Friday 3
MODEST MOUSE A scouring of my CD shelves on November 3 and the days after turned up few appropriate posttraumatic sound tracks–most of my 2004 faves sounded irrelevant or, well, too sure of themselves. (Oh, Rock Against Bush Vol. II, will we ever meet again?) But because Modest Mouse’s dogged persistence is rooted in crankiness rather than optimism, Good News for People Who Love Bad News (Epic) struck just the right petulant tone. These onetime indie brats have grown up enough to dismiss Bukowski as an “asshole” and God as a “control freak,” to tighten up musically without marring their distinct sound, and to remark “As life gets longer, awful feels softer / And it feels pretty soft to me.” All of which leads me to suspect that the album’s title refers to their conviction that the world just might not end anytime soon. Secret Machines and Califone open. 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence, 312-666-6667 or 312-559-1212, $28.75. All ages. –Keith Harris
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NICHOLAS PATYON QUINTET See Friday. 4, 8, and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand, 312-670-2473, $25.
LAY ALL OVER IT Bassist Jason Ajemian and drummer Nori Tanaka have been regular Thursday-night fixtures at Rodan, sometimes in a trio with guitarist Jeff Parker but just as often in an idiosyncratic improv duo. Starting with precomposed melodic fragments, the music moves organically from Tanaka’s fierce swirling grooves to Ajemian’s meditative, stand-alone arco passages. Ajemian adds spontaneous vocals that range from howled chants to original poems sung as the kind of raw, plaintive folk music that the native of Virginia’s mountain country seems to have in his blood. Architeuthis Walks on Land, the duo of violist Amy Cimini and bassoonist Katherine Young, opens. 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 800-594-8499, $5. Ajemian, Tanaka, and Parker also perform Thursday at 10 PM at Rodan, 1530 N. Milwaukee, 773-276-7036. Free. –Peter Margasak
The Revolution of Yung Havoks (Nature Sounds) is the solo debut from rapper Vordul Mega, formerly known as Vordul Megilah of the duo Cannibal Ox. His skills seem to have survived the name change unimpaired, but without El-P’s deadly production chops and the hectoring of his old tag-team partner Vast Aire, this doesn’t pack anything like the Cannibal Ox punch.
