I don’t care what you’re in the mood for musically this weekend. Something, somewhere in the Seattle city limits will scratch that sonic itch for you, so dive in below already.
Tonight:
Laudanum, Bell Witch, Blood of Kings, Salo @The Highline. $8 at the door. Doors at 8pm.
With its incongruous but winning combination of vegan pub grub, ace cocktails, and metal-up-the-ass (most of the time) acts, The Highline has carved its own wonderful niche in Capitol Hill.
Headlining the headbanging this evening: Oakland troglodites Laudanum, a motley lot brandishing downtempo piledriven rhythms, shards of epic goth guitar, and a vocalist (Nathan Misterek) who often sounds like an orc with Bauhaus crooner Peter Murphy stuck in its throat.
Fountains of Wayne, Mike Viola @The Crocodile. $20 advance, $25 at the door. Doors at 8pm.
Fountains co-frontman Adam Schlesinger’s probably most famous for penning the hit title track for the Tom Hanks rock pic, That Thing You Do. But Fountains of Wayne have been plying their brand of smart and catchy power-pop for a couple of decades now, and they’re currently touring behind Sky Full of Holes, a terrific record that effectively re-captures the lightning-in-a-bottle brilliance of their gem, 1999’s Utopia Parkway. Get there early to catch the warm-up set by Candy Butchers frontman Mike Viola, who knows a thing or two about brainy, toothy pop himself.
Saturday:
Reverb Fest 2011 @ various venues in Ballard. $10-$20 wristbands can be purchased at individual venues Saturday afternoon.
Between the juggernaut that is Bumbershoot and the highly-touted City Arts Fest next weekend, the Seattle Weekly’s sponsoring its own festival, a celebration of local music that corrals some 70 Seattle bands in eight Ballard venues for marathon all-day bills. There’s an embarrassment of riches to be found, but from where we’re standing the best locations for Reverb look to be The Sunset (where hip-hop kings Mash Hall and Grynch wind down the night), the Tractor (rife with everything from The Cops’ winning post-punk snarl to a set by Seattle pop wunderkinds Curtains for You), and folk stronghold venue Conor Byrne (capped by a set from Cobirds Unite, the masterful Beatles-gone-roots project fronted by Rusty Willoughby and Visqueen’s Rachel Flotard). Check out the Reverb site for more details, and get your money’s worth. It’s easy to do.
Sunday:
Dum Dum Girls, The Crocodile Girls, Colleen Green @The Crocodile. $13 advance, doors at 8pm.
Dum Dum Girls frontwoman Dee Dee co-produced her band’s debut CD with pop legend Richard Gottehrer (he of Blondie and Raveonettes production gigs), which should give you an idea of her band’s sensibilities. Their new album, Only in Dreams, is more pensive lyrically than the first, but it’ll still take the chill off the impending fall in a major way, with a sound as divinely vintage as their wardrobes. Four beautiful California girls in black, putting out cucumber-cool guitar pop with spunky Debbie-Harry-inspired vocals = Win-win.
Locksley, Mona, Funeral Party @The Tractor Tavern. $10.77 advance, $12 at the door. Doors at 8pm.
Locksley do Beatles-style pop with the kind of brio and songwriting chops that woulda made them household names in the 1960’s, so there’s no reinvention of the wheel here. But Dear Lord in Silk Jammies, they do it winningly, spectacularly right. Peerless hooks and a live show that peels wallpaper look to be the order of the night. If “The Whip” doesn’t become a hit between its monster melody and this imaginative fan-made pop-culture riff of a video, then the universe is even harsher than we imagine.
Pearl Dragon, Bronz FM, OC Notes @ The Lo-Fi Performance Gallery. $7 at the door, doors at 8pm.
It’s always a treat to hear individual members of Seattle’s best hip-hop collectives working outside their better-known units, so get thee to the Eastlake ‘hood’s great overlooked dance venue to listen to one-half of the indisputably awesome Champagne Champagne work a mic. Pearl Dragon’s solo material plies a more direct flow than Champagne’s psychedelic style, and it’s great.