THURSDAY 11/8
People Talking and Singing: Dave Eggers, Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman, Sasha Frere-Jones, Rosie Thomas, Geologic of Blue Scholars
(Town Hall) See preview.
Club Pop: Le Castle Vania, Drop the Lime, DJs Colby B and Paco
(Chop Suey) See preview.
Billy Joel
(KeyArena) See preview.
Sondre Lerche, Dan Wilson
(Nectar) Sondre Lerche might take a keener-than-usual interest in the daily machinations of opener Dan Wilson, given that Lerche composed the just-released soundtrack to Dan in Real Life. The Norwegian singer-songwriter's sprightly instrumentals and earnest acoustic numbers intertwine with the movie's action, proving essential to its heartfelt, casually comic tone. Lerche's chamber-pop version of Pete Townshend's "Let My Love Open the Door" (which he coached Steve Carell to perform in the film) figures to represent Dan in Real Life live. Dan in Real Life follows February's Phantom Punch, on which the erstwhile lounge crooner delved into noisy garage rock with his backing trio the Faces Down. Lerche left his band behind for this tour, but his charismatic presence and sensitive vocals, both magnified in a solo setting, should compensate for what the stripped-down Phantom Punch selections will lack in volume. ANDREW MILLER
FRIDAY 11/9
Broken Disco: NAHA, Jerry Abstract, Truckasauras, FCS North, DJ Levi Clark, Kristina Childs, Kadeejah Streets, Plan B, DJ Same DNA
(Chop Suey) After last month's killer Modeselektor show, Broken Disco is taking this month to focus on all local talent, and Seattle has plenty to spare. What may be surprising for an electronic dance night is how much of that talent will be playing live. In the 21+ makeout lounge, Plan B delivers a live set of hiphop instrumentals and sepia-toned sampledelia. In the 18+ room, FCS North groove on live bass, drums, synths, and guitar; Truckasauras wrestle booming beats and surprisingly deep melodies out of their array of '80s machinery; and Jerry Abstract plays a live laptop set. With DJ support from Levi Clark, Kadeejah Streets, Same DNA, and headlining sets from Kristina Childs and NAHA. ERIC GRANDY
Gust Burns/Jeffrey Allport Duo
(Gallery 1412) A frequent traveler to these climes, British Columbian percussionist Jeffrey Allport micromanages his rhythmic and tonal gestures with a penetrating focus, as evinced in his rad showings earlier this year as one of the participants in the Seattle Improvised Music Festival. Allport is here presented again in concert with local pianist Gust Burns, whose playing is possessed of both a feverous technical diligence and a cumbrous emotional intelligence. In the world of modern free improvisation, which is often paradoxically traditionalized, it is musicians such as these who maintain the music's potentially boundless vitality and progressive energy. SAM MICKENS
JJ Grey and Mofro, Dusty Rhodes
(Neumo's) Sweaty, swampy, low-down, and funky: JJ Grey and Mofro are everything Florida used to be, before the onslaught of AC and luxury high-rises and four-wheel drives that never leave the pavement. That Florida—old Florida—exists only in legend now, and in song, and Grey is one of the last homegrown troubadours to sing of its heyday and its demise. Rooted in Southern rock and Stax/Muscle Shoals soul, deepened by the glorious slide guitar of longtime musical foil Daryl Hance, Grey's songs are relevant to anyone who's ever cursed a condo. Their April show in Seattle was a scorcher; we could always use a little Florida heat wave. JONATHAN ZWICKEL
Young Fresh Fellows, the Tripwires
(Tractor) If you've ever wanted to test the theory that well-crafted pop music is contagiously fun, tonight's the night. After four years, the Tripwires—a local supergroup consisting of John Ramberg, Jim Sangster, Johnny Sangster, and Mark Pickerel—are celebrating the release of their fine debut album with a release party that also features a rare show by local pop superheroes the Young Fresh Fellows. To list the Tripwires' combined pedigree would take this entire page (and if you don't recognize the names, you should be ashamed of yourself) but one listen to "Makes You Look Around" and you'll be instantly smitten with their instantly infectious, '60s inspired guitar pop. And if you can manage not to crack a grin during a Fellows show, you should seek help. BARBARA MITCHELL
Black Dice, Calvin Johnson
(Vera Project) With Load Blown, their latest album (and their first for Animal Collective's Paw Tracks label), Black Dice have comfortably grown into their third phase. What began as audience-assaulting thrash and dissolved into bad-acid drones has now emerged as a kind of malfunctioning tribal groove machine. "Kokomo" churns blown bass, coughing car exhaust, and stolen chants into a loping rhythm. "Roll Up" and "Scavenger" melt steel drums and warp tropical guitar loops; the former swarms with mosquito treble, while the latter makes thunder from wobbled aluminum sheets. On "Drool," the band summon bird chirps and cicada hum from their effect-pedal circuits. There are still noisy moments, but this is, by far, the most relaxed, easy-listening Black Dice to date. ERIC GRANDY
SATURDAY 11/10
Minus the Bear, the Helio Sequence, Grand Archives
(Showbox at the Market) See Stranger Suggests.
