Thursday 2/4

Nouvelle Vague

(King Cat) See Stranger Suggests.

Rusko, Kid Hops, Dash EXP, Surpass

(Trinity) See Data Breaker.

Alice in Chains, Creature with the Atom Brain

(Paramount) The weird thing about Alice in Chains 2.0 isn't really that they recruited a new, non-dead lead singer—it's a bit of an INXS move, but remember that guitarist Jerry Cantrell wrote a lot of their songs, anyway. No, what's really weird is how much their new album, Black Gives Way to Blue, sounds exactly like their old albums. From that first telltale guitar riff of "All Secrets Known" onward, the album is a total sonic time warp, picking up precisely where the band left off. Adding mightily to the effect is new frontman William DuVall, an African-American rock singer from Atlanta, Georgia, whose other acts included names like Neon Christ, Comes with the Fall, and Awareness Void of Chaos, and whose voice sounds so much like Layne Staley's that it's actually kind of creepy. The fans seem to like him, though, as both of the band's shows this week are sold out. ERIC GRANDY See also preview.

Haiti Relief Benefit Show: Common Market, the Physics, Dyno Jamz, Sol, Khingz

(Neumos) Three weeks after the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake, the people of Haiti are still deep in the struggle for recovery. Tonight at Neumos, a bevy of Seattle's best and brightest hiphop talent comes together for the Haiti Relief Benefit Show, hosted by Khingz of Abyssinian Creole. With a star-packed roster—including Common Market, the Physics, Dyno Jamz, Sol, and the Flying Sneakers Break Crew—and 100 percent of the night's proceeds going directly toward medical care in Haiti, this event will be the best 10 bucks you'll spend all year. DAVID SCHMADER See also My Philosophy.

Trainwreck!: Puberty, DJ Porq

(Orient Express) The Intelligence ringleader Lars Finberg and fiancée Susanna Welbourne have a new project called Puberty. It sounds, unsurprisingly, like the Intelligence (if it ain't broke...), with the lineup filled out by Little Cuts members Curtis James, Dave Hernandez, and Drew Church. Together they form the house band for Trainwreck!, a new monthly starting tonight at Sodo's strange and wonderful Orient Express, which is made of seven bonded old-timey train cars, one of which was reputedly Franklin Delano Roosevelt's personal sex den. Also present will be the esteemed DJ Porq and host Kissee Simmons. Finberg elaborates: "[Trainwreck! is] for people who wanna dance to Ernie K. Doe and Tones on Tail and don't wear baseball caps (unless the ponytail is coming out the FRONT), similar in spirit to what was exciting about Pho Bang a few years ago—that it felt like the closest this sad depressing gray city could get to the unhomophobic glamorous trashiness of CBGB in 1974." Amen. GRANT BRISSEY

Friday 2/5

Alice in Chains, Creature with the Atom Brain

(Paramount) See Thursday and preview.

Terri Tarantula, Trespassers William

(Sunset, 7 pm) See preview.

Editors, Princeton, Black Nite Crash

(Showbox at the Market) Editors is rather a cheeky name for this band of British mope-rock recyclers, don't you think? Plagiarizers might be a better one. Copy and the Pasters, maybe? I mean, practically the first thing you learn as any kind of an editor is that if you're going to rip off someone, you better either change things enough that folks won't notice or else put generous quotation marks around the material. Editors the band do neither, limply rehashing Joy Division—and, worse, all the copycats who've followed—without even so much as scare quotes. It's like if that band had been fronted not by Ian Curtis, but by his exhumed corpse. Or Interpol, only composed of four infinitely more anonymous suits. Better tonight to do like Curtis did, and just hang at home instead. ERIC GRANDY

Do Make Say Think, Years, the Happiness Project

(Chop Suey) Here's the year's first contender for most incestuous indie-rock bill. Do Make Say Think, which feature card-carrying Broken Social Scenesters Charles Spearin and Ohad Benchetrit, headline. Years, Benchetrit's solo project, and Spearin's the Happiness Project open. Good thing those dudes have enough talent that they can afford to divvy it up among these different avenues, all of which vary beautifully while never moving too far from a common appreciation of instrumental majesty. DMST have been cranking out some sweeping post-rock jams lately, and Years' stuff has the range and emotional persuasiveness of a great film score. The Happiness Project, however, are not to be overlooked. Their self-titled 2009 album, an admirably experimental venture, featured conversations synced to accompanying jazz instrumentals. Don't be late. This show may be 100 percent interrelated Canadian indie musicians, but it's also going to be 100 percent awesome. JASON BAXTER

St. Vincent, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Fences

(Neumos) When I think of St. Vincent, I think of geniuses like Serge Gainsbourg and Nina Simone. I think of people who are just so goddamned cool that their singing sometimes sounds downright casual, offhand. But their voices always land in the most perfect spot in the song—it might not be the perfect melody, but it's just the right sound at just the right moment. The music on St. Vincent's most recent album, Actor, is a loopy playground of screeching guitars and ponderous drumbeats, and she just unleashes her voice into it, bounding from sound to sound, beautifully lost in play. PAUL CONSTANT

