Music

Stone River Boys ~ Wednesday, July 1

Bruce Willen

Double Dagger: deconstructing your standard rock band.

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More About

• Dave Gonzalez
• Bill Patton
• Tomo Nakayama
• Punk Rock
• Metal and Hardcore

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The Hacienda Brothers were sweet. They could achieve these peak moments ("A Lot of Days Are Gone" is my personal fave) when co-founders Chris Gaffney and Dave Gonzalez channeled the ghosts of Doug Sahm and Gram Parsons. Unfortunately, liver cancer claimed Gaffney's life in 2008, shortly after the release of Arizona Motel, arguably the best album the Haciendas ever recorded. By all accounts, Gonzalez was shattered. To cope, he has done what all great musicians do: bury himself in his music. The Stone River Boys have yet to ink a deal, but a handful of MySpace tracks sound pretty f'n killer. Not unlike the Haciendas, Gonzalez fuses country-and-Western and funky Southern soul into a gnarly brand of roots rock. As always, one of the main attractions is the dude's masterful guitar work. It's truly awesome. With Chuckanut Drive. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599. 8 p.m. $15.JUSTIN F. FARRAR

Grand Hallway ~ Thursday, July 2

Grand Hallway is a name that evokes eminence, a kind of timeless grandeur. Such is the quality of the octet's sprawling orchestral pop music—it's stately without being stuffy, dreamy but not too distant. Grand Hallway's songs are built upon layers of guitar, violin, piano, and percussion—all showcasing frontman Tomo Nakayama's smooth, exquisite tenor. (Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger dubbed Nakayama's "the most beautiful singing voice in Seattle"). The craftsmanship that went into putting these songs together is apparent—some of the lush melodies are stop-in-your-tracks gorgeous, even more so when coupled with the swelling strings and tinkling piano keys—and lyrically, too, they're packed with stirring, picturesque emotion. "When you're lying next to me, I'm a hibernating grizzly bear," lilts Nakayama on "Blessed Be, Honey Bee," a track on Grand Hallway's forthcoming LP, Promenade. Refreshingly, the music lacks tired irony or any other superciliousness; instead, these are simply dazzling and eloquent love songs. With Friday Mile, Apple War, and carcrashlander. Nectar Lounge, 412 N. 36th St., 632-2020. 8 p.m. $7.ERIN THOMPSON

Bill Patton ~ Friday, July 3

Bill Patton claims that he is a "sad bastard singer-songwriter who lives in Seattle, as so many of them do." True, the Emerald Shitty has produced a rather large and stinky pile of this particular brand of weepy white boy. But, as with all niche genres, some performers are better than others. Bill Patton is one of them. A classically trained composer and music teacher, Patton plays songs that are pensive, murky, and atmospherically akin to those early Iron & Wine demos. Yet his lyrics tell stories that are, for all their drizzly mystery, plainspoken and crystal clear. He also covers Black Sabbath's "Fairies Wear Boots," transforming the stoner anthem into a bit of Clarence Ashley–esque hillbilly surrealism. Joining Patton is Mike Dumovich, a Vashon Island native whose music I will forever champion. Like Patton, Dumovich sings pensive songs, delivering them in a matter-of-fact voice and with radiant guitar plucking that can put you in a trance. His lyrics are weighted down with chilly imagery and a very Pacific Northwest gloominess. Dumovich is an idiosyncratic character whose music and personality cannot be neatly boxed up—which is to say, he's a true artist in a music scene full of phonies. With the End of the Night, Sugar and Hate. Jewelbox/Rendezvous, 2322 Second Ave., 441-5823. 10 p.m. $5.BRIAN J. BARR

The Dirty Projectors ~ Friday, July 3

Considering how difficult it is to come up with a decent band name, it's always impressive when a chosen moniker is not only memorable but also legitimately evocative of an artist's sound. Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth has a notorious proclivity for schizoid genre-surfing. Whether he and his rotating cast of accomplices are helming a concept album about Don Henley (2005's The Getty Address) or a nearly song-for-song "re-imagining" of Black Flag's Damaged (2007's Rise Above), Longstreth obviously takes great pleasure in screening the art of others through his own filthy lens, even if the results are as likely to be as unlistenable as they are brilliant. However, with his most recent release, Bitte Orca (Domino Records), Longstreth seems to have found an almost breezy middle ground, infusing a brisk degree of pop melody into a cohesive collection of smartly structured songs without compromising his love of the art-damaged, angular, or abrasive. With What's Up? Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8000. 8 p.m. $12. HANNAH LEVIN

Infected Mushroom ~ Friday, July 3

Infected Mushroom has the kind of genre-spanning sound that finds critics deploying so many hyphens, their copy looks like a wrinkled-carpet portmanteau. (See what I mean?) The scribblers call it psy-trance, thrash-and-metal-something-or-other, and a lot of other essentially meaningless phrases. So let's call it what it is: electronic music. (After all, the essential jock resource DJ Mag saw fit to throw the duo among its 10 best.) Since their breakout disc, 1998's The Gathering, Israeli-born Amit "Duvdev" Duvdevani and Erez Eisen have studded their hallucinatory melodies with angry guitars and wailing vocals as well as more cosmopolitan influences, especially the music of their Middle Eastern homeland. Their upcoming album, Legend of the Black Shawarma (which drops in September on Paul Oakenfold's label, Perfecto), features guest spots by Perry Farrell and Korn's Jonathan Davis. To what extent Infected Mushroom has expanded, or maintained, its embrace of other sounds on their new album isn't known. Let's see what the crits call it. With Gunslinger, Osiris Indriya & Amanita (aka Future Nurses), Johnny Monsoon, DJ Patrick Walen. Showbox SODO, 1700 First Ave. S., 652-0444. 8 p.m. $25 adv./$35 DOS. All ages. KEVIN CAPP