Wednesday 6/26
Defiance, Ohio; Your Heart Breaks; Corner Kick
(Vera) See Underage.
Sudden Vacation: Giraffage, Mister Lies, Beat Connection
(Barboza) See Data Breaker.
Kill the Noise, Fury, MC Dino, Dig-Dug, Just One
(Foundation) See Data Breaker.
Sean Nelson, Jenny Invert, Whitney Lyman
(Neumos) Nine years in the making, Sean Nelson's debut solo LP, Make Good Choices, abounds with joyful, literate orchestral pop and piquant rock; it's like a master class on clever vocal arrangements and indelible melodies. You don't have to be a Harvey Danger fan to get into one of the most infectious albums of 2013, but it might help. Nelson's backing band for this show, Jenny Invert, recently moved to Seattle from New Mexico. They play sophisticated pop that doesn't quite possess the dazzling dynamics of Make Good Choices, but is nonetheless accomplished and pleasurable. DAVE SEGAL
Thursday 6/27
KnowMads, La, Dice, Camila Recchio, Grimeshine
(Barboza) See My Philosophy.
Booker T. Jones
(Jazz Alley) See Stranger Suggests. Playing through June 30.
Benefit for Rain City Rock Camp for Girls: Sera Cahoone, the Redwood Plan, Cumulus, the Local Strangers, more
(Chop Suey) My favorite moment in the recent "women of grunge" musical, These Streets, addressed the sometimes-surreptitious forces that can work against female musicians. For example, young male musicians who spend hours woodshedding in their bedrooms are seen as focused and driven, while young women who devote themselves to practicing guitar alone in their rooms get questioned about antisocial tendencies and depression. Rain City Rock Camp for Girls is the Seattle nonprofit devoted to carving out space for young women to engage deeply with music, and tonight's benefit show features performances from an array of awesomely talented women, including Sera Cahoone, the Redwood Plan, and Cumulus. DAVID SCHMADER
Grimes
(Paramount) The aura spells that Grimes (the one-woman project of Claire Boucher) casts are weird and wonderfulâher medieval, binary gauziness is consistently compelling. I find there's something original and likable in every album she's ever made, from her 2010 Dune-inspired dark-wave album Geidi Primes to the more slick/supernatural indietronica of 2012's Visions. And on a "sexism in the music industry versus rad feminism" tip, Grimes has my standing ovation for her words (in a blog post titled "I don't want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living") regarding her frustration with being infantilized, sexualized, condescended to, and the overall inequality/bullshit she's experienced as a female professional musician. On behalf of tired females everywhere, thanks for speaking out! EMILY NOKES
Doug Nufer, Wally Shoup, Bill Horist
(Barça) This very interesting free event combines the poetry of Seattle's favorite wine merchant, Doug Nufer, and the sounds of two accomplished jazz musicians, Bill Horist (on the guitar) and Wally Shoup (on the sax). Because I do not have a nifty crystal ball nearby, I cannot tell you how this collaboration/experiment will end, but I do for sure like all of its elementsâthe poet, the jazz, and the bar. I also know that the performance will center on Nufer's Lounge Acts, a chapbook to be released in the near future by Insert Blanc Press. CHARLES MUDEDE
Friday 6/28
Gender Blender: Mykki Blanco
(Neighbours) Performance artist and poet Michael Quattlebaum Jr.'s female rapper alter ego Mykki Blanco makes the kind of flexin', fashion-forward, club-ready rap tunes that tons of Top-40 types are currently biting. And while he currently goes in over whomping electronic beats by the likes of big-name producers Brenmar, Flosstradamus, Supreme Cuts, and Sinden, Blanco's first EP, Mykki Blanco & the Mutant Angels, manages to tastefully blend elements of industrial, punk, and hardcore. Blanco pulls off all of these styles so well that it's no wonder he takes offense at being simply tagged as a "gay rapper." The music stands on its own merit, but the performance should be an even more "Bugged Out" and "Wavvy" experience in a live Pride weekend setting. MIKE RAMOS
The Purrs, Shake Some Action, Daydream Machine
(Barboza) Seattle's Shake Some Action write really sweet, instantly hummable rock songs that pretty much align with their list of influences, which includes Big Star, the La's, the Kinks, Stone Roses, the Beatles, XTC, and the Zombies. Honesty: What a concept. Portland septet Daydream Machine are still at that stage when they're wearing their inspirations a bit too blatantly on their guitar cases. For instance, their song "Dawn" is almost a dead ringer for the Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey." Thankfully, Daydream Machine have good taste in shoegaze, psych rock, and drone. Long may they keep the Hawkwind in their sails. Finally, the Purrs celebrate the release of their album The Boy with Astronaut Eyes (Fin Records), a sterling collection of exquisitely wrought songs earnestly in thrall to the first wave of psych pop. Extra credit: penning a song called "So Fucking Beautiful" that actually is. DAVE SEGAL
Saturday 6/29
Queer Carnival: Bright Light Bright Light, Trouble, Justice & Treasure, Futurewife, Nark, Ivy Winters, Can Can Castaways, guests
(FRED Wildlife Refuge) See Data Breaker.
