Thursday, Feb. 16
Dolorean, Wooden Nickles
Dunes. 9:30 p.m. Free. 21+.
Dolorean plays slow chamber folk, similar to what Iron and Wine would sound like with a bigger band. For some, the ornate and dramatic songwriting feels beautiful and pure, while it just puts others to sleep.
Friday, Feb. 17
Doomtown 3: Rock ‘n’ Roll Fashion Show with Pretty
Girls Make Graves, The Punk Group, Caves, DJ Gregarious
Crystal Ballroom. 8 p.m., $7 advance, $10 DOS All Ages.
Uggh. This show depresses me. A fashion show plus live music? Besides being a sensory overload, shows like this are bound to make most of us feel even more un-cool than we already do. Not to mention Pretty Girls Make Graves are painfully overrated, making the kind of obvious, trying-too-hard-to-be-important dance punk that music magazines want you to believe is the voice of your generation.
Reading Frenzy Benefit: Quasi, Viva Voce, Scuffle and Dustcough
Holocene. 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 DOS. 21+.
Quasi’s Featuring Birds is one of my favorite albums. Quasi’s Field Studies is also one of my favorite albums. Quasi’s Sword of God got sold back to the store. Quasi’s Hot Shit? Umm … the less said the better. Just cross your fingers they play mostly old stuff.
Saturday, Feb. 17
Planet Asia, Casual, Rasco, AWOL One with Daddy Kev and D-Styles
Berbati’s Pan. 9:30 p.m., $12 adv., $15 DOS. 21+.
Bay Area represent! This is a Bay Area hip-hop super show, and I really don’t have to recommend it to true underground hip-hop fans. But since I’m not a true underground hip-hop fan, I’m going to say why West Coast underground hip-hop so often fails to impress: weak beats. Weak, boring, jazzy beats that sound like a sleepwalking DJ Premier sucked the life right out the work of the Hieroglyphics, Planet Asia and Zion I.
Monday, Feb. 19
Mice Parade, Tom Brosseau, Small Sails
Holocene. 9 p.m. $7, 21+.
I’m really digging Mice Parade’s Bem-Vinda Vontade. Despite the fact that it doesn’t come on that strong at first listen, it’s a beautiful album that has a lot of little musical bits and pieces you can appreciate over time. And unlike fellow paraders Wolf Parade, Mice Parade isn’t desperate to be crowned Greatest Indie Rock Band Since Arcade Fire.
Tuesday, February 20
No No No Disco with DJ Nightschool
The Tube. 10 p.m.
Apparently DJ Nightschool, besides playing the requisite LCD Soundsystem and Le Tigre, also spins stuff by The Smiths, New Order, Morrissey, The Fall and Xiu Xiu, which means he’s a DJ after my own heart.