Sept. 23–25: KEXP's Shake the Shack Rockabilly Ball The Ball does two things well. First, it isn't opposed to venturing outside the confines of rockabilly for the sake of hosting talented performers. Second, each bill is a balance of local and national touring talent. Thursday is surf night, Friday features Little Rachel—whose powerful pipes are more Etta James than Wanda Jackson—and local country darling Vince Mira. But if you absolutely require your rockabilly unsullied by the ravages of time, see Saturday's show: Cincinnati's Jerry King & the Rivertown Gamblers serve their revivalist rockabilly neat, complete with shoo-wop harmonies and hiccup vocals straight out of Buddy Holly's playbook. SARA BRICKNER Tractor Tavern, tractortavern.com
Brady Hall
La Sera: comparatively tender.
Peter Ellenby
The quartet's first fruits.
Alexandra Valenti
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Oct. 2: La Sera Katy Goodman, bassist for the fuzzy indie-rock concern Vivian Girls, is striking out on her own, making a record for the fuzzy indie-rock label Hardly Art as La Sera. The arrangement begins with a 7-inch single out November 16 featuring "Never Come Around," the first track to surface from the project. If the song is any indication, we're in for plenty of the fuzz and thud-smacking drums of the Vivian Girls, but with Goodman's comparably tender vocals standing out from the melee. La Sera's also playing their debut show at The Funhouse on Oct. 2. And if you haven't noticed already, Goodman's as easy on the eyes as she is on the ears. CHRIS KORNELIS The Funhouse, thefunhouseseattle.com
Oct. 9: REVERB Local Music Festival Now in its fourth year, REVERB has become the unofficial kickoff to Rocktober, if we do say so ourselves. More than 60 local bands will descend on a dozen Ballard venues for a night of good tunes, crusty jokes, plenty of Jägermeister (yes, they paid for that plug), and Genesee Beer (that one, too), which will go down just as smooth as the Roy Kay Combo, Whalebones, Victor Shade, Feral Children, Hobosexual, Caspar Babypants, Ivan & Alyosha, Helladope, and dozens of other acts. For more information on the city's biggest all-local music festival, check out the site. CHRIS KORNELIS Various Ballard venues, seattleweekly.com/reverbfestival
Oct. 22: The Vaselines After a 20-year hiatus, this Scottish duo—Kurt Cobain's favorite band—are reunited, and this month, Sub Pop released their sophomore record, the breezy and carefree Sex With an X. "We just wanted to make a positive record, quite upbeat," says Vaselines co-founder Eugene Kelly. "We wanted to make people happy." The tongue-in-cheek tunes of Sex, like "I Hate the '80s" and "Overweight But Over You," are sure to make fans smile, both on record and when the Vaselines hit Neumos on Oct. 22 with the Dum Dum Girls. "It seems like we've been rehearsing forever," says Kelly. "We can't wait to play the songs for an audience." ERIN K. THOMPSON Neumos, neumos.com
Oct. 29: Dr. Dog This band's quirky, psychedelic folk-pop is a heart-shaped peg trying to jam itself into a square hole. Sometimes people want to call it Americana. But all the genres employed in Dr. Dog's distinctive mutt of a sound are combined in proportions that oscillate wildly from one album to the next. That's why the band's so good: Each time you hear them, the sound is always familiar, but never quite the same. SARA BRICKNER Showbox SoDo, showboxonline.com
Nov. 11: The Lonely Forest Released this week, their self-titled EP is the first fruit of the Anacortes quartet's recent labors with Death Cab's Chris Walla as their producer. Lead singer John Van Deusen and company have spent the greater part of the summer in recording studios from San Francisco to Portland, and the resulting songs—hooky and heartbreakingly pretty—are just precursors of the full-length Arrows, to be released next year. The band is sure to showcase plenty of new material when they co-headline with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. ERIN K. THOMPSON Neumos
Nov. 29: The Black Angels & Black Mountain While the sheer volume of bands with "black" in their names has reached preposterous levels, the redundant moniker component at play on this tour is cause for serious joy. Two celestial-minded psych-rock bands release their best albums yet and hit the road together? Serendipitous, lysergic marriages don't get much dreamier than this. (But which band is shown in the photo? Guess.) HANNAH LEVIN Showbox at the Market, showboxonline.com
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