WEDNESDAY 11/12

TEGAN AND SARA, WATERS, THE COURTNEYS
(Roseland, 8 NW 6th) Is there a more heartening 21st-century pop success story than Tegan and Sara's? Powering themselves out of Calgary as the world's first band composed of openly gay identical twins, these second-wave righteous babes set about making a body of music that soon relegated their sensational biography to the sidelines. 2007's The Con and 2009's Sainthood (both made with producer Chris Walla) brought them increasing popularity and critical acclaim, and 2013's Heartthrob brought them something like a hit, in the perfectly poppy "Closer." But, as the duo revealed in their recent "It Got Better" video, thanks to the current cultural climate, they're more political than ever—thrilled with the recent gains in marriage equality, and hungry for more. Watch them go. DAVID SCHMADER Also see My, What a Busy Week!

MARIACHI EL BRONX, TIJUANA PANTHERS, POUNDED BY THE SURF
(Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez) Until the release of this year's The Bronx—the fourth eponymous release by the Bronx—the hardcore-lite LA group had laid low for the better part of five years... in a sense. In another sense, their mariachi alter ego Mariachi El Bronx had been doing the heavy lifting, releasing two albums (again eponymously, in 2009 and 2011) to fill the gap. It's a bizarre dichotomy, but Mariachi El Bronx's affinity for scuffing the edges of their other half's aggro-rock makes for inspiring, peppy rushes of SoCal pomp. Gruffy vocalist Matt Caughthran's screeches are rounded off, too, operating in infectious, punk-pinged lullabies with frumpy trumpet arrangements and authentic mariachi vibes. LA underground surf-punkers Tijuana Panthers are also in tow, on the strength of their Richard Swift-produced third LP, Wayne Interest. RYAN J. PRADO

MIRAH, LUZ ELENA MENDOZA
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) When Mirah released You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This in 2000, it felt completely unprecedented. The album's dirty-minded twee-pop had a complex textural palette that seemed to be totally its own. In the 14 years since, Mirah's proven herself a consistently adventurous artist, making four more solo albums, a collaborative album with Thao Nguyen (of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down), a conceptual music project recorded in the mountains of North Carolina, a political folk song collaboration with the Black Cat Orchestra, and a multimedia piece about the insect world. Her latest solo album, 2014's Changing Light, is an epic break-up album that challenges Joanna Newsom's Have One on Me for most the lyrically interesting album that's solely about one relationship ending. It's not cute— there's no "Sweepstakes Prize" on here—but it's one of her best albums in a career of great albums. JOSHUA JAMES AMBERSON

HARD WORKING AMERICANS, THE CONGRESS
(Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside) A long time ago, Todd Snider had this hot-shit band behind him. They were the Nervous Wrecks. One night in Los Angeles, Snider walked off a stage surrounded by celebrities and industry types, and kept going. Right out the door. Three songs in. Wrecks guitarist Will Kimbrough thought they'd be huge, Snider the folk Axl Rose. It didn't happen. Instead, Snider—a Beaverton native—went solo and became an Americana star. Last year he put together the Hard Working Americans, another hot-shit band that includes Widespread Panic's Dave Schools and Great American Taxi's Chad Staehly. They recorded a bunch of songs written by Snider pals like Hayes Carll, Kimbrough, Gillian Welch, and the Bottle Rockets. The whole story is on the released band documentary The First Waltz, a companion to a live record of the same name. RYAN WHITE

THURSDAY 11/13

THE COUP, TOPE, SPEAKER MINDS, MADGESDIQ, VERBZ
(Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez) See My, What a Busy Week!

TRUMANS WATER, OCTAGRAPE, PERMANENT VACATION, AND AND AND
(Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water) Trumans Water formed in San Diego in 1991-ish, then moved its home base to Portland in 1995. From there—er, here—core brothers Kevin and Kirk Branstetter went to work cranking out record after record of classic indie rock that paired crunchy skronk-spasms and effortlessly cool lo-fi pop as well as anyone this side of Pavement's Westing (By Musket and Sextant) collection. Legendary British DJ John Peel loved 'em, famously playing Trumans Water's 1992 debut Of Thick Turn in its entirety on the radio. None of the above added up to much more than cult-fave noise-rocker status stateside, however, and the band was without a US label until 2010, when Asthmatic Kitty released O Zeta Zunis, a record that's at once joyous and jarring. Now that you're caught up, go see Trumans Water on a rare West Coast tour. BEN SALMON

FRIDAY 11/14

FIRST AID KIT, SAMANTHA CRAIN
(Roseland, 8 NW 6th) See My, What a Busy Week!

