THURSDAY 7/12

KLAXONS, FIST FITE
(Chop Suey) See preview, page 39.

THE LIQUID NOW, GO MOTION
(Central Saloon) On their MySpace page, Go Motion uniquely evade the ubiquitous "influences" query, listing New York and London instead of other acts. While the Omaha-based band's throbbing new-wave tunes certainly boast a cosmopolitan discotheque feel, it's possible to find a reasonable facsimile of their sonic arsenal (the Faint) without leaving their hometown. On their debut disc, Kill the Love, Go Motion maintain a brisk rhythmic pulse, with lush new-romantic ballads providing respite from the dance-party vibe. Albert Kurniawan's exotically accented vocals, the clearest manifestation of the quartet's Anglophilia, infuse these synthesizer-driven songs with dramatic passion. Live, Go Motion crank their grooves to club-DJ volume: The group recently became one of the few rock acts to headline Chicago's popular Dark Wave Disco night. ANDREW MILLER

CHINAS COMIDAS, VOODOOCAR, BLANK ITS, AURORA ROARERS, KILL THE DRIVE
(Funhouse) The contemporary "scene" has a habit of taking advantage of, yet forgetting, nearly everything that came before. It's obscene and embarrassing considering what's lost. Well, here's a seminal, relatively "forgotten" Seattle punk band, Chinas Comidas, who have reformed to play some shows to promote their smokin' self-titled retrospective! CC formed in Seattle during the late '70s and played SOLID West Coast '70s midtempo punk—they were clever, miles from any "mohawk" clichés, a little creepy, and fronted by Chinas, a poet, so a bit like the Patti Smith Group. In fact, they were really part of U.S. punk's ground zero! CC also toured down the West Coast, played with first-generation L.A. punk groups, toured the East Coast with the Dead Kennedys, then split in '80 after issuing two brilliant singles. It's nice to have them back, if only for a moment. MIKE NIPPER

FRIDAY 7/13

BROKEN DISCO: THE FIELD, THE KOOKY SCIENTIST, M'CHATEAU, RED PONY (AKA MISS KICK), LET'S GO OUTSIDE, COPY, DJ BEYONDA
(Chop Suey) See Stranger Suggests, page 27, and Bug in the Bassbin, page 55.

BENNI HEMM HEMM, KAY KAY AND HIS WEATHERED UNDERGROUND, THE STARES
(Crocodile) See preview, page 41.

CHUCK RAGAN (HOT WATER MUSIC), MEMPHIS RADIO KINGS
(Sunset) Everyone's a singer/songwriter. And it's almost becoming a trend to leave your band and start making music yourself. Chuck Ragan was once the frontman for Hot Water Music, and just like many of his rock-and-roll brothers, he quit the band (or the band quit him, it isn't completely clear) and has since started up a solo project. The thing that separates him from all the other broken-hearted dudes with an acoustic guitar is his voice—worked, aching, and honest. He released an album earlier this year, Los Feliz, on SideOneDummy (where stars go to burn out), and it's an okay effort. But I really want him to stop playing by the singer/songwriter's rules (ditch the harmonica, bro) and just fucking scream. I can tell he still wants to. MEGAN SELING

SATURDAY 7/14

ROCK LOTTERY 3: FEATURING MEMBERS OF AQUEDUCT, HARVEY DANGER, THE LASHES, MAKTUB, AND MORE
(Neumo's) See preview, page 37.

PAUL RUCKER, GUST BURNS, ORKESTAR ZIRKONIUM, NON GRATA
(Cal Anderson Park) Organized and presented by local improvised/experimental music massive the Monktail Creative Music Concern, the Sounds Outside series consists of all-day programs of primarily local out musicians performing free in Capitol Hill's Cal Anderson Park on intermittent Saturdays throughout the summer. The series programming is of consistently excellent quality, and it represents the sort of admirable self-motivated underground arts community drive sometimes too rarely found in Seattle. This Saturday's installment features a fair sampling of the greatest experimental musicians in town, including brilliant pianist Gust Burns (who will, given the setting, likely be performing in one of his non-pianistic formats), composer/cellist Paul Rucker, face-melting Balkan brass band Orkestar Zirkonium, and Monktail's own large ensemble Non Grata. SAM MICKENS See also the Score, page 57, and Stranger Suggests, page 27.

ADAM FRANKLIN (OF SWERVEDRIVER), HEAD LIKE A KITE, SLEEPY EYES OF DEATH
(Crocodile) I never really got into Swervedriver, or Ride for that matter. Both bands no doubt suffered under the large looming shadow of their more famous Creation Records labelmates (and legendary bankrupters) My Bloody Valentine. For what it's worth, Swervedriver were a fine if not mind-blowing shoe-gaze band—not as monumental as Kevin Shields's obsessively produced group and a little more prone to straight-forward rocking. Main Swervedriver Adam Franklin has, since the group's effective disbanding in 1999, been performing solo as Toshack Highway and reportedly recording with Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino for a project called the Setting Suns. Bolts of Melody, his first solo album recorded under his own name, is a collection of calm singer/songwriter material and instrumentals lit with touches of sunny psychedlia, no doubt summoned from a floor full of guitar pedals. ERIC GRANDY See also Album Reviews, page 45.

