You’re probably going to this show for Daniel Rossen, guitarist/vocalist for Grizzly Bear and Department of Eagles. And that’s fine. He’s a solid, if unspectacular, composer of burnished, Nilsson-esque pop that slots comfortably on NPR or daytime KEXP without jolting cubicle workers out of their medium-energy state. I urge you, though, to hit Neumos early for William Tyler, former member of Lambchop and Silver Jews and a guitarist of utmost skill and emotional heft. At last year’s Block Party, he practically stole the festival while seated, even though he played to a paltry crowd on the Vera Stage around dinnertime. Like Americana/mystical-folk icons John Fahey and Robbie Basho, Tyler possesses the natural ability to pick out a seemingly infinite supply of pulchritudinous, plangent chords on his acoustic and electric that flow like the Mississippi. Cop his transcendent Impossible Truth album and enter the growing William Tyler cult. With Thumpers and Pattern is Movement. DAVE SEGAL
(Barboza) Brooklyn-based indie solo-project-turned quartet (hey, come back) Yellow Ostrich (seriously, come back) make the kind of harmonized-vocal rock songs that alternate between shoegaze-y jam and catchy pop like so many other bands featured on Pitchfork before them. And while this genre kinda peaked and got oversaturated a few years ago, Yellow Ostrich’s consistency has made them one of the best things brewing in the indie field today. Their latest full-length, Cosmos, is a bit spotty—with some songs plodding and whining a bit too long, some attempting to incorporate more electronics with middling results. But at their best, they can still equal the dynamic, hooky goodness of past highs like “Marathon Runner”/“WHALE.” MIKE RAMOS
March 22, 2014 will go down in history as the day Seattle electronic-music fans had to decide between seeing the awesome Container (see above) and the devastating Italian duo Voices from the Lake. (You may be able to catch both, if you have speedy transport and much energy and luck.) VFTL (Donato Dozzy and DJ Neel) are masters of subtly morphing minimal techno, as evidenced by their self-titled 2012 album. On it, they weave nature sounds (insects, frogs, water, etc.) into an intimately expansive matrix of cushiony 4/4 beats and enigmatic, crepuscular atmospheres. This year’s Velo di Maya EP features more emphasis on pumping rhythms, but the same sublime sound design and shimmering drone and tone palettes are in evidence. At their 2012 Re-bar show, VFTL took us on an incredible journey that kept the crowd simultaneously moving and hypnotized. Expect similar feats tonight. With the Sight Below and Eddie Lee. Big Building LLC, 10 pm-4 am, $20, 21+ [call (504) 407-5638 for more info]. DAVE SEGAL
(Chapel Performance Space) Topographies: the latest from Seattle's experimental musicmaker John Teske, who creates sound/landscapes and who can be found riding his bicycle across the city while towing his double bass on a trailer. JEN GRAVES
