Of Montreal, Janelle Monae

Sunday, September 19

Emerging from the famed Elephant Six arts collective, and rolling into venues with what is essentially a Pandora’s box full of Henry Darger’s dreams and nightmares, Of Montreal shows are some of the most extravagant and well thought out spectacles going in rock and roll. Viewing the live experience as a continuation of their art, Of Montreal aren’t content to simply play their songs accompanied by the typical concert production clichés. The band’s elaborate stage set up is more of a moving art installation than a backdrop for a rock concert. Last year, for example, at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom, singer and main songwriter Kevin Barnes rode a horse out on stage. Not a prop horse, a real stallion. That’s just how these guys roll. I’ve seen them multiple times and some of the stuff I’ve come to expect includes coffins full of whipped cream, a working guillotine, multiple costume changes, and much more. For their current tour, Of Montreal has enlisted Janelle Monae and her Wondaland Arts Society to round out the bill. Janelle’s career is on a much-deserved meteoric rise right now, coming off her terrific album The Archandroid III. Imagine a young Sharon Jones singing over Outkast’s best beats and you will quickly find yourself immersed in Janelle’s world. She is not just the opening act though, as both groups have dedicated this tour to making something special and different for us concert goers. Their sets interweave and collaboration is the theme of the night—which makes sense as Of Montreal has performed on Janelle’s records, and Janelle contributes to one of the best tracks on Of Montreal’s newest, False Priest. In the tour’s press release, Kevin Barnes said: “We want to transform the venues each night, so it becomes this exceptional experience for everyone.” That transformation happens this Sunday (Sept. 19) at the Town Ballroom. Doors are at 7pm. —john curley

7pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / www.townballroom.com). $25/advance; $28/day of (box office, Tickets.com)

Friday, September 17

CocoRosie

The music of CocoRosie is a collage of childhood lullabies, surreal theater, haunting operatic solo pieces, and the primal dance beat of the subconscious. It is like one of those dreams where you can recognize the familiar pieces, but the whole is something born of another world. Sisters Bianca “Coco” and Sierra “Rosie” Casady were raised bouncing across the US without planting their roots for longer than a year, though they did not form the group until they were reunited in Paris after a nearly 10 year separation. The two recorded their debut La Maison de Mon Rêve almost entirely in Seirra’s bathroom, due to its acoustic properties. Though the record was never intended to be distributed, CocoRosie were signed to Touch and Go when the label sought them out after coming across the record by chance. The duo released three albums for Touch and Go, including the brilliant The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn. In early 2010, they signed to Sub Pop. Though their sound is difficult to place, it is immediately evident that these two girls set out to channel Kate Bush and Billie Holiday gone weird in the best way possible, embellishing their live show with back up musicians and a dramatic presentation that includes projections, harps, a baby grand, and multiple costume changes. They will be supporting their new album Grey Oceans when they play the Town Ballroom on Friday, (Sept. 17). —john curley

7pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / www.townballroom.com). $18/advance; $20/day of (box office, Tickets.com)

Saturday, September 18

Dave Schulz & C.O. Jones w/Scottylicious

Hometown boy Dave Schulz is heading back to Buffalo from L.A. this weekend, and man is he going to be busy on Saturday (Sept. 18). First he’s scheduled to play at 2:50pm as part of the Hello Yesterday 80s Music Festival at LaSalle Park. Then, after A Flock of Seagulls wraps things up there, he’ll be headlining the official after-party at the Pearl Street Grill & Brewery. For those who don’t know, Schulz’s career has been on a steady upward trajectory since relocating to California after spending a couple years touring with the Goo Goo Dolls. He’s worked with a bunch of stars and is increasingly recognized as a “go to” studio keyboard cat on the west coast. This time back, he’s going to have his L.A. band along for the ride. They’ll be performing material from his recent solo release, Connect, which features contributions by Tony Levin and Daniel Lanois, among other notables. Plus, he’ll be pulling together his wildly popular funk outfit C.O. Jones for a reunion performance. Opening the Pearl Street show is Buffalo hipster-musician superband Scottylicious. And here’s a little piece of Dave Schulz trivia you’ll only read here: Did you know that his first paid studio gig was playing piano on a Steam Donkeys track recorded by Robby Takac? It’s true. The band paid him with a twelve-pack of beer. —buck quigley

9pm. Pearl Street Grill & Brewery, 76 Pearl St. (856-2337) $5.

