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Mono is touring with sound artist Katsuhiko Maeda, who goes by the name WORLD’S END GIRLFRIEND (or World’s End Boyfriend, or Wonderland Falling Yesterday). His brand-new Hurtbreak Wonderland (Noble) is quixotic and mysterious, following its own labyrinthine logic through manipulated field recordings, walls of distortion, and eerie desertlike stretches of electronic minimalism. On Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain, Maeda’s 2005 collaboration with Mono, the band’s emo-leaning instrumental drama combines with the chill of his weird-science ways to create a haunting tension.
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NAS At the age of 33, Nas is becoming an old man. Always one to insist loudly on the importance of hip-hop fundamentals, he’s never seemed as reactionary and cranky as he does on the new Hip-Hop Is Dead (Def Jam); at one point he takes a petty dig at MCs who can’t quote Big Daddy Kane. Though he’s not moaning the entire time–there are plenty of his typically gritty urban narratives–Nas keeps returning to what he sees as hip-hop’s descent from untainted street art form to moneymaking racket. Fortunately his flow is still strong: even though the tracks are weighed down with comically played-out samples from the Incredible Bongo Band (the title cut) and James Brown (“Where Are They Now”), he somehow keeps them sounding vital. a 8 PM, Congress Theater, 2135 N. Milwaukee, 312-923-2000 or 312-559-1212, $31, 18+. –Peter Margasak
cTHE THING This Scandinavian improvising trio, led by reedist Mats Gustafsson, sets its originals next to tunes by free-jazz icons (Ornette Coleman, Yosuke Yamashita) and primal rock bands (the White Stripes, Lightning Bolt), but novelty isn’t the point. The repertoire choices seem guided solely by a hunger for intensity and beauty–occasionally an either/or proposition but more often mutually reinforcing. Driven hard by drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and bassist Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten and guided by a raw emotional intuition, the group carries the music to one extreme dynamic position after another, from demolitions-grade explosive power to featherlight nuance. A couple years ago the Thing made what looked to be a one-off EP with Norwegian rock band Cato Salsa Experience, but the collaboration proved to have legs: on the brilliant new full-length follow-up, Two Bands and a Legend (Smalltown Superjazzz), the blended group essays both “Louie Louie” and a gorgeously meditative ballad by Blue Notes trumpeter Mongezi Feza, again joined by free-jazz immortal and regular Thing collaborator Joe McPhee. For these shows, celebrating the first anniversary of Ken Vandermark’s Immediate Sound series, the Thing will play two sets a night, with McPhee sitting in on the latter. See also Saturday. a 10 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433 or 866-468-3401, $12. –Peter Margasak
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DAVID DIARREAH Local one-man band David Diarreah reminds me of reading Hit Parader in sixth grade, when I thought the lead singer of Ratt was hott ’cause he had better hair than I did. That is, I think he’s good, but not necessarily because he’s good. On his no-budget recordings he shreds aimlessly on electric guitar, thumbs thwunky bass lines, and whines often unintelligible lyrics. When there’s percussion, it’s a thrift-store drum machine or a cheap hand drum played so unsteadily it’s essentially rhythmless. He occasionally settles into buttery-sunlight acoustic strumming, but he’s really got a boner for four-track doomsday boy metal and stripped-bare punk–and his odd approximations of them are more interesting than spot-on imitations would be. In the end, he just wants to be a rock star so bad that, in a certain sense, he is one. Diarreah performs as part of the Version festival’s Bridgeport Pub Crawl, opening for the Lay All Over Its and Civilized Man. For more on Version>07, see Section 2 or versionfest.org. a 8 PM, Bernice’s Place, 3238 S. Halsted, 773-837-0145. F –Liz Armstrong
cKONONO NO. 1 Though this Kinshasa-based ensemble has released an album called Congotronics (Crammed Discs), its link to electronic music is tenuous at best. Konono No. 1’s songs are as good as any techno for nonstop dancing, but they’re rooted in Bazombo tribal tradition. The band, formed nearly 30 years ago, shouts call-and-response chants over galloping rhythms played on drums, hubcaps, handheld percussion, and three thumb pianos locally called likembes. Only the Hendrixian distortion on the likembes–the by-product of a homemade amplification system that incorporates salvaged car parts–sounds at all electronic. Apparently that’s enough for Bjork, who knows a thing or two about cutting-edge dance music: she recruited the group to play on her upcoming Volta. Unfortunately, until next month you can only hear the collaboration in tiny online snippets of questionable provenance–but tonight you can see Konono No. 1 up close and personal. Unlike the ballroom where they made their Chicago debut a year and a half ago, the Empty Bottle’s cozier performance space should intensify the gloriously in-the-red blare of the old bullhorn loudspeakers they carry to all their shows. a 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $20. –Bill Meyer
