Thursday | 4/29

GROWING

Folks who show up to see Brooklyn shoegaze trio Growing at Brookdale Lodge this weekend will have the opportunity to learn just what the hell kind of instruments the band actually plays. Listening to the warped, pulsing layers of feedback, blips and white noise in album form, it's nearly impossible to identify whether it's guitars, samplers or dolphins with vocoders that are behind the strange sounds. Yet the band's work is not all lofty noisescapes and unintelligible racket. An undercurrent of building rhythm anchors the songs with just enough cadence that some listeners have reported completing a dance move or two. Brookdale Lodge; $10; 8:30. (Curtis Cartier)

Friday | 4/30

YOUR MUSIC OLYMPICKS

The Central Coast's annual clash of the hard rock titans continues with this guitar solo-centric event. For these preliminaries, Cylinder, Jackie Rocks, Pariah Faction and Hollywood Scars go head-to-head to see which band has achieved riffing mastery. With prize packages worth up to $5,000 this year, the competition is becoming pitched as bands work toward the May 21 finals. Aficionados of guitar wizardry and bedroom air guitarists are a discerning bunch, so this crew of local metal and hard rock acts are well-advised to bring their A-game if they have any hope of making it to the finals. Catalyst Atrium; $10; 9pm. (Paul M. Davis)

Fri-Sat | 4/30-5/1

HIPNIC II

As witnessed by Coachella's righteous rocking of nearly a quarter million people in Indio earlier this month, music festival season has indeed arrived. And while it won't get coverage in Rolling Stone or be graced by celebrities like Brad Pitt and Beyoncé, the Hipnic Festival in Big Sur—back for its second year—will boast two days of solid indie rock, plenty of camping and a price tag you won't have to pawn your stereo for. Appropriately led by San Francisco power rock crew the Mother Hips, Hipnic will also feature Jackie Greene, Neal Casel, Red Cortez, Dawes (see story, page 27), Nicki Bluhm, Sweet Chariot, Little Wings, Parson Red Heads, Farmer Dave Scher, Sparrows Gate and more to be announced. Fernwood Resort, 47200 Hwy. 1, Big Sur; Friday $65, Saturday $70; 3pm Friday, 2pm Saturday. (CC)

Saturday | 5/1

APHRODESIA AND ALBINO

It's going to be an explosive Afrobeat throwdown when two of the Bay Area's most notable purveyors of the genre hit Moe's Alley the same night: Albino and Aphrodesia. Albino is a San Francisco–based 10-piece devoted to paying tribute to the legacy of Fela Kuti, turning out a burbling bouillabaisse of soul, stunning horn lines and intricate polyrythms. Aphrodesia goes for a more experimental approach, building upon and expanding the rudiments of Afropop and highlife in a way that does justice to the traditions while taking them to new places. For fans of West African–derived sounds, this is a must-see show featuring some of the finest practitioners stateside. Moe's Alley; $12 adv/$15 door; 9pm. (PMD)

THE CHOP TOPS

Another fine talent spun from Santa Cruz cloth will breeze through town to rock the Catalyst into pandemonium and celebrate a new album. The Chop Tops, one badass trio that has found its calling in "revved rockabilly," unveils its fifth album, Deadly Love, a 12-song showcase of the band's ability to blend frantic rock & roll beats with old-school punk, psychobilly and backyard blues. Each song is laced with its share of soulful vocals and blistering surf guitar leads that rival rockabilly legends like Eddie Cochran and Brian Setzer. Catalyst; $8 adv/ $12 door; 9pm. (Maria Grusauskas)

Sunday | 5/2

DEVIN THE DUDE

Though mainstream success has largely eluded him, Houston-based rapper Devin the Dude isn't called "your favorite rapper's favorite rapper" for nothing. He's collaborated with hip-hop giants like Scarface, Dr. Dre and De La Soul, while his solo career and own funky, laid-back brand of Southern rap have won him consistent acclaim from critics and fellow rappers alike. The violence and anger that characterize many of his peers is nowhere to be found in his often amusing, if not laugh-out-loud funny, style of rapping, which deals mainly with "weed, wine and women." For his latest studio album, Suite #420, the Dude has gotten slightly more up-tempo while retaining the slow, mellow grooves for which he is known. Catalyst; $15 adv/$20 door; 8pm. (Sean Conwell)

Monday | 5/3

CHRISTIAN McBRIDE and INSIDE STRAIGHT

Perhaps the greatest bassist to emerge on the jazz scene in the past few decades, Christian McBride is an enormously versatile musician—he has played with an almost endless list of jazz legends, straddled innumerable jazz styles and made excursions into hip-hop, soul, rock and pop. His latest project, Inside Straight, is a straight-ahead jazz group that currently includes Steve Wilson on saxophone, Warren Wolf on vibraphone, Andy Langham on piano and Ulysses Owens Jr. on drums. The quintet delivers a sound that is at once modern and classic; it hearkens back to, but does not mimic, players of the '60s and '70s like Art Blakey, Cedar Walton and Bobby Hutcherson. This could prove to be McBride's greatest achievement as a bandleader to date. Kuumbwa; $22 adv/$25 door; 7 and 9pm. (SC)

Tuesday | 5/4

THRICE

Concerned that their patented hardcore-tinged emo had taken too much of a turn for the arty and esoteric, the members of Thrice returned to their anthemic, fist-pumping ways with 2009's Beggars. Among fans and critics, Beggars was more than a mere return to form; it's been hailed as one of the band's finest achievements to date. The post-hardcore edge has been shaved off a bit over the years in return for a maturity that hasn't sacrificed loudness or passion. This is still full-throated, immediate rock, albeit now written and performed by grown men who've grown up without growing soft. Catalyst; $18 adv/$22 door; 7:30pm. (PMD)

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