Chris Shiflett, Tony Sly

(El CorazĂłn) Tony Sly, the singer of the pop-punk band No Use for a Name (which I loved in 1997), has joined the ranks of the many former punk-rock frontmen who've moved on to play introspective acoustic tunes about growing up and moving on and other mature stuff like that. Sly's debut record, 12 Song Program (out on No Use's label, Fat Wreck Chords), isn't especially memorable, but it isn't bad, either. It's a modest collection of quiet, thoughtful songs about which you probably won't give a shit unless you're an old fan. Joining him tonight for this (21+) show in El CorazĂłn's lounge is former No Use for a Name bandmate and current Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett, who also recently released his first solo record of, you guessed it, introspective (albeit country-tinged) acoustic songs. MEGAN SELING

Saturday 2/6

"Awesome," Ivory in Ice World, Library Science

(Chop Suey) See Album Review.

Eyedea & Abilities, Dosh

(Nectar, 5:30 pm) Stop me if you've heard this one before: Multi-instrumentalist goes from driving school buses to rereleasing his home recordings on Bay Area label specializing in hop-suffixed jams, becomes esteemed by some of the indie-rock fraternity's most salient artists. End of story? Not quite—Dosh (aka Martin Luther King Chavez Dosh—really) has wisely stayed productive since his career took off at the start of the last decade. He's got a new album due out this spring and continues to make interesting career choices, like touring with Rhymesayers' heavy hitters Eyedea & Abilities (the former's an MC, the latter's a DJ). Dosh has teased the possibility of some crossover between the acts, which means the Nectar crowd could be in for some radical freestyles courtesy of Eyedea, atop some radical drumming courtesy of Dosh. JASON BAXTER See also My Philosophy.

Bassnectar, Eliot Lipp, emancipator

(Showbox Sodo) Tacoma-born, Brooklyn-based Eliot Lipp is an electronic artist who's engineered an evolution of the malt liquor commercial soundtrack. His gangsterized swath of flickered 16th beats makes for a jittering but finely primped den of disco. It's a bronze lion-head cane with a brain. The Prefuse 73–raised neurons of Lipp's Korg MS-20 synth tell you which Cadillac to drive to the party and which white suit to wear. Meanwhile, Lorin Ashton's Bassnectar is a less refined affair. Bassnectar goes for the modes of stadium rave, wobble-bass, and dance-floor slam. Ashton calls his super-wound, genre-mashed frenetics "omni-tempo maximalism." It's massively energized and polyphonically banged. Bassnectar wars with a warble of love that says it's thrilled to be alive; angels are on their grind. TRENT MOORMAN

The Intelligence, the Girls, Partman Parthorse

(Funhouse) It's 2010, and the Intelligence still rank among Seattle's greatest rock bands. They've achieved the near-miraculous feat of making garage rock not sound stodgily beholden to a corny vision of the genre's '60s big bang or subsequent decades' fanboys/girls' revival of it. Of course, their deep knowledge of excellent post-punk groups and ability to work that movement's vital cynicism into garage rock's invigorating naiveté elevates their art above most of their ilk. The Girls work similar magic with punk and new wave's first flush of invention. They repeatedly solve, with enviable elegance, the simple equation of fun, catchy songs + unbridled energy = a great night out. Partman Parthorse put on spectacular live performances, with outrageous shenanigans matched by a scathing punk attack that aims to shatter your funny bone. DAVE SEGAL

Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis, Mutiny Within

(Showbox at the Market) In the past four years, there's been a thrash revival of sorts, with the long-haired, beer-drinking party dudes of Municipal Waste leading the way for legions of hat-flipping, crossover nerds to relive a decade they've heard so much about: the 1980s. Sure, only two original members remain in influential thrash-metal group Exodus, but when they bust into "Toxic Waltz," you know the circle pit will erupt like it's 1985. If it doesn't, don't be afraid to yell "poseur"—it's the only right thing to do in that situation. Headliners Arch Enemy are sure to punish with the almost-commercially-accessible melodic death metal that has enabled the Swedish quintet to tour the world. KEVIN DIERS

D.Black, Blood Red Dancers, People Eating People

(Sunset) D.Black is not only the spiritual compass for the artists on Sportn' Life Records (he actually leads weekly prayer meetings), he's a living, breathing, swooping (like, no really, have you seen him perform?) Seattle hiphop legacy. He is the biological son of one of the members of Seattle's first rap group, the Emerald Street Boys. He exemplifies a real side (the nondrinking, nonsmoking, straight-edge side) of this wave of local urban music, however you wish to classify it; Black is of the second generation, and at the same time, a real leader of it. His Ali'Yah album is full of extraordinary message and import, schooling his people by example in the inherent strength of keeping true to oneself, without getting preachy or didactic. Best part? He's also a great rapper. See for yourself before he retires (which he said he's going to do). LARRY MIZELL JR. See also My Philosophy.

