Little Penguins, Exploding High Fives, Red Sea Sharks at Comet Tavern, 9 p.m., $6There’s no doubt the Little Penguins should have received more local attention for Welcome To The Celebration, the band’s first album of somber pop songs. But sophomore release Offer You This Cape,which features a new, fifth bandmate (Penguins frontman Will Hallauer’sTurn Ons bandmate Erik Blood), might just get the Penguins theattention they deserved the last time around. Keys, harmonicas andtwangy, distorted surf guitar riffs bleed together with the experttouch of a concert pianist pressing the damper pedal. In conjunctionwith Will Hallauer’s melancholic vocals about cheating death and thenuclear age, Cape is an album of eerie sonic mutations, a sumptuous combination of shoegaze-y pedal work, Americana and modern cynicism. SARA BRICKNERPortugal. The Man, Earl Greyhound, Wintersleep at El Corazon, 7 p.m., $14, all agesForget “Sarah. The Mayor”; The real thriller from Wasilla is Portugal.The Man. In the course of three years, this Alaska-based synth-noisefour piece went from concocting chaotic keyboard tracks to soundinglike a slightly mellower TV on the Radio. But that switch is nosurprise, since Portugal. The Man (yes, that’s the correct punctuation)is all about variety. Two members were part of now-defunct Portlandhardcore heroes Anatomy of a Ghost; a third hailed from Konami DefenseSystem, a band that sampled Nintendo video game theme songs. And everyyear since forming in 2005, Portugal. The Man has faithfully releasedan album, an annual step that brought the band closer and closer to thesound on this year’s Censored Colors: Melodic vocals balancedwith half-sparse, half-symphonic guitars and keyboards. It’s about timefor Portugal. The Man’s 15 minutes of fame — and hopefully, these guyswill reach higher levels of success than Governor Palin and “Joe. ThePlumber.” PAIGE RICHMOND