The Showbox curated a lineup of Northwest pop bands for its New Year’s Eve blowout; the first band you’ll hear is the Portland quintet Radiation City, who were recently named one of NPR’s 10 Artists You Should Have Known In 2012. In April, the band released an EP called Cool Nightmare—the follow-up to their 2011 debut, The Hands That Take You—a collection of seven songs inspired by an old, falling-apart standup piano in drummer Randy Bemrose’s basement. They played it, slammed its lid, banged on its body, and then took an ax and a baseball bat to it in the video for “Find It Of Use.” That song, accordingly, plays like a sparkling funeral dirge, carried along by Lizzy Ellison’s exquisitely swooning vocals. It’s a lovely sense of magic and finesse that trademarks the rest of their catalog. With Pickwick, Tomten. ERIN K. THOMPSON

Mon., Dec. 31, 8 p.m., 2012