THURS JAN 17

Dolphin Midwives, Gamelan Wahyu
Read our story on Dolphin Midwives’ new album, Liminal Garden. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 8 pm, $8-10)

Colter Wall, Vincent Neil Emerson
In his songs Colter Wall sounds like a wistful, world-weary septuagenarian telling stories at the dark end of the bar, but in reality, he’s a 23-year-old r ising country star from Saskatchewan. Wall released his debut LP in 2017, channeling windswept plains with downcast ballads about murder, codeine, and daydreams of motorcycles. Then he went on to stun crowds at Pickathon 2018 with boot-stompers like “Sleeping on the Blacktop,” and released his sophomore album Songs of the Plains a few months later. Here’s hoping Colter Wall continues sounding like an old man for many years to come. (Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside, 8:30 pm, $20-22) CIARA DOLAN

Fri Jan 18 & Sat Jan 19

Doll Party
Fact: Dolly Parton is the greatest human to ever walk this planet. Today she is 73, and to pay tribute to such a momentous occasion, local cover band Doll Party will honor the country legend’s continued existence with two shows at the Fixin’ To, where they’ll don platinum wigs and play her greatest hits and deepest cuts all night long. Ooo-eee! Read our full article on Doll Party HERE. (The Fixin’ To, 8218 N Lombard, 9 pm, $10)

FRI JAN 18

Black Belt Eagle Scout, Amenta Abioto
Arguably the best album to come out of Portland last year, Black Belt Eagle Scout’s Mother of My Children is eight songs chiseled down to their essentials. It’s slowcore heartbreak, bleak and celebratory, a history lesson in the brooding music of the Pacific Northwest. It’s an album that’s both completely familiar and wholly its own. Within its unadorned mantras, Mother of My Children is a queer breakup album, a grief memoir, and a story of Native American resistance. It’s all there if you want it—a work fully distilled and yet too big to easily hold in your hands. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 9 pm, $10-12) JOSHUA JAMES AMBERSON

Toro Y Moi, Old Grape God
Tonight, one-time Portlander Chaz Bear (AKA Toro Y Moi) returns to town to celebrate the release of his new album Outer Peace. If the greatness of singles like “Freelance” and “Ordinary Pleasure” are any indicators, both the record and the show will provide shelter from the cold with sweaty, cathartic disco-funk grooves. (Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell, 9 pm, sold out, all ages) CIARA DOLAN

SAT JAN 19

Colin Meloy
Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy plays this sold-out solo show at the Old Church to benefit Victory Academy, a school for kids on the autism spectrum. (The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th, 8 pm, sold out, all ages) CIARA DOLAN

The Yawpers, Blackfoot  Gypsies, The Hugs
The Yawpers are a grimy, gut-bustin’ rock ’n’ roll band from Denver, and their music is a greasy mĂ©lange of country, rock, blues, and punk, all clustered around a powerful rhythm section and held together by the wild-eyed charisma of frontman Nate Cook. But the Yawpers are more than just a bunch of rockers. Their name is a reference to a line in Walt Whitman’s essential poem “Song of Myself,” their most recent release Boy in a Well is a concept album set in World War I France, and its songs correspond with chapters of a graphic novel by acclaimed artist JD Wilkes. So there’s some thinkin’ going on under all that ruckus! But you’ll forget all about that when the Yawpers are busy reducing you to a puddle of sweat. (Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, $12-14) BEN SALMON

Cautious Clay, Sophie Meiers
Sometimes artists completely catch you by surprise, coming seemingly out of nowhere. And so it was with the smooth, EDM-infected soul of Cautious Clay (AKA Josh Karpeh), who popped up like a whack-a-mole in late 2017 with his emotionally charged debut single, “Cold War.” The lyrics are deep and beautiful, with flowing and occasionally discordant beats that put R&B lovers on alert to see what this talented multi-instrumentalist (he’s a classical flautist, y’all!) would come up with next. Clay did not disappoint—in April 2018, he released Blood Type, which fully explores the concept of love, from its euphoric highs to its dastardly lows, all with smarts, a smoky croon, and digital rhythms that captivate the ear. It’s futuristic bedroom music, and Cautious Clay is bringing it. (Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, 5:30 pm, $15-17) WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY

TUES JAN 22

The Flesh Eaters
Just a few days ago, Los Angeles punk band the Flesh Eaters dropped I Used to Be Pretty, their first new album in 14 years. Ahead of its release, founding vocalist and songwriter Chris Desjardins—who is also a poet, novelist, screenwriter, actor, and director—reunited with guitarist Dave Alvin and drummer Bill Bateman (both of the Blasters), along with bassist John Doe (of X), marimba player and percussionist DJ Bonebrake (also of X), and saxophonist Steve Berlin (the Plugz, the Blasters, Los Lobos). Now they’re spending the next several months bringing I Used to Be Pretty across the country, and based on the ferocity of the record’s first single—a gritty cover of the Sonics’ “Cinderella”—it’s going to be one hell of a victory lap. (Star Theater, 13 NW 6th, 9 pm, $20) CIARA DOLAN

