FESTICIDE
(Various venues) Festicide is Portland's anti-fest, nullifying the city's other summer music festivals by staying indoors, staying local, and staying cheap. But in its second year, Festicide seems less like a knee-jerk response to heavily advertised events like MusicfestNW and more of its own thing: a celebration of loud, heavy, underground bands that don't fit in nicely with the multitude of sponsor logos that appear on the bottom of some festival posters. You can't go wrong with any of the fest's nine events—at various venues throughout North and Northeast Portland, mostly—but what's really depressing is how many of last year's Festicide venues are no more: Slabtown, Alhambra Theatre, East End... and this year, proposed events at Habesha and Beacon Sound had to be canned, too. Hmm. Maybe we really do need to get out of the park and back into the bars. The weekend's highlights include Danava and Rabbits tonight at Black Water Bar, Gaytheist and Drunk Dad at Star Bar on Saturday, and a Sunday afternoon record swap at the American Legion on NE Alberta with music from Jenny Don't and the Spurs. NED LANNAMANN Also see My, What a Busy Week!


MUSICFESTNW: FOSTER THE PEOPLE, MISTERWIVES, MILO GREENE, LOST LANDER
(Tom McCall Waterfront Park, SW Naito & Yamhill) MusicfestNW 2015's main event launches tonight with four bands in the park, and while terrific local modern-popsters Lost Lander kick the evening off, you'll need to wait until Sunday for MFNW's best action, when we'll get, back to back: Divers, Pure Bathing Culture, Strand of Oaks, Lady Lamb, the Helio Sequence, Danny Brown, and the Tallest Man on Earth. All of these artists are performing some version of Western popular music at its finest (Strand of Oaks boasts the weekend's highest quotient of chills-per-song factor, if that interests you). That Sunday run concludes with a set from Modest Mouse, but if you've heard their new album, you can be forgiven for not sticking it out. Saturday's lineup is mixed, with evergreen pop alchemists Belle and Sebastian as the undisputed highlight. NL Also see My, What a Busy Week!


MIGUEL, DOROTHY
(Roseland, 8 NW 6th) Read our article on Miguel.


FUCKED UP, AND AND AND, WIMPS
(Star Theater, 13 NW 6th) See My, What a Busy Week!


THANKS, JUST LIONS
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Of the many retro-soul, rock-soul, and indie-soul bands to pop up in the last few years, Thanks might be the only one that owes as much to Echo and the Bunnymen as Etta James. Thanks are regularly described as "dark soul," but that designation makes them sound like brooding shoegazers rather than the catchy and exciting group they are. The pairing of electric guitar, bass, and drums with haunting synth and cello give the band their gothic rock 'n' roll vibe, while singer Jimi Hendrix's sultry, impassioned vocals give them their soul. They released their first EP in 2012, Silver Scars Will Be Our Constellations, but they refined their sound more tightly on 2014's full-length, Blood Sounds, one of last year's best local albums. Thanks might have the least googleable name in the world, but their sound is completely their own. SANTI ELIJAH HOLLEY


SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, HUSH ARBORS
(White Eagle, 836 N Russell) Nearly 20 years into his career, Six Organs of Admittance guitarist/vocalist Ben Chasny continues to find new ways to make rock sound vital. His latest album for Drag City, Hexadic, revolves around a system of guitar-oriented composition determined by a deck of cards and notes for a book Chasny wrote titled The Hexadic System. You can get the full explanation at sixorgans.com, but suffice it to say, the new approach has spurred Chasny to create his most brutal collection of songs yet. In places, Hexadic even surpasses the cyclonic fury of his other band, the on-hiatus Comets on Fire. This is noise rock executed with wily instincts, broken up sporadically by spare, brooding meditations. DAVE SEGAL


BEARCUBBIN', 1939 ENSEMBLE
(Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water) The lines of math rock and progressive jazz don't fall too far from one another. Thus comes tonight's pairing of Bearcubbin' and 1939 Ensemble, a mix that will likely suck jazz, prog, and math heads down the same rabbit hole. Both bands are heavily driven by masterful drums—at the hands of Mike Byrne and Jose Medeles, respectively—and are layered by tight precision and intricate play from their bands' melodic sections (Bearcubbin's Chris Scott and Patrick Dougherty, and 1939's Dave Coniglio and Josh Thomas). Stylistically different, the two bands find a common core with complex, playful compositions, creating an auditory experience that ranges between light and dark—a rollercoaster for the ears. JENI WREN STOTTRUP