Sunday, September 19

Tera Melos

Sometimes it takes a California band to test the limits of what a song can be. Tera Melos play it their way: heavy, fast, spacey, pretty, ugly, whatever. The three-piece (Nick Reinhart, Nathan Latona, John Clardy) can put together a lovely melody then rip it shreds. They run the gamut of musical styles, whether it be punk for its chaos or metal for its savagery. Most of the time it’s all just one song for Tera Melos. The band released their new album Patagonian Rats earlier this month. The album’s lead single “Frozen Zoo” finds a weird groove to keep cool in, warning with a heavy chorus that you’re “gonna get yourself shot.” Take heed and relax as the band freaks out. Just listen to their souped-up cover of Polaris’s “Hey Sandy.” The original was made famous on the classic ‘90s Nickelodeon television show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Tera Melos plays Soundlab this Sunday (September 19). Doors open at 9pm. Sharing the bill will be All Of Them Witches, a local instrumental band that has recently become a two-piece outfit. Somehow, a bearded man in white glasses simultaneously plays the guitar and bass. It must be sorcery. —peter vullo

9pm. Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. (440-5907 / www.bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab).

Tuesday, September 21

Street Dogs

There are still a few honest, blue-collar bands left out there, shining through in our modern age of manufactured rock. Boston-based outfit Street Dogs continue to give hope that a band can blend punk and rock together and not sound faceless and cheap. It’s impossible to mention Street Dogs without giving a bit of backstory. It’s 1998, and the Dropkick Murphys are becoming the talk of Boston. They have a record deal, a new album, and an Irish-American, fist-pumping energy reminiscent of the Dubliners, the Clash and Stiff Little Fingers. In 1998, after just one album, frontman and founding member Mike McColgan quits the band to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a Boston firefighter. He continues to write music, and in 2002 leaves the fire department and forms Street Dogs. Their name alone gives way to the aggressive, stripped down genre of punk known as “Street Punk,” a style that basically pisses on every musical pretension that ever existed, while remaining loyal to the working class image. Street Dogs tackle everything from socio-political issues in “Fading American Dream,” to flat out drunkenness and hooliganism in “Katie Bar the Door,” and ““Tobe Has a Drinking Problem.” Like the ‘Murphys and Flogging Molly, the Irish-folk element of Street Dogs’ music figures in prominently, giving off a raucous energy that makes for a hell of a live show. The band just released their fifth album, Street Dogs, on Hellcat Records. Three cheers for Street Dogs at Town Ballroom, Tuesday (Sept. 21), along with Flatfoot 56 and Left Alone. —jon wheelock

6:30pm. Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / www.townballroom.com). $14/advance; $16/day of (box office, Tickets.com)5

Tuesday, September 21

Holy Fuck

Holy Fuck Holy Fuck Holy Fuck. We’re the only news source in this town willing to print this band’s name so let’s take advantage. Holy Fuck are electronic music with a twist. Their songs take place in two worlds. One where drummer Matt Schulz and bassist Matt McQuaid become rhythmic trail blazers laying down a foundation of electro-dance beats. The other is a plane of buzzing, morphing signals and flying shapes created by sound effects masters Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh. The twist is these guys make their intergalactic sound effects and phased out electronic blasts with everything but a computer. No loops, no spliced tracks, and certainly no Abelton Live. What sounds like a DJ scratching vinyl on their track “Red Lights,” from their latest album, Latin, is actually a film synchronizer rigged up to a distortion pedal and played like a Casio keyboard. That filtered phaser sound is probably coming from a children’s toy ray gun aimed at a microphone. When Borcherdt and Graham stand facing each other on stage it’s like an epic Harry Potter battle with two equally powered wizards blasting lasers at each other from their hands. It’s music meant to be experienced live. Songs like “Silva & Grimes,” and “Latin America” build to a peak and then descend cyclically, but more often than not they push past the peak into outer space. Holy Fuck will be live at Soundlab on Tuesday (Sept 21), with sound-scape architects Indian Jewlery. —cory perla

9pm. Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. (440-5907 / www.bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab). $15.

Tuesday, September 21

Brandi Carlile

Brandi Carlile has “The Best Voice in Indie Rock,” according to Paste Magazine. Not only did she inspire the magazine to make such a list (in September, 2009), she beat out Cat Power, Antony (& the Johnsons), Thom Yorke, and Neko Case. Starting out busking in Seattle’s Pike Place Market like a true troubador (not only can she sing, she’s got street cred!), the story goes that Dave Matthews took notice after seeing her at the 2003 Sasquatch! Music Festival, and she was signed by Columbia shortly after. Following a self-titled debut, Carlile broke out with the 2005 album The Story, whose title track practically became a guest star itself on the popular tearjerker TV show “Grey’s Anatomy.” Suffice it to say that she really hit her target audience, and her star has been rising ever since. Her third album, 2009’s Give Up the Ghost, was produced by Rick Rubin and features a collaboration with Elton John (the song “Caroline”) and members of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and the Indigo Girls. Raised on Patsy Cline and Grand Ole Opry culture, Carlile is still “a litttle bit country,” and she’s also got plenty of soul, and folk, and pop, and rock-n-roll. She plays Asbury Hall at the Church on Tuesday (Sept. 21). —k. o’day

7pm. Asbury Hall at Babeville, 341 Delaware Ave. (852-3835 / www.babevillebuffalo.com). $29.50/advance; $32/day of (Babeville box office, Town Ballroom box office, Tickets.com)