This week's Mercury music section leaked all over the rest of the paper. Be sure to check out our jumbo-sized guide to MusicfestNW, which kicked off last night. It's unbiased, unabridged, and it just might save your life.*

*The Mercury's guide to MusicfestNW will not actually save your life.

At their TBA show on Wednesday, Parenthetical Girls release the fifth and final installment of their Privilege series of EPs, which join together like Voltron to form the new Privilege album. (Conflict-of-Interest Pony asks that we remind you that PG frontperson Zac Pennington (pictured above) is a former Mercury music editor, but that's not why we covered it. We covered it because Parenthetical Girls' daffy, polymath pop is pretty exceptional.)
LISTEN:

Parenthetical Girls - "Curtains"After they lost a founding member, Menomena wrote a bunch of songs about their moms, putting them in the very fine company of one Mr. Glenn Danzig.
LISTEN:

Menomena - "Pique"The Helio Sequence's studio got wet. Very wet. It required the band to build a new studio from scratch, and their new location allowed them to record all night long, giving their lovely, spacious new album Negotiations a nocturnal vibe.
LISTEN:

The Helio Sequence - "October"I saw the truly amazing Kishi Bashi perform a sorta-secret show in an auto repair shop last night. Seeing what the violinist/songwriter could do amid grease stains and car hoists has me salivating for what he'll do this Saturday at the Doug Fir. His album 151a is one of the best records of the year.
LISTEN:

Kishi Bashi - "Manchester"Renowned New York DJ Mr. Jonathan Toubin had the worst morning of his life here in Portland last year. He tells us about the bizarre car accident that almost killed him in his sleep, plus he made the Mercury an exclusive, awesome playlist of some of his latest 45 RPM discoveries. Check it out.Redd Kross cut their first record in eighth grade, while you were still playing with Pogs and learning how to masturbate. Three decades later, they're still together, and they're still great. (And you're still playing with Pogs and masturbating.)
LISTEN:

Redd Kross - "Researching the Blues"This year, Against Me! made rock 'n' roll history when singer Laura Jane Grace (formerly Tom Gabel) came out as transgender. Last night, they played to a packed crowd of the devoted.
LISTEN:

Against Me! - "Russian Spies"Our free guide to all the free shows happening during MusicfestNW pays for itself. (NB: the Mercury is a free paper.) Seriously though, even if you don't have a wristband—or a dollar to your name—you still can see lots of great music this week.Plus, previews of way more shows than you can ever see, both Musicfest and non.