Friday 7
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JANA HUNTER For better and worse, Texan Jana Hunter has been pegged as a freak-folk protege: her first solo release was a split 12-inch with Devendra Banhart, and she was the first artist signed to Gnomonsong, the imprint run by Banhart and Vetiver’s Andy Cabic. While the cracked, homemade feel of her full-length debut, Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom, its whispery tunes swimming in ambient noise and reverb, is enough to warrant the tag, in other ways the record defies expectations. The multitracked, ragged harmonies on “The Earth Has No Skin” and the cheesy Casiotone preset tracks on the hooky “K” position her more as a quirky pop singer with a penchant for naked arrangements and elliptical, feverish lyrics. Her brother John, who played with her in the band Matty & Mossy, will accompany her on guitar and bass. Rosie Thomas headlines, Luke Temple plays second, and Hunter opens. 10 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, $10. –Peter Margasak
PAS/CAL This Detroit indie-pop septet fetishizes the cosmopolitan counterculture of 1960s Paris like mad. The covers of their two EPs (both on Le Grand Magistery) are “candid” snapshots of the natty crew, perhaps discussing the new Gore Vidal book, a nude lingering in the margins. And wait until they start explaining themselves: “The spark that ignited Pas/Cal . . . was provided by [guitarist] Gene Corduroy’s dubious dare to the group: improvise a pop song with the wit, charm and craft of a masterwork that had been labored over for months.” I guess they decided laboring for months at a time was fun, because they ended up building their own studio in a converted garage to record their second EP, Oh Honey, We’re Ridiculous, and so far they’ve spent a couple years recording their first LP. Honey bears no resemblance to a Michel Legrand film score–the five songs are richly arranged, carefree pop numbers. One of the band’s earlier tracks, “The Bronze Beached Boys,” recently turned up in a Saturn commercial, though I imagine they’re more the Reliant three-wheel convertible type. Asobi Seksu headlines, Pas/Cal plays second, and Sleep Out opens. 9 PM, Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee, 773-489-3160 or 312-559-1212, $10. –J. Niimi
Sunday 9
Tuesday 11
IMPERIAL BATTLE SNAKE This evil quartet, whose members give themselves names like Mlodzilla Mlodzinski and Doom Wop Costanza, has the longest list of influences I’ve ever seen on a MySpace band page, though that’s not a marker of artistic complexity: they play timeless, unadorned booze metal that’s slightly political and menacing at first but actually rather friendly and goofy once you get to know it. This is a release party for their new album, the self-released Attack. Bible of the Devil headlines, the Nerds play third, Imperial Battle Snake plays second, and Velcro Lewis & His 100 Proof Band open. 9 PM, Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee, 773-489-3160 or 312-559-1212, $7. –Monica Kendrick
METRIC The twitchy new-wave agitpop of Metric’s 2003 debut, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (Everloving), failed to change the world, so it’s understandable that these Toronto art punks sound less hopeful and more heels-dug-in on the follow-up, Live It Out (Last Gang). The hooks are less immediate and Emily Haines’s sloganeering is more desperate, but her lines are still just as dead-on: “Buy this car to drive to work / Drive to work to pay for this car” and “I fought the war but the war won” pithily encapsulate recognizable frustrations. And “less immediate” doesn’t mean “less tuneful”–the songs just need a little more time to nab you. The Elected and From Fiction open. 7 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, 773-549-0203 or 312-559-1212, $12. All ages. –Keith Harris
