From Stranger Suggests:

Minus the Bear
(Music) This year has been good to Seattle’s Minus the Bear. Since Planet of Ice was released in August, the band has played over 50 shows in as many cities and was tagged “buzzworthy” by MTV. For once, MTV got it right. MtB’s new album is an exquisite composition with technical, intricate guitar parts and vivid dynamics that ebb and flow between melodic indie sounds and droning stoner rock. See them while you can—they’re disappearing to Europe for the remainder of the year. (Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave, 628-3151. 8 pm, $16 adv/$18 DOS, all ages.) MEGAN SELING

From U&Cs:

Annuals, Manchester Orchestra, the New Frontiers
(Crocodile) Like sex and scuba diving, any psychedelic voyage is best undertaken with a partner. Twenty-one-year-old Adam Baker is the sole songwriting force behind Annuals, but he’s recruited a band of longtime friends to mediate any mad-professor tendencies. Last year’s acclaimed Be He Me is a monumental mind trip of an album, conceived from Baker’s self-contained death-is-after-me paranoia but wrought by a studio-savvy six-piece band. Drifting on waves of slow-trotting rural balladry, breezy Beach Boy–ish pop, prog-rock bombast, and heat-warped tropicalia, the album—and Annuals in general—have the power to transport. JONATHAN ZWICKEL

Scout Niblett, MV & EE
(Sunset) MV & EE stands for Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, a couple of in-love hippie types from the Massachusetts boondocks who like to musically reminisce about the blues-rock of the late great 1960s. Their days in the free-folk collective the Tower Recordings connected them with a slew of musical collaborators, including J Mascis (who’s playing drums on everyone’s albums these days), John Moloney from Sunburned Hand of the Man, and Thurston Moore, whose Ecstatic Peace label releases the duo’s prolific ramblings. Their sound is a big stoned party of slapped-together blues chords, noodly 1970s rock guitars, and mumbled songwriting, but when they hit it right on, it’s like a good flashback. ROSS SIMONINI

From Bug in the Bassbin by Donte Parks:

I nearly peed my pants when I heard that Kevin Saunderson was coming to town. Sure, I’m a bit obsessed with Detroit techno, but Kevin Saunderson isn’t just another Detroit techno artist. As one of the Belleville Three (along with Juan Atkins and Derrick May), Saunderson is one of the creators of techno, twisting the futurism of Kraftwerk, the instrumentation of new wave and Chicago house, and the musical legacy of Detroit into the genre that’s grown into what you (should) know and love today. He’s not just a producer or DJ; he’s a legend. The thought of interviewing him was absolutely terrifying.

Kevin Saunderson plays Krakt at Rebar (1114 Howell St, 233-9873) on Sat Nov 10, 10 pm, $10 adv/$15 DOS, 21+. With Travis Baron and Kristina Childs.