JAPANDROIDS
(Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water) With merely a guitar, a drum kit, and a ton of passionate energy, Vancouver, BC, duo Japandroids make music on a monumental scale, with waves of rock bliss pouring off their fuzzy, poppy anthems. They'll perform a bunch of brand-new tunes from their next record, due out next year. NED LANNAMANN

R. STEVIE MOORE, TROPICAL OOZE, LAKE, THE NIGHT GAME CULT
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) Read our article on R. Stevie Moore.

KAYLEE COLE, SUN ANGLE, LEMOLO
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) Perhaps you've been lucky enough to catch one of Kaylee Cole's performances scattered throughout the Rose City in the past couple years. Surely it was an intimate experience, the Seattle chanteuse leaving you rapt with her ivory confessionals and thick, tempered vocals that simmer and soar to a boil in no time at all. With the recent help of TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, though, Cole's new songs are better suited for the dance floor than the buffed marble of a hotel lobby, her lonely waltzes transposed into more dynamic, synth-drenched soundscapes. This show will be her very first with her new band (including past members of Hockey and local jazz cat Ben Darwish), and all will be working to recreate much of the album that Cole and Sitek have been dreaming up out in the Los Angeles canyon lands. You won't be able to own a physical copy until early 2012, so allow this amuse-bouche to prepare you for the exciting sounds to come. RAQUEL NASSER

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LIBRARY VOICES, BIRD COSTUMES, GREAT WILDERNESS
(Rotture, 315 SE 3rd) Read our article on Library Voices.

JANET JACKSON
(Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay) The queen of the "Rhythm Nation" (AKA Janet Jackson, AKA Ms. Jackson—but only if you're nasty) brings her Number Ones, Up Close and Personal tour to the Keller, which not only means a night packed with her monster hits, but she'll be almost close enough to touch. Join me in squealing, "EEEEEEE!!!" WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY

STILL FLYIN', HELLO MTN
(The Woods, 6637 SE Milwaukie) Still Flyin' are an unabashed party band. And at 15 members, these San Francisco indie-rock all-stars (members drop in from the likes of the Aislers Set, Track Star and Je Suis France) are a party in and of themselves. Fronted by Sean Rawls, this musical army leans heavily on '80s feel-good sounds—think yacht rock, blue-eyed reggae, Huey Lewis—and mash it all into extended pop jams that have been dubbed "hammjamm." And while "party" bands typically err on the side of cheesy (I'm talking Easy Cheese between two slices of Velveeta sprinkled with Cheetos), it's nice to know there's at least one out there that still knows how to party responsibly. MARK LORE

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SHEARING PINX, ASSS, VICE DEVICE, SICK JAGGERS
(Tube, 18 NW 3rd) Canadians Shearing Pinx are legends in their own right, having released over 50 records since 2005. One of the most unconventional bands of our era, the Pinx have no shame in stripping rock music naked and leaving it exposed and embarrassed. While their earlier efforts were so absonant they were barely listenable, in recent years they have focused their misadventures into no-wave and decimated blues. The guitars are still beaten out of tune, but the band has developed a tactical rein on the madness. The result is a rat's nest of blister-popping noise-punk, the kind of no-bullshit remedy you've earned after a long Monday. CHRIS CANTINO

POCKETKNIFE, CHARTS
(Beauty Bar, 111 SW Ash) Charts give it away for free, and you'd be a fool not to take them up on it. Their Birds and Bees EP, a six-song hit parade of junky pop 'n' roll, is available on their Bandcamp page for the totally achievable cost of nothing. As soon as you download it—which you are doing right now, yes?—you'll discover that its songs are brash and exuberant basement jams, with twinges of Kinksy British Invasion and choruses that you'll memorize upon first listen. Tonight's show with Pocketknife—who just released their own fun EP, Tough as Snails—is also free, which means that you can take in the entire Charts experience without spending a measly cent. NED LANNAMANN

DENVER, KYLE MORTON
(Doug Fir Patio, 830 E Burnside) Lube yourself up in sunscreen and catch some rays while enjoying a cozy Pickin' on Sundays patio set from Denver and Kyle Morton. Denver is the rootsy supergroup with members of Blitzen Trapper, Alela Diane's Wild Divine, and more, while Morton is the leader of Typhoon, the massive in size (and sound) pop group that just so happened to appear on Letterman earlier this month. EZRA ACE CARAEFF

NORTHWEST LOVE JAM: GINUWINE, DRU HILL, FAITH EVANS, JON B, ANDREW GARCIA
(Memorial Coliseum, 300 Winning Way) It's like making sweet, sweet love... in the late '90s! Your fave R&B artists from the last century return for the Northwest Love Jam, a sexified evening of hot, buttered soul featuring Ginuwine ("Pony"), Dru Hill ("In My Bed"), Jon B ("They Don't Know"), and Faith Evans ("Love Like This"). Don't forget your diaphragm! WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY

DOUBLEPLUSGOOD, XDS, WILD ONES
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) DoublePlusGood, the duo of Andy Nelson and Erik Carlson, have released a series of lovely EPs in the past couple years, and now they've got a full-length called Here They Come, the Birds of My Youth. It's a terrific album, a sweet and infectious synth-pop record that isn't afraid to sound ecstatic. With trilling, buzzing synths forming day-glo walls around Carlson's anchored drums, DoublePlusGood has quite simply found an untouched corner of the pop pasture and harvested it for all it's worth—quick-clip dance beats, wistfully familiar synth patches, layered Beach Boy harmonies, and a tweeful, gleeful energy that's impossible to manufacture. The album, out on Carlson's SoHiTek label, is destined to pack dance floors across Portland, but it sounds just as good on headphones. NED LANNAMANN

DEAD PREZ, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GZ, TOPE
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Of course it's still bigger than hiphop. Even if those who coined this now omnipresent call-to-arms haven't actually made a whole lotta, you know, hiphop in recent years. Dead Prez forever altered the political hiphop landscape with Let's Get Free, but that was 11 years ago (your president at the time: Bill Clinton) and their sporadic output since (2004's disappointing Revolutionary But Gangsta, and a handful of hit-or-miss mixtapes and solo releases) hasn't exactly set the world aflame for stic.man and M1. That's not to say that the sharply penned militant anthems of Dead Prez still can't raise a crowd of balled fists to the heavens—they surely can—but it might be nice to hear some fresh marching orders from these two distinguished emcees. EZRA ACE CARAEFF

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