thursday16
Thursday16
Najat Aatabou, Justin Adams & Juldeh CamaraJon Irabagon & Mike PrideMoanersWhite Mystery
Friday17
Andrea MarcovicciThose DarlinsTotal Abuse
Saturday18
Harvey MilkAndrea Marcovicci
Sunday19
Andrea MarcovicciMin Xia-Fen Asian Trio
Monday20
Andrea Marcovicci
Tuesday21
Future of the LeftPsychedelic Horseshit
Wednesday22
Keefe Jackson & Frank Rosaly
JON IRABAGON & MIKE PRIDE A lot of great artists have won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition since it started in 1987, but not till last year, when New York saxophonist Jon Irabagon took top honors, did the prize go to a musician bent on pushing past the traditional mainstream sound. In the wild quartet Mostly Other People Do the Killing he works within the bebop continuum even as he merrily subverts it, and though his Monk winnings include a contract with the relatively conservative Concord label—the album is due this fall—he just released a disc with iconoclastic New York drummer Mike Pride, I Don’t Hear Nothin’ but the Blues (Loyal Label), that makes it clear he’s got a maverick streak a mile wide. It consists of a single 47-minute improvisation that storms like the locomotive on the album cover through a series of riffs and lines, many of which recur repeatedly in mutated forms to create a nonstop flurry of shifting settings—free jazz, rock, blues, speed metal—but never come off the rails. And each section of this epic, though spontaneously created, retains the focus and concision of a pop song. For a Q&A with Irabagon, visit my blog Post No Bills. Frankenstein opens. a 10 PM, Elastic, 2830 N. Milwaukee, second floor, 773-772-3616, $7 suggested donation. A —Peter Margasak
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THOSE DARLINS Just when I thought the alt-country mine had collapsed, this trio of punked-up southern belles climbed out into the sunlight with the most immediately charming debut album since the Old 97’s made Hitchhike to Rhome. It’s got tuneful yet conversational vocals, snappy lyrics, and almost annoyingly catchy melodies, but like an Old 97’s disc, Those Darlins (released on the group’s own label, Oh Wow Dang) gets its biggest jolt of excitement from the drumming. The difference is that Those Darlins don’t even count a drummer among the official members of the band. Jeff Curtin, who produced the record, is credited with drums on three-fourths of the tracks, and road drummer Linwood Regensburg, aka Sheriff Lin, plays on the rest, but neither man turns up in the group’s promo photos. I don’t know what that says about their status—maybe they’re just not sufficiently darlin’ to qualify for full membership. But their joyful variations on simple beats can turn even a lightweight song like “The Whole Damn Thing”—it’s about getting sauced and eating a chicken that’s been sitting out too long—into a barn burner. Puking Pearls and Deep Sea Diver open. a 10:30 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, $10, $5 with Pitchfork wristband. —Ann Sterzinger
sunday19
tuesday21
