Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Thursday 5

Cinco de Mayo means “games and prizes!” at Eleven and a helluva garage-punk rawker with early sets by ’70s slurrers los Last Years, ex-Sess cats los Shiva Trash, and Spanish 101 Ramones Los Ramons...any club crawler worth his salted rim could hit that before flying down to Kettner to catch the prettiest trio in retro-pop, the Pipettes, at Casbah. These Brighton beauties sing and dance backed by boy band the Cassettes, playing “Phil Spector pop with a modern twist.” The English act’s out to tout last year’s Earth vs. Pipettes (“Our Love Was Saved by Spacemen”).... Keeping it Mexican means Nortec Collective’s electro-pop pair Bostich + Fussible at 4th&B. The Grammy nominees (for ’08’s Tijuana Sound Machine) last year released sophomore set Bulevar 2000: “...the best dance music of all time. It’s sexy, suave, and has real instruments” (SF Weekly).... Else: indie-rock icons Chris Brokaw (Come and Codeine) and Mark McGuire (the Emeralds) roll solo into Tin Can Ale House...while Uptown’ll get down to dance rock by Brit house band Dirty Vegas and the in·de·fat·i·ga·ble Jamuel Saxon. I had to look that one up.

Friday 6

For you party people who like to throw your hands in the air and junk, Austin’s “funk-wave” fest faves Ghostland Observatory bring that thing to 4th&B...the B-52s bomb Pechanga with it Friday night and Solana Beach’s Belly Up Tavern on Sunday...and House of Blues has Atmosphere, an alt-hop duo from Minneapolis that has a certified crit hit with their sixth, The Family Sign.... The rest of you: barroom-rocking beardos Dead Feather Moon hang over Eleven. The band’s set to mixing their folksy blues-rock debut to be released “in the very near future.” Piano-driven indie-pop chanteuse Maren Parusel and her band land first.... And visual hit Operation:Mindblow sets up at Soda Bar with psychedelic garage rock by the Loons, Joy, Sugarrush Railroad Inc., and Riververb. Feed your head.

Saturday 7

Fuzzy wuzzy indie-rock duo the Raveonettes just dropped Raven in the Grave, their fifth Vice Records release. Early reviews agree that the disc’s a departure for the Danes, dressing their noise pop in goth. Lead single “Recharge & Revolt” is grade A Mary Chain ’gaze. They’ll be at Belly Up Saturday with SanFran psych-pop band Tamaryn for what looks on paper like one cavity-rattlin’ double bill.... Upthataway, at UCSD’s Ché Café, you got pop-rock gang Get Back Loretta, Inspired and the Sleep playing a CD-release thing for their new EP Kaleidoscope Years, and Pilots...and across campus at the Loft, folk-pop chowdaheads Ezra Furman & the Harpoons have Mysterious Power.... Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis joins Black Heart Procession and Mrs. Magician to fill a dark-pop bill at Casbah. JM’s Sub Pop solo debut, Several Shades of Why, is a kinder, gentler J that Pitchfork described as “lullabies for adults.” Haven’t heard it, but the guest list, which includes Black Heart’s Pall Jenkins, is pretty impressive. Black Heart’s on their way to the U.K. after this hometown show.... Celtic punx Lexington Field’ll follow that Old Dirt Road with a new video, which they’ll screen at the Shakedown after Tucson crew Tory’s Bucket plays a reunion gig.... And John Kay & Steppenwolf (“Born to Be Wild,” “Magic Carpet Ride”) are steppen up for the orangutan. You read it right, mein freund, 4th&B’s hosting a benefit for Orangutan Foundation International. Apparently the big orange ape’s population’s at stake: orangutan.org.

Sunday 8

Cawl ya Mutha! Happy Mother’s Day, moms. We love you and stuff.... If you can untangle yourself from the apron strings, Borderland ambient band Marquez! is playing Soda Bar with Swiss acoustic-folk duo Chapter...Lambchop fans, take note, Nawlins roctet My Jerusalem will pack the stage at Tin Can Ale House in advance of their slow-country swinger Gone for Good...and, like I tol’ you, the B-Five Twos are at Belly Up if Mom wants to get her rock lobster on.

Monday 9

A lotta heavy metal hits House of Blues Monday night, as Brazilian badasses Sepultura stack ’em tall and deep on the downtown stage with Belphegor, Hate, Keep of Kalessin, Neuraxis, and Bonded by Blood.... Can’t get much more anti-Monday than that, but SanFran trance-rock band Zodiac Death Valley will give it a try at Casbah’s work-week welcome mat. Get you doin’ the “Methadone Mambo”: myspace.com/zodiacdeathvalley. Schitzophonics and Doves and Desperadoes set it up.

Tuesday 10

That fine, fine Fugee and multiple Grammy winner Lauryn Hill’s out at Humphrey’s Tuesday night, as the bayside stage heats up for its summer run.... Cinci kids the Greenhornes ride into Casbah after Jeff the Brotherhood. You already know that the rhythm half of Greenhornes is the rhythm half of Raconteurs, what you didn’t know is — shh, c’mere — these guys are way better.... And House of Blues books “an evening with” prog-metal New Yorkers Coheed and Cambria, who are touring in support of their latest, Year of the Black Rainbow. It’s a prequel to a concept collection they’ve already made. I dunno. I’m so out of my element here.

Wednesday 11

Hardcore Will Never Die, but You Will. Belly Up books the gig to get to this week, as Scot post-rockers Mogwai take the Solana Beach stage behind their latest sonic skyscraper. The instrumentalists are masters of the build-and-release universe. It’s sex music for chaos theorists. (I just Googled that sentence. It’s never been written before.) Go! Thank me Thursday.... ’Course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Seattle psych-pop throwback act the Purrs play Tin Can Ale House after Tearing Down Paisley Garden. Great record, great band...and Philly carny-rocker Honus Honus (think Big Time–era Tom Waits...parodying himself...in a waxed ’stache) and his band Man Man will be at Casbah with the spanking-new Life Fantastic.

— Barnaby Monk