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This Weekend In Music: Three To See

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 11, 2013 5:50PM

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The Noise FM play Township on October 11

The Noise FM, The Kickback, and Cowboy Indian Bear at Township
Talk about a helluva a bill. Cowboy Indian Bear have made there way through town quite a bit in recent months, and their mixture of lo-fi dreamy pop should be just the right thing to kick off this evening. They're followed by The Kickback, a local band who has topped our list of welcome discoveries in 2013. The quartet plays incredibly self assured rock that owes much of its lineage to early Who and mid-period Kinks, with a healthy does of mid-'90s rage thrown in to spike the punch from time to time. Headlining is The Noise FM, who are celebrating the release of their new album Attraction. We've always enjoyed these guys' take on dance rock in the past but Attraction takes all of their strengths—new wave, power pop and a smidge of souls—and ties them all together in their strongest offering to date. Drop all plans you had for tonight because you do not want to miss this.

Friday, October 11, at Township, 2200 N California, 9 p.m., $7, 21+

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The Weeknd at Chicago Theatre
We saw The Weeknd, also known to his mother as Abel Tesfaye, last year when he played Lincoln Hall and were taken aback at the energy of the show when contrasted with the floating, melancholic disconnected soul of his recorded work. The Weeknd built his rep on a trilogy of albums originally released for free, and gained a well earned reputation for writing about the depths of the human soul with great feeling and a raw openness often absent in much of today's R&B. His latest release is Kiss Land and it continues his exploration without changing much of the palette he works with, which makes perfect sense since he already takes such chances that a radical reinvention isn't necessary.

Sunday and Monday, October 13-14, at Chicago Theatre, 175 N State, 6:30 p.m., $45-$50, all ages

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Lee Ranaldo and The Dust at The Empty Bottle
Since it doesn't look like Sonic Youth will be playing together again any time soon—or ever—Lee Ranaldo has refocused his attention on his solo work. His latest release Last Night On Earth is credited to Lee Ranaldo and the Dust. After last year's Between The Times And The Tides, it seems Ranaldo, while enjoying collaborating with a bunch of different musicians, had an itch to focus on a more band-centric work and he recruited Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, along with Alan Licht and Tim Lüntzel to be The Dust. Sonic Youth was never afraid of an extended jam, and Ranaldo continues that tradition with The Dust, but these long explorations carry more in common with The Grateful Dead or Phish than with free jazz or experimental concoctions of Lower East Side noise. There's a bit too much granola in the mix for our tastes, but we hope that it transforms into something a little edgier in a live setting. Given Lee's back catalog and years of seeing him play live we can't imagine that he'll turn into anything sleepy, despite his latest release's tendency to meander.

Sunday, October 13, at The Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western, 9 p.m., $15, 21+