottie Yoder of Pharmacy tenure's new outlet—mixes the right amount of warm, buzzy reverb with early-Kinks catchiness that shows off Mr. Yoder's knack for writing dance-party gems. Scream Queen (formerly Nite Nurse) are a no-bullshit, sleazed-up rock 'n' roll group who I haven't seen live yet, but they're reported to be a "headbanging, crowd-surfing, beer-spitting, guitar-playing-while-standing-on-the-bar" kind of band. Amen. With Oakland's Warm Soda (Strokes-y, caffeinated sugar pop) and Minneapolis's Fury Things (garage rock with a sprinkling of Pixies/Frank Black and Jimmy Eat World elements [a compliment, I promise]). EMILY NOKES

Tuesday 6/25

Vieux Farka Touré

(Jazz Alley) If I have to listen to modern blues, I'd prefer it to be Malian, thanks. And, if at all possible, make it the eternally rolling-and-tumbling virtuosity of Vieux Farka Touré, who's picked up the master-guitar-vocalist torch from his legendary father, Ali. VFT's new album on Six Degrees, Mon Pays, abounds with his nimble, enchanting guitar figures and weathered, soulful vocals. It's slightly gentler and more subdued than previous works I've heard by him, but it still exudes a timeless beauty and a profound poignancy that could make even a white supremacist whimper. The Vieux from here is spectacular. (Also Wednesday, June 26.) DAVE SEGAL

Rose Windows

(Sonic Boom Records) There is no denying the value of immediacy in music. But to encapsulate the climate of the times inevitably stamps a date on the work. What's fresh today is stale tomorrow. Rose Windows are not concerned with immediacy. Tonight's show celebrates the release of their debut album, The Sun Dogs, a record slowly threaded together since 2010. The album was recorded sporadically throughout 2012 and hung in limbo upon completion until Sub Pop signed the Seattle septet. A mesmerizing collection of esoteric folk hymns and fire-and-brimstone psychedelia, The Sun Dogs is rooted in Western rock, but culls from a deep and worldly knowledge of music history. As a result, their sound is informed by the past, gloriously enigmatic in the present, and sure to be savored well into the future. BRIAN COOK