MICHAEL NESMITH'S DIVERSE POST-MONKEES CAREER

As Bryan Ferry did last month at McCaw Hall, Michael Nesmith is doing tonight at Triple Door: a career retrospective covering several decades of music-making. Most know Nesmith as the tall, laconic member of the Monkees, a band cobbled together to star on a TV show from 1966 to 68. They also cut some of the greatest pop songs of all time (no sarcasm). Mike wrote some of those, including indelibly tuneful gems like “You Just May Be the One,” “Listen to the Band,” “Daily Nightly,” “Circle Sky,” and “Mary, Mary.” But he also went on to craft some very strong and deep country-rock records with First National Band and solo, and deviated with surprising flair into funk/disco territory with 1979’s Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma. Nesmith wrung some very clever variations on myriad styles in his songwriting. Tonight’s display of mostly post-Monkees output should be interesting. Please don’t riot if he doesn’t do “Different Drum.” DAVE SEGAL
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MONO'S EJACULATORY POMP-ROCK AND BADASS CELLIST HELEN MONEY

(Neumos) Japan’s MONO have been plowing a textbook post-rock path for more than a decade, creating songs full of quiet, tremulous, emo-laden passages punctuated with grandiloquent ejaculations of rock pyrotechnics. This MO has mirrored that of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai, but MONO have always come off as one of the duller acts working in this style. Their latest full-length, 2012’s For My Parents, arches into neo-classical terrain, at times sounding like a more bombastic and melodramatic Stars of the Lid. Helen Money is a badass cellist who takes that instrument to some heavy and harsh places it rarely goes. You can imagine her augmenting ’80s Sonic Youth songs and many other severe noise-rock bands’ work. Money’s 2013 album Arriving Angels is a taut collection of jagged, avant-rock brutality. She’s also the only cellist to cover Minutemen’s “Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing.” DAVE SEGAL
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STEPHEN MARLEY AND THE GLOBALIZATION OF REGGAE

(Showbox at the Market) The winding road of musical history is paved with the sons and daughters of icons, who (often through nepotism, sometimes with talent) gave a shot at their own careers, never to step out from the shadow of their legendary parents (see: Sean Lennon, that poor so-and-so). What sets reggae icon Bob Marley’s brood apart is their undeniable hit-making abilities: Damian’s blistering “Welcome to Jamrock” was pretty much inescapable the summer it was released, and Stephen’s a Grammy-winning, critically lauded artist in his own right. His is a dressed-up, omnivorous take on reggae, incorporating hiphop drum breaks, record scratches, and pop-leaning female backup singers, along with the requisite mentions of Jah. It’s sort of a globalized, millennial take on reggae, and while it lacks the rootsy charm of his father's classic records, it’s nice to see the Marley clan doing their own thing and doing it well. KYLE FLECK
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And here's all our recommended music events—tonight, tomorrow, this weekend, and beyond!