Fiona Apple/Wednesday, July 25
Fiona Apple’s been around for 18 years, and yet you can count the items in her discography on one hand. That’s partly because she’s infamously private, and partly because every single record she makes is incredibly meticulous, from the frenetic piano melodies to the torrid vocals and the spilling, cutting lyrics. Apple’s latest, The Idler Wheel . . . , contains a startling amount of hot-blooded sentiment; it may be her starkest and most daring yet. In the video for the first single, “Every Single Night,” Apple shows her darkly humorous side: She wriggles around in a grass skirt and coconut bra as snails and octopuses crawl over her body. But the song’s lyrics—”I just made a meal for us both to choke on/Every single night’s a fight with my brain”—radiate with the same seriously heated energy that originally made Apple the patron saint of all fucked-up girls. With Blake Mills. The Paramount, 911 Pine St., 877-784-4849. 8 p.m. $41.25–$56.25. All ages. ERIN K. THOMPSON
The xx/Wednesday, July 25
Last week, UK trio the xx released “Angels,” the lead track from their upcoming second album, Coexist, and their first new song in three years. It is, in typical xx fashion, a song of almost infuriating restraint. A guitar line floats; Romy Madley Croft barely breathes some lyrics about “silent devotion” and fastidious love; a snare rolls in the far distance, and a few carefully placed bass notes drop. Like their best songs, “Angels” is as much about what’s not there: the space between sounds, but also the absence of co-vocalist Oliver Sims’ louche counterpoints or Jamie Smith’s animating beat. So it’s the perfect intro to the new album, which is rumored to capitalize on Smith’s rapid growth as a producer by incorporating more electronic elements. This song’s absence and longing only makes it that much sweeter when the next one finally drops, with a beat, with a duet, with a whole album behind it. With Jacques Greene. Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave., 628-3151. 7 p.m. Sold out. All ages. ERIC GRANDY
Machinedrum vs. Salva/Friday, July 27
Machinedrum’s biggest coup as a producer recently might be the appearance of blog-bait rapper/R&B singer Azealia Banks on a couple of his tracks—the upbeat, Aaliyah-sampling R&B rework “SXLND,” redubbed “NEEDSUMLUV,” and the hyperactive “Fantastix,” which Banks raps over to create “Aquababe.” Even without Banks, these are solid tracks, displaying just a bit of Machinedrum’s breadth as an electronic producer, which also includes his being half of the tasteful but still bass-punching dubstep duo Sepalcure. Tonight, Machinedrum’s Travis Stewart teams with like-minded L.A.-based artist Salva to headline a night of low-end delights, with local support from Bellingham’s Cedaa. With Jamison Just. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8005. 9 p.m. $12. ERIC GRANDY
Everest/Saturday, July 28
Breathing new life into vintage-tinged folk music is a tough sell these days, but Everest’s familiar chordage somehow manages to burst vibrantly from speakers rather than drip out like a slowly exhaled bong rip. The L.A. band’s newest record (Ownerless, recorded with Richard Swift in central Oregon) shows some classic, jammy influences rubbing off from tourmates Neil Young and My Morning Jacket, with the band pushing driving rhythms against spaced-out guitar and organ textures, all the while making a point to stay distinctly modern and pop-song concise on their uplifting anthems. With Alberta Cross, Aaron Lee Tasjan. The Crocodile, 2200 Second Ave., 441-4618. 8 p.m. $13. All ages. GREGORY FRANKLIN
Journey, Pat Benatar, Loverboy/Saturday, July 28
If you were to tell the Journey of the early ’80s that their 21st-century relevance would hinge on the success of a network television show about a high-school glee club, they’d have called you a “queer,” done a rail, and boned a Pointer Sister. But that’s exactly the way it’s played out—and by played, we mean “overplayed.” As for Journey’s contemporaries, some won’t stop believin’ they’re still the biggest band in the world, even when they owe their present-day viability to casino deregulation (see: Loverboy). Pat Benatar, however, is, was, and always will be a goddess. Gorge Amphitheatre, 754 Silica Rd. N.W., Quincy, 509-785-6262. 7 p.m. $55–$150. All ages. MIKE SEELY
***EDITOR’S PICK
Indians/Sunday, July 29
This new musical project out of Copenhagen is maddeningly near-impossible to Google. So that you don’t have to spend half an hour searching for a Facebook page, as I did, here is some compressed information: Indians is a Danish man named Søren Juul. He played his first show as Indians in February. He has only 27 followers on Twitter. But attention will surely come his way: In April he released his first single on his own record label, a 7-inch with two heart-stoppingly beautiful songs, “Magic Kids” and “New,” that are slowly but surely making their way around the blogosphere. Juul combines melting synthesizers and swooning melodies, sung in his silvery voice, into elegant, magical sounds. Hearing his first two songs, you’ll instantly yearn for more. Barboza, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m. $8. ERIN K. THOMPSON
