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Friday, Nov. 8
Minneapolis alt-rockers 12 Rods had a brief moment as major-label prospect circa Y2K, even getting Todd Rundgren to produce 2000′s Separation Anxieties, but they were always going to be a beloved cult band. More than 20 years after their initial split-up, frontman Ryan Olcott resurrected the name for If We Stayed Alive, the most pop album ever to come out on the hot experimental label American Dreams—and proof that Olcott’s songwriting fire stayed lit in the wake of disillusionment so many musicians mired in the major-label system experience. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639. 5 pm. $20. 21+.
Saturday, Nov. 9
Portland band Sun Atoms’ new album, Everything Forever, should appeal to fans of shoegaze at its most propulsive, where walls of guitars meet a thundering rock chassis: think Ride’s latter-day albums with Erol Alkan, or My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless-closing “Soon.” Their upcoming Show Bar release party is practically a North American shoegaze summit, with North Carolina legends The Veldt showing up as support, The Asteroid No. 4 driving a short way up from Northern California and Los Mundos “slithering” out of Monterrey, Mexico. Bring earplugs. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 503-776-5500. 7 pm. $15. 21+.
Sunday, Nov. 10
There’s good-trip psychedelia and bad-trip psychedelia, and Texas crew The Black Angels are unrepentantly the latter. Emerging in the late 2000s into a musical zeitgeist enamored with the Beach Boys’ starry-eyed sincerity, the Angels steered the hippie van in the other direction, embracing the tempestuous sounds of The Doors and The 13th Floor Elevators (even briefly backing Elevators leader Roky Erickson) and conjuring a world of spiked acid and murder cults. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 971-808-5094. 7 pm. $30. All ages.
