THURSDAY 1/10

Gabriel Teodros and Khingz, Bambu, Sleep of Old Dominion, Orbitron, DJs B-Girl, Phatrick, Tecumseh

(Neumo's) The first big local hiphop show for 2008 features Mass Line's Gabriel Teodros, Seattle's most progressive rapper and one-half of Abyssinian Creole. The other half is Khingz, who also performs tonight and is expected to drop a solo effort this year. As Abyssinian Creole, Teodros and Khingz were at the center of the powerful discharge that instigated, in 2005, the current wave of local hiphop that is led by Blue Scholars. Abyssinian Creole's contribution to that remarkable year was Sexy Beast, a CD that in sound and themes is opposite to the mood and climate of the Northwest. What Sexy Beast made apparent was the diversity of local hiphop: It can come from anywhere (East Africa, Haiti) and be about anything (love, immigration, meditation). CHARLES MUDEDE

FRIDAY 1/11

This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb, the Pharmacy, Vena Cava, Pleasureboaters, Ima Gymnist

(Fusion Cafe) Let's be blunt: The Fusion Cafe is not an ideal place to see a show. You're basically watching a band play on the floor of a conference room, with more or less the kind of limited sightlines and sound such a setting suggests. But who gives a shit when the place is booking bills like this one? Headliners This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb hail from the same Florida folk-punk backwoods as Against Me!, although they've yet to outgrow the basement show quite so dramatically. Like that band's earlier incarnation, TBIAPB holler political rally cries—antiwar, pro–Dumpster diving, etc.—over stomping punk hoedowns. San Diego's Vena Cava recall golden-age California pop punk (Lookout Records and the like) before that genre came to mean smirking MTV douchebags—they're smart, cute, sloppy, and barely held together by duct tape. Teenage Smell protĂ©gĂ©s Ima Gymnist round out the bill along with the Pharmacy and Pleasureboaters, two local bands poised for a banner year in 2008. ERIC GRANDY

Peter Parker, Guns & Rossetti, Young Sportsmen

(Jules Maes) Dick Rossetti is the frontman of Guns & Rossetti (which explains the band name), and you might recognize his name from his former status as afternoon DJ on 107.7 The End. The man had such a cult following at the station that when he left (and was replaced with the talk-heavy, not-so-funny "Church of Lazlo"), fans made a MySpace page begging for his return. The dry wit that made him popular on the airwaves bleeds into his lyrics ("Word to the wise, stay out of Bellingham"), and his love for '80s cock rock obviously fuels the band's lo-fi arrangements (lo-fi in the sense that they're lacking the huge stadium-worthy guitar solos and have a less glam, more punk attitude). While theirs is a more bitter sound, Peter Parker's power-pop has crunchy guitars and lovely boy-girl harmonies that will complement Guns & Rossetti nicely. They're just as bitter, mind you, but it's hard to hear that under their catchy melodies. MEGAN SELING

Broken Disco: Egyptian Lover

(Chop Suey) Egyptian Lover (born Greg Broussard) is nothing short of an electro/hiphop pioneer. In 1984, his debut single, "Egypt, Egypt," solidified on the West Coast a template laid down back East by Afrika Bambaataa: 808 drum machine beats, simple (often sampled) synth lines, record scratching, and cool-ass deadpan raps. Bambaataa may be better known (for his Zulu Nation mythology, his John Lydon collaboration, etc.) but the Lover's tracks ("Egypt, Egypt," "And My Beat Goes Boom") are every bit as archetypal, and his Egyptology pillow talk is, if anything, more goofy fun than Bambaataa's Planet Zulu shamanism. Live, Egyptian Lover still does it old school—an 808, two turntables, and a microphone—time-warping modern dance floors back to ancient Egypt, circa the 1980s. ERIC GRANDY

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Concern, Baby Panda, Ghosts & Liars

(Vera Project) Online videos aren't the most romantic way to discover music, but La Blogothùque's Les Concert à Emporter #8.2 is a beautiful introduction to the well-stocked canon that is one-man band Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. In the video, Owen Ashworth stands alone in a telephone booth on a wet, abandoned street. The characteristic drone of simple chords and beats emanates from a cheap keyboard, and in his unapologetically imperfect voice he sings to no one in particular, "Some days I think about moving up north, the rent is cheaper I can have a house and a porch to watch the rain, walk out in the rain, stand under the rain... and let Seattle wash me." When the song ends and the camera pans away, Ashworth says, "That was the first song I ever wrote": In the 10 years since he started CFTPA, his songs—and maybe his reverence for Seattle and its rain—have only gotten stronger. MOLLY HAMILTON