Annuals, Manchester Orchestra, the New Frontiers
(Crocodile) Like sex and scuba diving, any psychedelic voyage is best undertaken with a partner. Twenty-one-year-old Adam Baker is the sole songwriting force behind Annuals, but he's recruited a band of longtime friends to mediate any mad-professor tendencies. Last year's acclaimed Be He Me is a monumental mind trip of an album, conceived from Baker's self-contained death-is-after-me paranoia but wrought by a studio-savvy six-piece band. Drifting on waves of slow-trotting rural balladry, breezy Beach Boy–ish pop, prog-rock bombast, and heat-warped tropicalia, the album—and Annuals in general—have the power to transport. JONATHAN ZWICKEL
Scout Niblett, MV & EE
(Sunset) MV & EE stands for Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, a couple of in-love hippie types from the Massachusetts boondocks who like to musically reminisce about the blues-rock of the late great 1960s. Their days in the free-folk collective the Tower Recordings connected them with a slew of musical collaborators, including J Mascis (who's playing drums on everyone's albums these days), John Moloney from Sunburned Hand of the Man, and Thurston Moore, whose Ecstatic Peace label releases the duo's prolific ramblings. Their sound is a big stoned party of slapped-together blues chords, noodly 1970s rock guitars, and mumbled songwriting, but when they hit it right on, it's like a good flashback. ROSS SIMONINI
SUNDAY 11/11
Gust Burns/Jeffrey Allport Duo
(Gallery 1412) See Friday.
MONDAY 11/12
Jenny Owen Youngs, Sean Hayes, Jim Bianco
(High Dive) See preview.
TUESDAY 11/13
Celebration, Kill Me Tomorrow, the Dead Science
(Crocodile) See Stranger Suggests.
WEDNESDAY 11/14
(Crocodile) Fog's latest album finds lead songwriter Andrew Broder moving from lo-fi sound collage and folk into basement-rattling rock, incorporating significantly more electricity and '70s acid than on previous releases, and growing from a mostly solo project to a full three-piece band to back it up. The album features guest appearances from Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum, Low's Alan and Mimi Sparhawk, and Why?'s Yoni Wolf, but they all disappear effortlessly into the band's sound, and Broder's dark, lyrical moods hold the spotlight throughout. Live, the band pull off both subtler moments and straight-ahead, amplified rock with ease. ERIC GRANDY
Isis, These Arms Are Snakes
(Neumo's) Isis push their sound. It's metal that expands and experiments. They are perfectly suited for Mike Patton's Ipecac label. They play heavy, lengthy songs that hinge on repetition and evolution of structure—growling vocals and punishing low end blend into sections of atmospheric keyboards and swelling abstract harmonics. The Isis bomb explodes in the distance and from miles away, the red-orange blur is eerily serene and beautiful. You are lulled, seconds pass, and then the bomb's seismic shock waves reach you and destroy. Vocalist and guitarist Aaron Turner says he wants to make Isis an entity. He wants rock to be art, without forsaking the tidal, niche brand of music they've been playing for 10 years. An entity? Your call. TRENT MOORMAN
The Roches, Lucy Wainwright Roche
(Triple Door) Before Mouldy Peaches, before Ani DiFranco, there was the Roches. A trio of New Jersey sisters boasting fierce musical independence that spoke to both punks and folkies, ignited by those close, odd harmonies siblings seem genetically predisposed to conjure from their pipes. Assisted by folks like Paul Simon and Robert Fripp, their herky-jerky "Nurds" and a cappella reduction of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" gave voice to outsiders in a way Madison Avenue could never co-opt. And they have endured with the tenacity of their namesake, recently regrouping after an 11-year hiatus. There have been some subtle evolution in their sound—they played most of their own instruments on the new Moonswept—but when Maggie, Terre, and Suzzy lift their voices in harmony, this rotten world becomes a better place. KURT B. REIGHLEY