Male Bondage, Cold Lake, Seminars, Freak Vibe
(Hollow Earth Radio) By the time I heard the Birthday Party, I'd already been a fan of King Snake Roost, Grong Grong, and Lubricated Goat. As a result, I always seek my fix of noisy blues punk played by Aussie junkies with Charles Tolnay before hitting up Nick Cave. There's almost assuredly a Birthday Party fan or two spending time onstage tonight, though the bands' primary influences lie elsewhere. Male Bondage describe themselves as "Karp and Fugazi making out," Cold Lake profess to sounding like Monorchid jamming through Entombed's gear, and Seminars owe a tip of the hat to Rick Froberg. Not familiar with the reference points? Even better. Enjoy tonight's bill and it might wind up that you prefer the students over the teachers. BRIAN COOK See also Underage.
Past Desires, Stickers, Viviane James
(Cairo) Performances at Cairo often feel like a house show, and that's a good thingâfor several reasonsâbut tonight it's a good thing because that's exactly the type of environment in which Stickers' raucous sax/vocals/drums/bass punk thrives. Joining are Portland's synth-pop outfit Past Desires, whose recorded output on the internet vaguely recalls a less sing-along-ish version of Japanther, only instead of a dude drummer/singer, it's a lady whose instrument is unknown at the time of this writing. Maybe she just sings. We'll have to go there to find out. Opening is Viviane James, whose performance-art thing I saw online featured much imitation laughter and heavy breathing, and it made me uncomfortable. GRANT BRISSEY
SeaProg: miRthkon, Tone Dogs, Operation ID, Austinitic, Trimtab, Bone Cave Ballet
(Columbia City Theater) Today is the second installment of SeaProg, a three-day festival focusing on progressive music. Don't be scared: A lot of the music by these bands is complex and strange, but a lot of it is also worth wandering out of your comfort zone for. Headliners miRthkonâan "Oaklandish chambercore" unitâmove mercurially and weirdly through avant-garde composition, highbrow jazz, and Rock in Opposition modes with precise abandon. They juggle whimsy, dissonance, and melodic beauty like middleweight champs. Operation ID are one of Seattle's most interesting prog groups, coming out of the Gentle Giant/Canterbury axis of beautiful, inventive jazz rock in which virtuosity serves a greater purpose than showing off one's academic training. These young guys are already masters of their brainy domain. DAVE SEGAL
Pride 2013: Don't Talk to the Cops!, Glitterbang, the Redwood Plan, Wishbeard
(Wildrose) One of the best Pridelicious spots to hit over the weekend will most certainly be the WildÂrose's "Bush Gardens," an outdoor music party offering you several ways to shake your sequined groove thing. Funfetti Pop-Tart punks Don't Talk to the Cops! will, of course, deliver all the rambunctious hiphop, effervescent dance moves, and catchy-as-fuck party hits you can handleâthey remain one of the most entertaining local acts to see live. With the soft-serve, swirly queer dream pop of Wishbeard, the neon electro grooves of Glitterbang, and the driving synth explosion of the Redwood Plan. EMILY NOKES See also preview.
