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This annual collaboration between the Empty Bottle and British music magazine the Wire, which runs from Wed 9/28 to Sun 10/2, leans hard on synthesizer explorations this year: the post-Tangerine Dream workouts of Oneohtrix Point Never, the dark synth-pop of John Maus, the ambient drones of Nicholas Szczepanik, the glitchy software-driven constellations of Oval. But as always, most of the fest’s individual shows collide all sorts of different styles, and the opening-night bill in particular—transcendental tremolo picking from black-metal band du jour Liturgy, ghostly retro-pop from the collaboration of Dirty Beaches and Frankie Rose, electro-funk from Chicago’s own Chandeliers, and the aforementioned synth-pop from John Maus—should be a synapse-shorting hoot. Other highlights include Portland ambient experimentalist Grouper and New Orleans sissy bounce outfit Vockah Redu & the Cru (both on Thursday) and psych-drone drifter Sun Araw (on Saturday). Following a precedent set last year, the five-day event takes place at a variety of venues to accommodate different audiences and atmospheres: the Empty Bottle, Heaven Gallery, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. —Peter Margasak Wed-Sun 9/28-10/2, various times, venues, and acts, emptybottle.com, $15 per show except $20 for Fri 9/30 at the MCA ($16 members, $10 students).
Das Racist, Danny Brown
Brooklyn’s Das Racist and Detroit’s Danny Brown don’t sound very much alike—the former prefers stoner-friendly rhyme schemes and owes a spiritual debt to hip-hop’s golden age, while the latter raps like the Adderall fiend he is and goes for abstract, techno-influenced beats—but they have a lot in common. One thing is that they can both be drop-dead hilarious. For example, Das Racist’s growing discography (including their recent Relax, released on Greedhead, the label run by member Himashu Suri) includes the infamously meme-worthy “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” as well as a beat that flips a sample of Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out”; Brown’s recent XXX (Fools Gold) includes a remake of Young Jeezy’s coke-dealer anthem “Trap or Die” that pays tribute to Detroiters living off of stolen copper scrap. They also both like to use the laughs they get as a way of softening up an audience, so that their lyrics—some of the most formidable being written in the rap world these days—hit extra hard. —Miles Raymer Das Racist headlines; Danny Brown and Despot open. Thu 10/20, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, $15. 17+
