Common Market
RA Scion is the James Agee to Sabzi's Walker Evans. Together, the Seattle-based MC and his producer create elegiac tone poems to the sepia-toned working poor that are music's, and this generation's, equivalent of Agee and Evans' Depression-era exploration Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Although the duo's 2008 effort, Tobacco Road, probably won't rise to canonical status (life isn't fair, and nobody knows it better than Scion and Sabzi), there are songs on it as heartfelt and inventive and just plain listenable as anything in contemporary mainstream hip-hop. "Weather Vane" finds them at their best, with Scion performing linguistic jujitsu as Sabzi backs him up with a cold, keyboard-laden production. Their newer material finds the socially conscious pair exploring the sounds of the Crescent City—perfect fodder for these local treasures. Fisher Green Stage, 5:45 p.m. KEVIN CAPP
Courtesy of Bumbershoot
Vivian Girls
Courtesy of Bumbershoot
Roy Ayers
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Vivian Girls
The blonde bombshell, the fun-loving redhead, the frumpy brunette...to say the Vivian Girls can come off as contrived would be an understatement. They could easily pass as a physical manifestation of the Archies (well, if they kicked out the dudes and hired Cheryl Blossom). Yet the Brooklyn garage-rock trio has become a subject of fascination in the indie-music circuit—and fetishized as well. Still, critics loved their eponymous debut album. It was far from polished; the band makes music that sounds like demo tapes the Shangri-Las or the Wipers might have recorded before making it big in the '60s. It's catchy. But it's also scrappy as hell. Broad Street Stage, 6 p.m. ERIKA HOBART
Roy Ayers
While various artists today try to mimic or recreate the sound of '70s soul, very few if any seem to remember the importance of the vibraphone. During the '70s and early '80s, Roy Ayers dominated the acid jazz/soul jazz realm while using the instrument on classic songs like "We Live in Brooklyn, Baby" and "Everybody Loves the Sunshine." Ayers' funky yet jazz-rooted approach as a vibraphonist was so emblematic of the period that he even scored the 1973 blaxploitation film Coffy. These days he's still making music and collaborating with contemporary artists, but today expect a set of sweet jams hip enough to make fans of mellow grooves and more-upbeat funk enthusiasts happy at the same time. Fisher Green Stage, 7:30 p.m. JONATHAN CUNNINGHAM
MSTRKRFT
It took about three years, but Canadian electro-house duo MSTRKRFT finally released the follow-up to their acclaimed debut, The Looks. On Fist of God, Jesse F. Keeler and Al-P deliver hard, grimy beats punctuated by good ol' American rock (and fresh cameos by MCs such as Ghostface Killah and E-40). At times, the hockey-mask wearing jocks/producers take too much glee in journeying to the dark heart of the matter, as evidenced by the torturous breakdown of "Vuvuvu." But on other tracks, such as album closer "1,000 Cigarettes," the Metallica-like guitar riffs and the propulsive street chants of guest MC Freeway combine to make a delicious hardcore romp. Rockstar Stage, 8:30 p.m. KEVIN CAPP
DJ Spooky
DJ Spooky, "That Subliminal Kid," takes Norman Mailer's advice to approach women like cats, from the side, and applies it to music. Spooky is some kind of mad scientist, throwing chemicals together in the beakers and waiting for a reaction. Drums of Death, his collaboration with Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, is all bang and bluster and haunted-house yowlings, while Optometry saw the D.C. native tapping progressive jazz artists such as William Parker. Sense a pattern? Didn't think so. There isn't one with Spook, save for this: The guy thinks harder about the possibilities of turntablism, of the DJ as post-millennial auteur, than anybody else. His music can be too theoretical, true, but when you're trying something new all the fucking time, you're bound to fall down on occasion. The important thing is to pick yourself back up—and DJ Spooky always does. EMP Sky Church, 9:30 p.m. KEVIN CAPP