Freak Heat Waves, CROSSS, Thunder Grey Pilgrim, Marvelous Good Fortune
(Heartland) Hear ye, hear ye, it's "doom stoner woodland creature nite" over at the Heartland Gallery! Swooping in from Victoria, BC, are Freak Heat Waves, a post-punk trio whose pulsing ambient journeys and shaggy krautrock jams are decidedly more chilled than their band name would indicate. CROSSS are also neighbors from the north (Halifax/Toronto/Montreal), bringing you satisfying, melodic stoner-wizard metal for an oddly uplifting gloom trip. With Marvelous Good Fortuneâa band whose uniform appears to be excellent purple cloaksâand the haunted black drone odyssey of Seattle/Debacle Records' Thunder Grey Pilgrim. EMILY NOKES
QueensrĂżche
(Moore) QueensrĂżche, the Seattle area's most popular progressive-rock band, have always epitomized why contemporary prog pales compared to the work of the genre's 1970s pioneers. Their melodies seem overly melodramatic, their timbres overly compressed, and their vocals unintentionally risible. It's hard to shake the notion that QueensrĂżche are the archetypal prog band on which Tenacious D base their parodies of the style. But QueensrĂżche recently split into two camps after a bitter intraband conflict, and this version is led by vocalist Geoff Tate; the other version includes original members Scott Rockenfield, Michael Wilton, and Eddie Jackson and are playing the Crocodile on June 26. Tate's group will perform 1988's Operation: Mindcrimeâa concept album about a rehabilitating drug addict turned political assassinâin its entirety. DAVE SEGAL
Sunday 6/30
Double Duchess, Glitterbang, the Witches Titties, Event Staph, Yeah Girl, Violent Vickie, DJ Lisa Dank
(Highline) See Sound Check and preview.
New Lungs, Postmadonna, Special Explosion, Heavy Petting
(Crocodile) See Underage.
SeaProg: Thinking Plague, Bill Horist, Moraine, Alex's Hand, Dissonati
(Columbia City Theater) The last day of SeaProg culminates with a tremendous lineup. For example, there's the ever-ingenious guitar maverick Bill Horist, who finds multitudes of ways to make his instrument squeak in alien tongues. Fellow locals Moraine feature another phenomenal guitarist, Dennis Rea, and tap into that unnervingly fluid and powerful brand of prog and jazz rock that heavies like King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra summoned in those genres' 1970s heyday. Last but most, Denver's Thinking Plague rank among the world's greatest prog outfits. They've recorded only six albums in 29 years, but their output is astoundingly original, a kind of mutated, Ăźber-intelligent art pop that sounds as eerie and alluring as jam between Renaldo and the Loaf and Magma. It would be a grave misjudgment to miss Thinking Plague. DAVE SEGAL
Face to Face, Teenage Bottlerocket, Blacklist Royals, Joshua Black Wilkins
(Showbox at the Market) Not all pop-punk music has aged well since the 1990s. When I listen to some old favoritesâBlink-182, Screeching Weasel, Less Than Jake, etc.âa lot of it just sounds like whiny dudes complaining about being stuck in the friend zone. The horror! But unlike some of their Warped Tour peers, Face to Face's music has held upâI can shamelessly rock it, loud and proud, without feeling the need to blame nostalgia. Like so many others, their pop-punk anthems are about releasing frustration, but their lyrics have an "us against them" mentality without turning it into a "man versus woman" war. Good on ya, Face to Face. MEGAN SELING
Ostad Hossein Omoumi, Jessika Kenney
(PONCHO Hall) Ostad Hossein Omoumi is a Persian classical music master (he performs on the ney, the traditional reed flute); he was born in Iran in 1944 and has performed all over the world. He's now based at UC Irvine, but he's worked in Seattle before, and one of his students here is the remarkable independent vocalist Jessika Kenney. They'll be joined in music and poetry by Iranian writer/scholar Fatemeh Keshavarz. It's the culmination of a four-day Classical Persian Music & Poetry summer workshop at Cornish that's open to anyone. Do this! JEN GRAVES
Monday 7/1
Terri Tarantula, Emily Danger, Trentalange
(Comet) I will always love the part near the end of Mariah Carey's "Emotions" when she busts out her freakishly and impossibly high "whistle" or "G-7" notes. One summer, in fact, I was playing Mariah really loudly with my grandma, with all the windows rolled down in her car. As we pulled up the driveway, Mariah hit those last few high notes, and it triggered G-Ma's garage-door opener. Seriously. Mariah's voice opened the fucking garage. NYC's Emily Danger is a cabaret-via-opera-house-style of singer with a similarly impressive range. Her voiceâsometimes soaring, sometimes angryâcombined with her piano playing, and the dark and orchestral arrangements by her backup band (drums, guitar, violin, and synth) is momentous. It's definitely a voice worth venturing out on Monday night for. KELLY O
Tuesday 7/2
Night Cadet, Friends & Family, Rin Tin Tiger, Edmund Wayne
(Chop Suey) See preview.