RAIN PARADE, EYELIDS DAYDREAM MACHINE
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Read our article on Rain Parade.

DANCE GAVIN DANCE, SECRETS, ALIVE LIKE ME, DEFEAT THE LOW, VIGIL WOLVES
(Branx, 320 SE 2nd) See All-Ages Action!

SLOPPY KISSES, WIREHEADS, DARK/LIGHT
(Red & Black Café, 400 SE 12th) See All-Ages Action!

HOBBS' ANGEL OF DEATH, SWARMING DARKNESS, TORTURE RACK, CEMETERY LUST
(Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy) If you have the will to dig far enough into the depths of the metal underground, there's really no end to the treasures you can find. Hobbs' Angel Of Death, hailing from Melbourne, Australia, are buried so deep that their two EPs and full-lengths, released in the mid-'80s and '90s, would probably still be rotting in obscurity if it weren't for the internet and the unquenchable appetite of metal fans. Peter Hobbs, vocalist, guitar player, and the band's only original member, claims the band's music is "virgin metal," an undefiled and pure form of metal. But really, the band's sound is just classic, early-Slayer thrash. It's mean, played at brain-boiling speeds, and has evil, overtly satanic lyrics throughout. In short, it rips, and Portland is yet again being blessed with a once-in-a-lifetime show. ARIS WALES

THE BUG, MANGA, ALTER ECHO, SELECTA YT
(Rotture, 315 SE 3rd) British producer Kevin Martin, AKA the Bug, is touring in support of his latest release, Ninja Tune's Angels and Devils, a dancehall-inspired, bass-heavy mash-up of collaborations featuring several notable emcees/vocalists including Liz Harris of Grouper, Warrior Queen, and Roll Deep's Manga, who will be the live emcee at tonight's show. Top-notch sound design with an air of spaciousness gives Martin's productions a signature sound that's highly sought after. He has a track record of effortlessly exploring and reinventing genres, creating a sound that stands apart, blending violence with dub, and sex with a taste of angelic ambiance. CHRISTINA BROUSSARD

SHAKEY GRAVES, RAYLAND BAXTER, ESMÉ PATTERSON
(Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell) Alejandro Rose-Garcia—better known as Austin-based nu-folk singer/songwriter Shakey Graves—has ascended very quickly and very visibly since his debut LP Roll the Bones dropped in 2011. Whether or not this has anything to do with Rose-Garcia's heartthrob status—stemming from an acting role in Friday Night Lights—is up for debate. During successive appearances in last year's and this year's Pickathon, Graves' sets were teeming with adoring fans, mouths agape, fixated upon the dreamy crooner. Outside of that mystique is the music, and Shakey Graves' sophomore release, And the War Came, attempts to approximate the stompy folk-blues of formerly okay bands like the Black Keys and even early Mumford and Sons. Unfortunately, not even cameos from the likes of Esmé Patterson (a newly minted Portland resident who's opening Shakey's tour) can shake the stuttering, pseudo-anthem patina from the LP. None of this is bound to make the live set any less engaging. RJP

SATURDAY 11/15

NU SHOOZ
(Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th) See My, What a Busy Week!

THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE AND I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE, THE HOTELIER, ROZWELL KID, POSTURE AND THE GRIZZLY, SNOW ROLLER
(Parkway North at PSU, 1825 SW Broadway) Read our article on the Hotelier, and see All-Ages Action!

RUN THE JEWELS, RATKING, DESPOT
(Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez) Read our article on Run the Jewels.

