(Neptune) You know when those golden-age hiphop fans complain about the state of current mainstream rap? Too much Auto-Tune, too little intellect, club mantras repeated ad nauseam in place of real lyrics? Well, Future is basically whom they're bitching about. The Haitian-born, Atlanta-raised rapper/singer is one of the founding fathers of current street rap's sound, from the stadium-devouring beats to the robotized over-emoting, and yet? The music this guy makes is guaranteed to be way more fun than 99 percent of the underground shit those same old-school dudes are rocking with. Future can fit in with the trap sound just fine, going hard on industrial-strength bangers like "Move That Dope" with ease. What sets him apart, though, is when he forgoes the smack talk for straight songcraft: "Turn On the Lights" and "I Be U" are flat-out monuments of pop music, no matter the scene. Give it five years and the same heads who hate now are going to bemoan the fact that there ain't more songsmiths like Future in the rap game. KYLE FLECK
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(Neumos) Frankly, Ontario post-hardcore/post-genre-name/loud-as-fuck, standard rock-band instrument barbarians METZ are going to be a tough act to follow. They’re not for the faint of aural faculty, and evidently they don’t care to ever be. That said, if Cloud Nothings can channel just some of the of the zeal from the high points of 2012’s Attack on Memory, namely the cathartic aural cathedrals found in “Wasted Days” and “Stay Useless,” things are going to be just fine. Their latest, Here and Nowhere Else, has trouble finding that zone, but maybe they’ve constructed a way to ramp it up live. GRANT BRISSEY
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No disrespect to Austin’s Pure X and Portland’s Pure Bathing Culture, who are decent, tuneful, subdued electro-pop bands, but the main reason to hit Barboza tonight is M. Geddes Gengras. The LA-based composer has production credits on Sun Araw’s irie collaboration with the Congos, FRKWYS Vol. 9: Icon Give Thank, but his solo works are even more riveting. On 2012’s Test Leads, Gengras evokes klassik kosmik synth kommandos like Klaus Schulze, Conrad Schnitzler, and Wolfgang Riechmann. Using an array of modular synths, MGG conjures a grandiloquent propulsion and sweeping melodic drama that make you think of utopian places far from this flawed planet. It’s escapist yet involving. Just as you’re slipping into a nice drifting trance, he’ll drop a low-slung, queasy disco track like “Nightwork”—or the caustically buzzing and percolating “Cairo,” which is possibly the best Schnitzler homage ever. On his new album, Ishi, Gengras brandishes radiant drones of extraordinary depth, and in the process makes a case for new age as a vital genre in 2014. Barboza, 8 pm, $10 adv, 21+. DAVE SEGAL
Check out the rest of Data Breaker's coverage here, including Clipping. »
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(Showbox at the Market) Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan has carved out a distinctive career as a kind of lumberjack Leonard Cohen. What a story his deep voice can tell, through sheer nicotined grain and weary tone. While I’ll miss the psych-rock turbulence of Trees peaks like Clairvoyance and Even If and Especially When, Lanegan seems content not returning to that sort of high-flying style in his solo output. Earlier this year, Light in the Attic issued a two-disc Laneganthology™ titled Has God Seen My Shadow? that collects 32 songs he cut from 1989–2011. Nearly every track emphasizes the troubadour’s lugubrious balladic approach and his tough-luck, poignant lyrics. There’s a willowy duet with Polly Jean Harvey, a reverent cover of John Cale’s majestic classic “Big White Cloud,” and many other examples of quietly momentous folk-rock songsmithing. After a shaggy, lysergic youth, Lanegan’s grown into a master of subtle gestures and gently modulated inflections. DAVE SEGAL
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And here's all our recommended music events—tonight, tomorrow, this weekend, and beyond!