Sunny California and dreary Midwest winters collide on Santa Barbara quintet Gardens & Villa’s sophomore album, Dunes, which finds the synth-rock band giving up beaches for beanies and relocating to Michigan’s Key Club studio. Depeche Mode jams like “Colony Glen” and “Thunder Glove,” the funky “Bullet Train,” and the equally danceable “Echosassy” are reminiscent of the group’s home state, but ominous synths from Adam Rasmussen and singer Chris Lynch’s lyrics, which seem to center on feelings of anxiety and isolation, keep things chilly. The influence of the studio’s surroundings is most evident in songs like “Avalanche,” as Lynch sings “Lay me down in the ground/Bury me/Let me disappear/Chill you with the frozen leaves.” With Shana Cleveland and the Sandcastles, BellaMaine, Vox Mod. The Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618, thecrocodile.com. 8 p.m. $3 with RSVP, $10 without. All ages. AZARIA C. PODPLESKYChicago’s Disappears sounds sort of like Liars would if they spent a lot of time in cold German warehouses wearing black turtlenecks, listening to kraut, and thinking about the austerity of modern architecture—which is another way of saying they sound really cool. The band’s sinister minimalism on its latest record Irreal will make an interesting pairing with this show’s strong local opening acts—Ephrata’s lush, poppy, shoegaze-worship and SSDD’s glam-punk debauchery (featuring Seattle’s most deranged front man, Kennedy Carda, who almost swallowed his microphone whole the last time I saw him perform). The Sunset, 5433 Ballard Ave. N.W., 784-4880, sunsettavern.com. 8 p.m. $13. 21 and over. KELTON SEARS