CRITIC’S PICK: Duster, Floating Room

Many of indie rock’s critical darlings were floating in outer space in 2000. Radiohead, Modest Mouse, Grandaddy, and Sigur Rós released landmark albums that played like astronaut dreams, their sounds stretched between past and present, heaven and earth, day and night. Duster’s millennial offering, Contemporary Movement, was similarly inclined toward the stars, but the San Jose trio’s melancholic slowcore evoked earthbound gazing. The album, Duster’s final statement before quietly fading away, is a soundtrack for sitting in midnight traffic and staring at the moon. Like a tired mind softly humming with a vague desire for whatever is beyond the mind, Duster’s unhurried compositions never fully clarify or cohere; voices hide behind dense washes of guitar, verses reach toward choruses that aren’t there, songs end abruptly before they can be caught, tagged, and filed away. The upshot of Duster’s inexact magic is a kind of timelessness, and so the band’s reunion is not an excuse to revisit some bygone zeitgeist, to remember a time of softer skin and better parties and simpler needs. Like one of their own songs, Duster simply stopped when it made sense to stop, leaving listeners with a slim discography and a lingering sense of something unfinished, of something never meant to be finished. The band’s return feels more like the tail end of an epic cross-dissolve than a new beginning. This is where we were supposed to meet them again, in this place none of us ever really left. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 8 pm, sold out) CHRIS STAMM

SAT JAN 26

Portland Cello Project, Patti King
Portland’s genre-bending cello group is pairing up with four of the city’s most soulful vocalists for an evening of melodic bliss. Prepare for the Portland Cello Project’s lineup of classically trained musicians to break the confines of a traditional orchestra performance with sweeping covers of your favorite indie songs. (Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark, 8 pm, $22-25, all ages) ALEX ZIELINSKI

Snail Mail, Choir Boy
Snail Mail’s teenaged ringleader, Lindsay Jordan, writes lovely, sad songs that sound like they just stepped off the Jangling ’90s Indie Rock Time Machine. Her 2018 album Lush is up near the top of many year-end lists. And hey, maybe by this time next year, we’ll be saying the same thing about Choir Boy, a daydreamy synth-pop band from Salt Lake City that will open for Snail Mail tonight. (Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, 9 pm, sold out, all ages) BEN SALMON

Cursive, Summer Cannibals, Campdogzz
Cursive has always been a lot, but that’s the whole point. The band is a blaring and obvious vehicle for Tim Kasher’s disappointment—in himself, his lovers, his band, his profession, you. At its best, Cursive is wickedly cathartic, an almost naughty trip back in time to the white-hot joy of an adolescent tantrum. Last year’s Vitriola was another pissed fit that found Kasher expanding the reach of his pique to include capitalist demons and their many ravening emissaries. It would seem Kasher finally found something evil enough to justify his rage, and his band sounds renewed, ready, and righteous. (Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, sold out) CHRIS STAMM

Eric Bachmann, Maita
Whether under his own name, with the folky Crooked Fingers, or the rocking Archers of Loaf, songwriter Eric Bachmann has consistently delivered some of the best tunes to be found. His latest solo record, No Recover, is a gorgeous conglomeration of the various genre styles he’s tapped over the years, proving that pigeonholing Bachmann is a useless exercise—he simply makes terrific music. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 9 pm, $15-20) NED LANNAMANN

SAT JAN 26-MON JAN 28

Viviane Hagner, Oregon Symphony
Tonight through Monday, phenom fiddler Viviane Hagner teams up with our hometown orchestra to perform a violin concerto she has championed since offering its world premiere in 2002. Created by Korean-born, Berlin-based composer Unsuk Chin, this utterly unique work manages to fit snugly within the western classical tradition while also reflecting a passion for electronic music and 21st-century sonic complexities. Those in attendance will never hear anything like it again. As if that weren’t enough, the evening’s program kicks off with the very first symphony from Beethoven and concludes with Robert Schumann’s majestic Symphony No. 3, whose finale never disappoints. (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, Sat & Mon at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm, $25-125, all ages) BRIAN HORAY

SUN JAN 27

Soft Machine, Moraine
British proggers Soft Machine were the leading lights of the jazzy, improvisational Canterbury Scene, and their first four albums are among the best and most influential albums of avant-rock ever recorded. Today’s iteration finds drummer John Marshall, bassist Roy Babbington, guitarist John Etheridge, and saxophonist/flautist Theo Travis keeping the Soft Machine flame alive with new material (including their latest album, Hidden Details) and plenty of older music from their lengthy back catalog. (Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta, 8 pm, $25-30) NED LANNAMANN