Sunday 2/7

Sod Hauler, Razorhoof, Throne of Bone

(Rendezvous) Is stoner rock the modern white man's blues? Obviously, both forms revolve around the guitar. But more specifically, they both rely on that basic minor pentatonic scale, that instinctive progression of notes that seems to exist specifically for the guitar. The natural ease with which the standard blues lick or stoner-rock riff rolls off the fingers allows guitarists to play with a certain unfettered zeal. Groove is prioritized over melody. So while the succession of notes can be obvious at times, the template provides freedom to express pain and anguish without having to think too much about music theory. Sod Hauler's reefer-infused riffage is a classic example of the parallel. And, like Robert Johnson, these men probably sold their souls to the devil. BRIAN COOK

Monday 2/8

Mudhoney, Sleepy Sun

(Neumos) Mudhoney playing a free show more than two decades into their existence? Damn, not only are they local rock legends, they're also nice, generous dudes. They've also aged much better than most rockers of their vintage, and these sweet old things' ability to kick out sinewy, Stooges-y jams remains vigorous. A stacked back catalog of adrenaline-raisers and a cornucopia of cool covers in their repertoire ensure a satisfyingly bruising night of entertainment. San Francisco's Sleepy Sun come off like Brightblack Morning Light after enrollment in the Stoner Rock Reeducation Camp. They balance lovely, ethereal vocals and melodies with girthful yet rococo guitar and bass riffing. It's a druggy, draggy sound that's familiar but very well executed. DAVE SEGAL

Tuesday 2/9

THEESatisfaction, Lisa Dank, Canary Sing, Queerbait, Katie Kate, Sap'N, DJ Colby B

(Neumos) Local hiphop duo THEESatisfaction (Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White) will be cutting a record with Erik Blood, a Seattle producer/musician who contributed to the best thing that happened in local music last year: Shabazz Palaces' two EPs. Well and good. But I secretly wanted THEESatisfaction to work with 10-4 Roger, the DJ who produced the duo's "Cabin Fever." (10-4 Roger also remixed/reprocessed Helladope's "Just So You Know" into an erotic haze of dub.) I had imagined that "Cabin Fever" would be to THEESatisfaction what "Shook Ones Pt. II" was to Mobb Deep—"Shook Ones" appeared near the end of The Infamous, but was then elaborated into a whole album, Hell on Earth. "Cabin Fever" has the potential to open up into a larger and richer work of art, and 10-4 Roger is a producer people need to hear. CHARLES MUDEDE See also My Philosophy.

Van Dyke Parks, Clare and the Reasons

(Triple Door) For nearly four decades, Van Dyke Parks has been one of pop music's go-to geniuses, helping to create such landmark records as Brian Wilson's Smile and Joanna Newsom's Ys. On his own, he made 1968's legendary Song Cycle, wrote the score for the Sesame Street film Follow That Bird, played a supporting role on Twin Peaks, and collaborated with everyone you've ever heard of, from Grace Kelly to Silverchair. Tonight, the prodigiously hyphenated visionary will materialize onstage at the Triple Door, where he'll musically represent himself however the hell he feels like it. The majority of the audience will be thrilled just to be in the same room with him. DAVID SCHMADER

Wednesday 2/10

Daedelus, Nosaj Thing, Jogger, Introcut

(Neumos) See Stranger Suggests.

Wilco, Califone

(Paramount) Wilco have never been a more vital live force. Jeff Tweedy's post-Americana ballads continue to uphold the lyrical tradition of loneliness, and his supporting cast brings a dynamic energy and modernist flare unparalleled by past lineups. Drummer Glenn Kotche opts out of excessive fills and blatantly complex drumbeats in favor of wringing a startling array of textures out of a basic kit. Nels Cline plays a similar role on guitar. Though Cline can unleash an expressively frenzied solo, it's his ability to manipulate his instrument—to transform his guitar into a pedal steel or to re-create the chaotic tape loops on "Via Chicago"—that makes him a modern icon. The last few Wilco albums may not be their most revered, but live, the band is at its peak. BRIAN COOK

John Wiese, Lasse Marhaug, Dried Up Corpse, Physical Demon, Slates

(Black Lodge) John Wiese (aka Sissy Spacek) is a prolific catalyst in the subterranean noise scene, working with Wolf Eyes, C. Spencer Yeh, Smegma, Merzbow, and even improvisational saxophonist Evan Parker. It's tough to generalize about an artist who's so promiscuous in his activities, but suffice it to say, Wiese is a master of unpredictable dynamics and extreme tone manipulation. His tracks always keep you on your toes, even as they're trying to sever your legs. Norway's Lasse Marhaug (who also plays in Jazzkammer) delves into noise, improv, free jazz, and metal, hell-bent on creating hellish miasmas, catastrophic chaos, cratering drones, and scree screeds. You know the drill. DAVE SEGAL