The Expendables / Wednesday, December 8
Matthew Saville
Tame Impala in its natural habitat.
One Last Fruit
Badly Drawn Boy goes back to basics.
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Last time I caught the Expendables in town, they were supporting Slightly Stoopid on a Cauzin' Vapors tour stop at Marymoor Park. Now the tables are turned: Members of Slightly Stoopid are backing their Santa Cruz reggae-rock labelmates as C-Money & The Players Inc. But what both outfits have locked down is a knack for grooving dub bass and catchy guitar riffs, and the Expendables haven't stopped building on their genre-bending foundation with tight rhythms and a true California-grown surf-punk vibe. Aptly titled, their most recent studio record Prove It is indeed a testament to their sonic maturity—and their evolution into uniquely multidimensional music-makers. With John Brown's Body. Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151. 7 p.m. $16 adv./$18 DOS. All ages. NICK FELDMAN
Brooke Fraser / Wednesday, December 8
Kiwi singer/songwriter Brooke Fraser hit it big in her native New Zealand at age 20, where her first album What to Do With Daylight went seven times platinum. Fraser's second album, 2006's Albertine—named after a young child she met in war-ravaged Rwanda—gained her more notoriety stateside. The sentiment is nice and she toured the album heavily, but to make it outside her home country, Fraser simply needs great folk-pop songs. On Flags, released in October, they're in abundance ("Something in the Water," "Ice on Her Lashes"). While she surely won't conquer America overnight, many are onto Fraser, whose future looks as bright as ever. With Sam Bradley. Triple Door, 216 Union St., 838-4333. 7:30 p.m. $17 adv./ $19 DOS. All ages. BRYDEN MCGRATH
Wayfinders / Wednesday, December 8
Like their local peers the Maldives, this Seattle folk-rock four-piece does timeless throwback rock as though they'd time-warped here from 1970 after opening for CSNY. It's no surprise, then, that they're playing with Pipsisewah, a band featuring the Maldives' Jesse Bonn on bass and occasional lead vocals, and the Low Hums, a really badass local ambient psych project. With the Low Hums opening and Wayfinders—far and away the most vintage-sounding of the three—headlining, you can expect this show to feel like a backwards trip through the history of stoner rock. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599. 9 p.m. $6. SARA BRICKNER
Hushd Puppies / Thursday, December 9
Just a week after releasing the debut of his EMP Sound Off!–winning jazz/rap fusion outfit Dyno Jamz, MC Turtle Toes (aka Zac Millan) is already celebrating another project. Officially dropped back in September, the 10-track SSHH!! EP—from the trio of Millan, vocalist Eva Linh, and MC/producer Andrew Savoie—maintains a soulful ambience that gives way to haunting hooks and heartfelt, reflective lyricism. Though a potential for explosiveness sits not far under the surface, you'll more often find the trio in more relaxed contemplation. With Living Proof, Luck One, 5Flat & Brown. High Dive. 513 N. 36th St., 632-0212. 9 p.m. $7. NICK FELDMAN
Neon Trees / Thursday, December 9
The Strokes' influence sings in bands like Kings of Leon and Phoenix, but the most homogenized take on NYC's brat kings has to belong to Utah's Neon Trees, whose debut Habits bears criminal similarities to the Strokes' 2006 First Impressions of Earth. It could be an innocent resemblance, as four years seems a likely cultural time lag between Manhattan and Provo, and there's no denying Neon Trees' songs are sing-along catchy with tons of teen appeal. But there is something wholly distasteful in their stylized (faux-hawks, anyone?) approach. Playing after Fences—masters of organically honed, sincerely edgy pop—will only illuminate the artifice Neon Trees' name suggests. With Middle Class Rut. Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151. 7 p.m. $10.77 adv./$15 DOS. All ages. MA'CHELL DUMA LAVASSAR
Tame Impala / Friday, December 10
Amid a slew of competition, Australia's Tame Impala might just be the best band doing the insurgent-psychedelic-rock thing right now. That's because although their music is a retro throwback to the psych-jam sound of the '70s, it's also filtered through their own youthful lenses, swirling and kaleidoscopic but with a sunny pop flair and accessibility—think the Beatles jamming with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. (It helps that frontman Kevin Parker's vocals at times sound spookily like John Lennon's.) The band's first LP, this year's heady Innerspeaker, was recorded in a beach shack on the Indian Ocean in Perth, and sounds fresh and vintage at the same time. Every song vibrates with spongy, reverb-soaked guitars and drums and hypnotic, solar-powered grooves. With Stardeath and the White Dwarfs. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m. $12. All ages. ERIN K. THOMPSON
Brendan Benson / Saturday, December 11
Detroit/Nashville popsmith Brendan Benson has made a career doing what scientists haven't ever been able to: create a sweet, natural-tasting sugar substitute that has zero calories and few harmful side effects. Fourteen years and four solo albums (as well as two with the Raconteurs) into his research, thousands have been exposed to Benson's sweaty, syrupy pop, yet the latest lab reports reveal no associated health problems aside from occasional feverish feelings, random bursts of energy, and flashbacks to Badfinger concerts. While co-Raconteur Jack White has made no official statements on the matter, photographic evidence suggests that exposure to Benson's vitamin-D-heavy songwriting is the only known factor that can change White's pallor from "Arctic Frost" to "Slightly Cherubic Corpse." With the Posies, Aqueduct. Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151. 7 p.m. $22 adv./$25 DOS. GREGORY FRANKLIN
