Happy Birthday, Chris Travis (Music) Chris Travis is the host of The Young & the Restless, 107.7 The End’s Sunday-night local-music show. He’s also co-owner of the small local label Burning Building, and if you ask nicely, he’ll listen to your demo tape when no one else will. For his birthday, Travis shares the spotlight with his favorite Seattle bands—melodic, instrumental act You.May.Die.In.The.Desert opens the celebratory show, followed by To the Waves, Hungry Pines, and Speaker Speaker. It’s his birthday, but you get the present! (Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave NW, 784-4880. 9 pm, $6, 21+.) MEGAN SELING Megan Seling

Seattle Sound Second Anniversary: Blue Giant, Mark Pickerel & His Praying Hands, Siberian, Fourth City
(High Dive) Inspiration often strikes in strange ways, and for Viva Voce’s Kevin and Anita Robinson it came in the form of a Pink Floyd song—not hearing it, but covering it on tour with the Shins. Seems the experience reminded Portland’s favorite duo that as much fun as it is to push boundaries and constrictions as a pair, it can also be exhilarating to add a couple other people into the mix. The result is Blue Giant, who are making their Seattle debut tonight. The Robinsons haven’t fussed too much with the formula—the songs still have plenty of breathing space—but there’s a palpable sense of giddiness from the change in chemistry along with some darned fine hooks. Barbara Mitchell

Hear Blue Giant here.

Head Like a Kite, Smoosh, Foscil, Glue, the Animals at Night, MC Troy Nelson
(Neumo’s) The problem with a lot of “experimental” or “arty” bands is that they’re often really hard to listen to. Head Like a Kite may use random sound snippets and odd building materials in their music, but (like the architect Gaudí) mastermind Dave Einmo knows how to skillfully incorporate unusual elements into a pleasingly organic and playful whole. “There Is Loud Laughter Everywhere” finds Einmo enlisting members of the Long Winters, Smoosh, the Animals at Night, and other local luminaries to help flesh out his peculiar pop vision. The sound bites may have been collected on recent tours of the U.S., but the result sounds like it could be pumping at the hip bar across from the space-shuttle passenger lounge. Barbara Mitchell