BHOB RAINEY, JODA CLÉMENT
(Redeemer Lutheran Church, 5431 NE 20th) As part of the underground network of cassette labels, Notice Recordings has been sending out missives from the worlds of experimental and modern classical since 2009. And in conjunction with the Creative Music Guild, the imprint is having a small celebration for two of their upcoming releases with a show featuring Vancouver-based composer Joda Clément and Philadelphia's Bhob Rainey. The latter's immersive set will make use of a quadrophonic sound system, filling the Redeemer Lutheran Church with his swelling drones and skittering pulses. Clément combines analog and digital synths for sounds that would fit in the ambient section of your iTunes library, but are far from soothing. His mix of wandering tones and processed field recordings has a scintillating darkness at its molten core. ROBERT HAM

PURLING HISS, WOOLEN MEN, LANDLINES
(The Know, 2026 NE Alberta) Purling Hiss' guitar-driven punk rock is difficult to pin down no matter how clearly you can hear the band's influences. Even at their most loose and ramshackle, Purling Hiss is one tight rock 'n' roll machine. The band—led by Mike Polizze—is even more focused on their latest, Weirdon, which ranges from laidback acoustic strums to frenetic guitar explosives. But Polizze doesn't let a little noise sully a pretty hook, and Weirdon is full of them. In fact, Purling Hiss sounds a little like a stray 120 Minutes band, lost and found two decades later. That's an endorsement, not a warning. PDX band Landlines also release a new cassette tonight, the terrific Log Out, Tune Up, Drop Dead. MARK LORE

OREGON SYMPHONY, ALBAN GERHARDT
(Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway) Our symphony announced its 2014/2015 season eight long months ago, and that's how long I've been waiting for tonight's concert. Sure, the 18th-century cello concerto by Haydn opening up the show will be miraculously charming, especially since kick-ass cellist Alban Gerhardt will be on stage with Portland's favorite instrument between his legs. However, Mahler's Symphony No. 5 is worth the price of a lower balcony seat all by itself. It's a wickedly massive composition, one that demands technical mastery and extremes of emotional expression from every orchestra member attempting to perform its absorbing intricacies. The band is beefed up to 84 members for this gig (including a virtuoso trumpet player backed by a regiment of brass ready to blow), so all systems are GO for an hour-plus musical journey that will depart with a hellish funeral march and arrive at a mind-blowing finale by way of the most beautiful music for strings and harp you will ever hear. This program repeats Monday night, so no one has any excuse for missing the do-not-miss classical show of the year. BRIAN HORAY

MUDHONEY, POISON IDEA, P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S.
(Dante's, 350 W Burnside) For almost 27 years, Mudhoney has made a sound that embodies the dreary majority of the year in the Pacific Northwest. Solemn and wild in equal measure, the band intuitively understands how to capture the feeling of a place through guitar, bass, and drums. When I was given a copy of their 1991 album Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge in ninth grade, I immediately understood where the entire Seattle sound came from. Mudhoney set the template for everything that came after and all the bands that became more popular. Call the sound what you will, but they arguably do it better than anyone else ever has. And this is no reunion show—this is just one of the Pacific Northwest's greatest bands continuing to do what they do best. JJA

SUNDAY 11/16

GENERATIONALS, SPRINGTIME CARNIVORE
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) See My, What a Busy Week!

BITCHIN BAJAS, PULSE EMITTER, SPECTRUM CONTROL
(Turn! Turn! Turn!, 8 NE Killingsworth) There are albums that unfold slowly, and then there's Bitchin Bajas' sprawling self-titled record, released earlier this year by Drag City. At eight tracks and 77 minutes, Bitchin Bajas is an infinite landscape of pastoral drones, deeply chilled tones, and elastic ambient music, woven together using synths, acoustic stringed instruments, field recordings, and gentle percussion. It's an experimental new-age zone-out soundtrack of the highest order, the kind of stuff that roams the mind and reverberates in the body; credit Cooper Crain, Dan Quinlivan, and Rob Frye for doing it without boring the ears. This kind of stuff can be a slippery slope, where the danger of sliding from serene to snoozy is very real. Bitchin Bajas walk that line skillfully. Tonight they'll be joined by two of Portland's finest floaty synth wranglers, Pulse Emitter and Spectrum Control. BS

SANCTUARY, SPELLCASTER, EARTH TO ASHES, CRY HAVOK, TANAGRA
(Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez) Sometimes it only takes one flawless record to solidify a legendary band's reputation. For Seattle's Sanctuary, 1987's Dave Mustaine-produced Refuge Denied is that record. Sanctuary only released one more album before members moved on to form Nevermore in the early '90s, but thanks to the benchmark status of Refuge, Sanctuary can still peak heshers' interest with new material almost 30 years later. 2014's The Year the Sun Died doesn't have the same white-hot fire as Refuge, and vocalist Warrel Dane doesn't seem to have the same limitless range and scathing force behind his voice, but the record still contains well crafted heavy metal that will no doubt translate live. AW