SATURDAY 1/12

A Gun That Shoots Knives, the Resets

(Sunset) Tonight, A Gun That Shoots Knives celebrate the release of a new EP, which never showed up at the Stranger office. The intern even spent her last few days here digging through the "damned to hell" pile that will never be listened to (currently sitting atop that pile: Kula Shaker's Strangefolk, the soundtrack to Young Frankenstein, and the solo album from Eric Avery). It's just not here. But! Conjecture has it that it's brimming with more of the so-stupid-they're-genius raunch-rock odes to titty slapping, knife fighting, Italian sports cars, and edible soap that appeared on their debut, Miracle. AGTSK are the "Awesome" for people who like music—funny as a heart attack and willing and able to shred into sweaty, horn-throwing oblivion. Paid admission ($7, cheap!) gets you a copy of Love, the EP. Word is the quartet will reenact Superman II— the one with Terence Stamp as General Zod— onstage, which should be... something. AGTSK also play a free set at Bop Street Records earlier in the day. JONATHAN ZWICKEL

The Section Quartet, Fences

(Chop Suey) The Section Quartet are billed as "the loudest string quartet on the planet." Wait—is that a good thing? I'm all for ambitious descriptions, but I hardly associate a string ensemble's quality with their ability to reach extreme volume. If a band claimed to be "the loudest black metal band in the Nordic fjords," I'd take more interest, but when it's a quartet of band nerds from California clutching stringed instruments, it just ain't the same. Regardless, the Section Quartet perform rock songs on the cello, and while their Fuzzbox recording is a bit forgettable, they seem like an act that begs to be witnessed in the live setting, onstage, bows in hand. Tonight, they'll tackle their own material in addition to covering songs from Radiohead's OK Computer, all the while heavily squinting, as they pay homage to Thom Yorke's lazy eyelid. EZRA ACE CARAEFF

SUNDAY 1/13

What kind of pussy does the pope get? Nun!

MONDAY 1/14

Hear about the cannibal who was late for dinner? He got the cold shoulder!

TUESDAY 1/15

Castanets

(Jules Maes) Castanets are cold and scary like frostbite. Last year's In the Vines sets in surreptitiously, its first tune starting with a wisp of strummed banjo and Ray Raposa's wearied, creaky voice and ending with a trebly squall of feedback. Castanets began in 2002 as Raposa's one-man, San Diego–based project and have since unfolded into a revolving cross-country collective. From the Midwest to Baja to Brooklyn to Portland, Raposa's restless travels provide him an eye for landscapes and an ear for rendering them musically. Whereas 2005's First Light's Freeze played noisy and dark like an Appalachian Velvet Underground, In the Vines is quieter, sparser, but just as sinister. Raposa's band changes with every tour, so there's no telling what kind of accompaniment he'll bring. Expect broken-down Americana meets lifted free jazz. JONATHAN ZWICKEL

WEDNESDAY 1/16

Om, Sir Richard Bishop, Lichens

(Neumo's) Om (feel free to pronounce that as "Ommmmmmmmmmmmmm") are the bass-and-drums duo of Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, formerly the rhythm section of foundational stoner metal band Sleep. Like their old band, Om meditate on deep, sustained bass drones and pulse-slowing drums, but their latest album, Pilgrimage, occasionally trades glacially oozing, molten-rock riffs for a more subdued sound that references shamanic/religious chant as much it does any subset of metal. The album (recorded by Steve Albini and released on Southern Lord) stretches four songs across just over a half hour, building from the faint melodies and singing of the title track to the more familiar epic sludge of "Bhima's Theme." Opener Sir Richard Bishop is an experimental guitarist and former member of veteran trio Sun City Girls who draws upon a quarter century of playing and a vast geography of influences for his improvisational solo performances. ERIC GRANDY

Jeremy Enigk

(Chop Suey) Regretfully, I missed the last Jeremy Enigk show at Chop Suey. It was for no good reason at all, too. I'm a fan of his solo material, but it's his work with Sunny Day Real Estate and the Fire Theft that I love the most. But had I known the man was going to litter his already heartwarming set of new and old solo songs with Sunny Day Real Estate songs, I'd have been there front and center. Alas, I had to hear from friends that he supposedly played "In Circles," "Guitar and Video Games," "The Ocean," "How It Feels to Be Something On," and my favorite Fire Theft song (that makes my eyes swell with tears almost every time), "Heaven." Jesus Christ, are you kidding me? He played "Heaven"!? Don't make the same mistake I did. I can't promise there will be any beloved Sunny Day or Fire Theft material this time around, but even so, tonight's performance will be glorious. Unless he decides to get weird and play all ABBA covers or something. Which would really teach me a lesson. MEGAN SELING