SUNDAY 7/15

LEE "SCRATCH" PERRY, DUB IS A WEAPON, LITTLE BIG MAN
(Neumo's) See preview, page 46.

POLYPHONIC SPREE
(Showbox) In my review a few weeks ago of the new Polyphonic Spree album, The Fragile Army, I only gave the disc two and a half stars. Well, it's worth three. I know, I know, what's half a star? I wouldn't necessarily buy a two-and-a-half-star disc, while I would buy a three-star disc. And you should get The Fragile Army. I've continued to listen to the record since writing the review, and it's gotten better. The layers of instruments coming together to make the pieces of songs, all topped with the chorus of voices... it all fits together really well, and only after more listens do you start to appreciate the subtle intricacies that were at first buried in the overwhelming sonic explosions. I've yet to witness the Polyphonic Spree live; before I could always take 'em or leave 'em (and clearly, I left them). But with The Fragile Army, I'm more tempted to get on the pony. MEGAN SELING See also Stranger Suggests, page 27.

MONDAY 7/16

THE STRANGER'S SIX, ALONE, THALIDOMIDE
(Studio Seven) All-ages shows are generally a nightmare: The only thing worse than feeling like a counselor at Camp Hot Topic is suffering through the tripe that passes for a headlining act. Generic, emotional pop-punk bands are multiplying like gremlins, and unless you're 14, most of them blow. The Stranger's Six, on the surface, are one of those bands, with emo haircuts and nearly 10,000 emoticon-happy MySpace friends. But they differentiate themselves with their music, a well-produced mix of crunchy guitars, dance beats, and anthemic, stick-to-your-brain choruses, plus a singer who tempers his angsty vocals with some grown-up restraint, making the Six more palatable than their eyeliner-wearing brethren. Pop punk? Yes. Generic? Maybe. Fun? For sure. Good enough, anyway, to earn their A Date with Daylight a nomination for best punk album from their hometown San Diego Music Awards. Plays well with: Switchfoot, the Lashes, Good Charlotte. MAYA KROTH

TUESDAY 7/17

RASPUTINA, JANA HUNTER
(Neumo's) Though cello-based art-rock band Rasputina is emboldened by a heavily caked layer of high gothic/Victorian affect, they have also produced, o'er the course of their 11-year career, a great deal of stunningly and beautiful and unsettling music. Songs like "Crybabies" and "Rusty the Skatemaker" from their 1996 debut, Thanks for the Ether, roil with a deep melancholy and alien drama totally unique to Rasputina. And between bandleader Melora Creager's oft-heartbreaking, overarchingly weird voice and her focus on antique-feeling, kaleidoscopic imagery, their music could be seen as a way-ahead-of-the curve precursor to the more recent "freak folk" boom. The group's latest, this year's Oh Perilous World, brought Creager's poppy-field-swooning sensibility to bear on a variety of allegories for the draconian horrors of the modern U.S. government, to sneakily moving effect. SAM MICKENS

JOHN WESLEY HARDING, ALELA DIANE
(Triple Door) By now, everybody knows about John Wesley Harding. His seemingly effortless literate, catchy folk/pop and his evocations of everyone from Dylan to Elvis Costello have won him a passionate cadre of devoted fans. Where Wes really shines, however, is in front of an appreciative audience as he cracks silly jokes and tells rambling stories so full of digressions that he often loses his way back. Opening is Alela Diane, a formidable tale spinner in her own right. Her assured voice seems far older than her years—it's smoky, cracked, powerful, vulnerable, sweet, and harrowing, sometimes all at the same time. The cozy confines of an old vaudeville theater seem the perfect stage for these two engaging storytellers. CHRIS McCANN

WEDNESDAY 7/18

THE NIGHTWATCHMAN, IKE REILLY
(Crocodile) It was fascinating watching Rage Against the Machine's fan base morph from musos intrigued by guitarist Tom Morello's revolutionary style and the band's revolutionary politics to the mosh-happy meatheads who only understood "fuck you, I won't do what you told me" as a call to beat the crap out of each other in the pit. The former crowd will be pleased as punch with the Nightwatchman, Morello's agit-folk solo project, while the latter are going to be mightily confused. Fuck 'em. On One Man Revolution, Morello strips things down to the bare essentials—his guitar, his surprisingly gripping voice, and, most importantly, his words. While Rage's leftist leanings often got obliterated by the band's hyperkinetic rap/metal bombast, there's no mistaking Morello's simple calls for justice in an unfair world. BARBARA MITCHELL

TECH N9NE, KOTTONMOUTH KINGS
(Moore) Even if Tech N9ne's overblown nu-metallical riot rap ain't my cup of gin, Kansas City's demonically charged chop-master has quietly built himself a die-hard fan base with the kind of cultish devotion usually reserved just for ICP or Bone Thugs-N-Harmony fans. Every time he comes back through our fair city, he seems to be playing in a bigger venue (probably due to what is said to be an incendiary live show), now bringing his verbal pyrotechniques to the Moore, while much bigger-name cats like Young Buck play Chop Suey. Tech is currently touring to promote his Tech N9ne Collabos: Misery Loves Kompany album, and no doubt will have his full Strange Music crew in tow to help incite the mass crowd-surfing. God help us. LARRY MIZELL JR