TALILO, SIGNOR BENEDICK THE MOOR, DJ DEVDAN, ALEX WOOGMASTER
(The Know, 2026 NE Alberta) The spaced-and-based hiphop artist Signor Benedick the Moor (né Christian McLaurin) has been called "rap's new cracked actor" by no less an authority than UK magazine The Wire. And when that journal of outré sounds expresses interest, you know you're working on a different level than the rest of the pack. Signor Benedick's 2013 full-length El Negro (apparently recorded solo in McLaurin's LA bedroom) bears this out with eccentric touches like the symphonic opening to "The Tragic Tale of Bisen Fransisco," the metallic guitar that drives "Existential Humanitarianism as a Fashion Choice," and the sheets of noise layered over the pointed "Errybody's a DJ." RH

YELAWOLF, RITTZ, BIG HENRY, DJ KLEVER
(Roseland, 8 NW 6th) Tongue-twisting Southern rapper Yelawolf made a big splash in 2010 with his Trunk Muzik mixtape, a killer collection of bottom-heavy beats, technical showmanship, shadowy vibe, and, most interestingly, a rural, trigger-happy, Deep South POV that immediately set him apart from the rap pack. (That he was handsome and white didn't hurt.) That same year, he also turned in an ear-popping guest verse on Big Boi's excellent Sir Lucious Left Foot album. Since, however, Yela's career has been a wilderness of scattered features, hodgepodge mixtapes, and a major label debut, Radioactive, that didn't take off as expected. His follow-up, Love Story, is coming soon (though that's been the story for a while now). Its first two singles are a mixed bag: "Box Chevy V" is a so-so ode to a truck, but "Till It's Gone" hums with Yela's sneering swagger and easy charm. BS

MONDAY 11/17

FLYING LOTUS, THUNDERCAT
(Roseland, 8 NW 6th) See My, What a Busy Week!

OREGON SYMPHONY, ALBAN GERHARDT
(Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway) See Saturday's listing.

WOVENHAND, BIKE THIEF
(Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez) While a family matter has prevented Pontiak from bringing their psychedelic rock out from Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains for this tour, headliners Wovenhand's shapeshifting Rocky Mountain folk-rock will offer plenty to make this show worth attending. Former 16 Horsepower frontman David Eugene Edwards has spearheaded Wovenhand since 2001, and in that time the side project has evolved into a fully realized force. The band's latest release, Refractory Obdurate, is a massive experimental rock record for the ages in the vein of Michael Gira's latest Swans offerings (albeit at less than half the run time). Edwards' faith and religion are front and center, with the music commanding attention to his fiery sermons. The album's title hints at stubbornness, but the music makes for Wovenhand's best realized effort to date. CHIPP TERWILLIGER

TWIN PEAKS, MEATBODIES, CRIMINAL HYGIENE, MOPE GROOVES
(Star Theater, 13 NW 6th) When Chad Ubovich isn't playing bass alongside Ty Segall and Charles Moonhart in Fuzz, you might be able to catch him ripping monster guitar solos as part of Mikal Cronin's touring band. Tonight Ubovich swings through town with his own band, Meatbodies, and if you're a fan of any of the acts listed above, you don't want to miss out. Meatbodies' recent self-titled album is a thrill-ride of a debut that takes listeners on a relentless, guitar-powered psychedelic journey across peaks and valleys. It firmly establishes the band as a fully formed head in the sprawling monster that the Bay-Area-gone-Los-Angeles garage scene has become. Tonight Meatbodies are joined by scrappy young Chicago rockers Twin Peaks, an exciting quartet that's a poster child for the booming youthful DIY Chicago scene. It's a somewhat bittersweet event, though—a crushing reminder that tonight's show was originally scheduled to be an all-ages affair at the now-shuttered Slabtown. CT

TUESDAY 11/18

DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979, BIBLICAL
(Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside) Biblical's debut Monsoon Season has snuck under too many radars this year. The Canadian four-piece—which includes Nick Sewell and Andrew Scott, both of whom performed on Death From Above 1979 frontman Sebastien Grainger's first solo record—are hard to pin down. They'll lull you and pummel you, often over the course of a single song. Heavy riffs are met with delicate guitar lines that bring together doom, prog, and psych in what sonically translates into science fiction through a '70s lens. Good luck trying to pigeonhole these space cadets—they're already light years ahead. ML Also see My, What a Busy Week!