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Witch Mountain, Ruby the Hatchet
Is a human being capable of creating sounds that can transcend physical and mental planes? The answer can be found in an Arthur Brown performance. There are a lot of classic musicians crawling out from the past with mediocre comebacks and raking it in on nostalgia alone. Brown is not one of them. At the ripe old age of 76, the man is as fresh, relevant, and ethereal as ever. Genre and taste aside, Arthur Brown can create entire galaxies onstage. (Star Theater, 13 NW 6th, 9 pm, $30) ARIS HUNTER WALES

MON JAN 28

Mozes and the Firstborn, The Parrots, Billy Changer
Dutch garage-rockers Mozes and the Firstborn swing between muses pretty often. Hinging their scope of interest on poppy songs like the opening track of their new album Dadcore (just released via Burger Records), the crew is clearly run on having fun. But it’s the grungier side of the band’s work that provides the dynamics; locked-in tracks like “If I” and “Fly Out I” conjure the quiet-loud-quiet melodics of formidable ’90s acts. Listen to “Sad Supermarket Song” for further proof, as vocalist Melle Dielesen channels the angst of luminaries like Dave Grohl and Blake Schwarzenbach. (Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, $10-12) RYAN J. PRADO

Juan Wauters, The Morals
Uruguayan singer/songwriter Juan Wauters (of Ramones-inspired garage band the Beets) wrote and recorded his new solo album, La Onda de Juan Pablo, while traveling across Latin America over the past few years. Coming out January 25 on the Captured Tracks label, La Onda de Juan Pablo is sung entirely in Spanish, backed by breezy guitar riffs and hypnotic rhythms (as heard on the record’s standout track, “Guapa”). Also worth checking out: Wauters’ interactive travel diary, which explains how the music of the places he visited impacted the songs on the record. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 8 pm, $10-12) CIARA DOLAN

TUES JAN 29

Hank von Hell, Against the Grain, Long Knife
After frontman Hank Von Helvete left Norway’s Turbonegro for the last and final time, and the remaining members replaced him with a subpar copycat (“The Duke of Nothing”? Yeah, I’ll say...), I really tried to stick with them. But you can’t replace a sparkler with a mortar, so I signed off hoping someday the real rock ’n’ roll fireworks would return. If Hank’s exit from Turbonegro left a hole in your life only catchy, fist-pumping sing-alongs could fill, it’s time to plug that void. The king has reemerged with a new moniker—Hank Von Hell—and a solo record called Egomania. (Dante’s, 350 W Burnside, 8:30 pm, $25) ARIS HUNTER WALES

The Districts, Deeper
If you ever forget that there are lots of people who grew up in the 2000s, take a listen to the Districts, a buzzy young Pennsylvania band whose 2015 breakthrough album A Flourish and a Spoil sounded like the Strokes gone indie, and whose newest album—2017’s Popular Manipulations—dollops on a healthy dose of Interpol- and Arcade Fire-style grandiloquence. It’s all very... competent. On the other hand, tonight’s opening band—Deeper, from Chicago—combines post-punk vibes and sparkling, intricate guitar-pop in interesting ways on their self-titled debut album, which came out last year. (Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, $15-17) BEN SALMON

Anika, Cool Flowers
As one-third of the ranging and chaotic Exploded View, Berlin-based singer Annika Henderson taps into a sublime vibe of imminent collapse, like she has seen a future in which human industry and desire are finally swallowed by forests and wolves. Henderson’s solo work as Anika isn’t quite so terrifying, but it’s equally evocative. Backed by members of Beak>, Anika transforms classics by the likes of Bob Dylan and the Kinks into warbling, post-punky dub journeys that capture the menacing cool of a city at night—you can almost hear the neon bouncing off puddles, the smoke rolling out of red lips. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 9 pm, $14-16) CHRIS STAMM

WED JAN 30

Gabriel Kahane
With a couple years having passed since the 2016 election, we are now elbows-deep in music written and recorded in reaction to the reality of President Donald Trump. Some musicians have produced protest songs. Others indulged in escapism. Brooklyn singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane decided to take the scenic route. The day after Trump was elected, Kahane boarded a train in New York City and traveled nearly 9,000 miles around the country, talking to strangers in an effort to better understand America. That experience forms the core of his new album Book of Travelers, which finds Kahane at the very top of his thoughtful, piano-focused folk-pop game. (The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th, 7:30 pm & 9 pm, $20-25, all ages) BEN SALMON