Saturday 17
MIXEL PIXEL Mixel Pixel’s Web site requests, “if you are of the ‘critical rock press’ or here to ‘analyze us’ or make us ‘fit in’ to your pile of rock and roll lies please save us the trouble.” Note to band: if you do not want your work judged or analyzed, stop making it publicly available–or at least don’t hire a publicist. Contact Kid (Kanine), the third album by the coed Brooklyn trio, sounds like the Unicorns covering lesser Guided by Voices songs: the music’s lo-fi and quick with the hooks, with bedroom-vibe noodling and goofy-ironic singsong vocals. They spend a good amount of time making cute with the Casio, liberally dispensing what Brooklyn art-school kids understand to be dance beats. But I like them best when they ape Sonic Youth–the dronier bits, the spookier platitudes, the whispery boy-girl back-and-forths. Midstates headline, Mixel Pixel plays third, Single Frame plays second, and Broken Stone opens. 10 PM, Red Line Tap, 7006 N. Glenwood, 773-274-5463, $5. –Jessica Hopper
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ARRIVE On his first trip back to Chicago since moving to the Bay Area in August, saxophonist and composer Aram Shelton reconvenes this excellent quartet, with vibist Jason Adasiewicz, bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Tim Daisy, for a one-off performance. A few months ago the group’s eponymous debut came out on the 482 Music imprint: a set of performances from way back in 2001, it reveals a shared knack for reconciling chamber-jazz restraint with easygoing swing rhythms and impressively elastic improvisation–particularly in the harmonies sketched out by Shelton and Adasiewicz. Even when the leader experiments with extended technique, as in the unpitched reed flickers on the ballad “Because of You,” the music remains lyrical and accessible throughout. And as good as the playing on the album is, the band’s intuition and rapport have grown significantly since it was recorded. 10 PM, Hungry Brain, 2319 W. Belmont, 773-935-2118, donation requested. –Peter Margasak
HAMID DRAKE & MICHAEL ZERANG The winter solstice is the final beat in the year’s seasonal rhythm, and since 1990 local percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang have responded with a few beats of their own. The two begin playing an hour before dawn in a room lit only by candles, working with an assortment of frame drums, bells, gongs, and trap sets. As the sun’s first rays brighten the room, their drumming rises to a crescendo, then abruptly falls silent. In past years the two usually held a series of concerts the weekend before the solstice; this year they’ll perform only three shows, with the first on the day of the solstice itself. See also Thursday. The third concert is Friday, December 23. 6 AM, Link’s Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield, second floor, 773-281-0824, $15. Advance tickets are available at Bookworks, 3444 N. Clark, 773-871-5318. All ages. –Bill Meyer
SUFFRAJETT It’s not that these New York transplants don’t have potential. One of these days, I suspect, I’m going to hear something great out of them–something that’s a bit like the Runaways using Guns N’ Roses technology. (Fortunately, front woman Simi comes off as more of a truly tough Joan Jett-ish survivor than a future Axl-style Hollywood train wreck.) But their recent self-titled EP is if anything a step back from the self-titled LP that preceded it: oomph is there, sex is there, style is there–and songwriting just isn’t. And they’re going to have to come up with an album title sooner or later. The Sleepers, Cisco Pike, Kevin Tihista, and DJ Scott Lucas open. 9 PM, Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee, 773-489-3160 or 312-559-1212, $8. –Monica Kendrick
