&snBlack Mountain play Neumos tonight. Dave Segal sums up the band thusly in the first sentence of his interview with bassist Matt Camirand this week's paper: "Like hundreds of bands worldwide, Black Mountain make earthy rock and roll that flies semifreaky flags for the psychedelic, hard-rock, and folk stylings that flourished during the Nixon years."

Here's what Casey Catherwood had to say in this week's Underage column about Dearboy, who play the Vera Project tonight with An Horse and Wintersleep:

They might not have won EMP's Sound Off! Competition, but Seattle youngsters Dearboy definitely made an impression on me. The all-female quartet incorporate plinking mandolin, piano harmonies, and stand-up bass to conjure a romantic sound that dances daintily with flamenco and jazz. Throw in a backbone of disco drumming and a healthy dose of teenage 'tude, and you've got four young ladies who sound like DeVotchKa with a chip on their shoulder. On Friday, March 27, Dearboy open for Australian duo An Horse and Nova Scotian band Wintersleep at the Vera Project. Where Dearboy incorporate interesting time signatures and weird melodies, An Horse use plain old guitar and drums to make dark but approachable songs about being sad, young, and growing into one's skin.

Pigeon John, Rootbeer, Who Cares
(Nectar) Without the domination of gangsta rap, L.A. would not have one of the most fertile underground-hiphop scenes in America. Everything that defined gangsta rap (gun violence, unremitting misogyny, bling-bling) was rejected by the underground, which was loyal to hiphop's origins, staunchly opposed to black-on-black violence, obsessed with capturing the most ordinary details of life, and rarely (if ever) used the word "bitch." Pigeon John is a product of that reaction to gangsta rap. Since the early '90s, he's built a solid career on the stuff of daily, working-class life. If gangsta rap is all about the spectacle of the drive-by shooting, then Pigeon John is all about the humor of sweeping the street in front of a grocery. But the biggest difference between Pigeon John and the gangsta rapper is that John doesn't take himself so seriously. CHARLES MUDEDE

Roxy Epoxy and the Rebound, the Action Design, Veritas, Feverclub, Goodbye Gadget
(El Corazón) Portland's Roxy Epoxy made her name as the heavily eyelinered frontwoman of the now-defunct punk/new-wave outfit the Epoxies. The Epoxies' shows were always a flurry of smoke, lasers, and lights, and their songs would've been appropriate as the soundtrack to an "aliens landing at a house party" scene in a 1980s sci-fi flick. But despite the Epoxies' onslaught of sensory overload, Epoxy still managed to captivate the crowd with her unique low, dark voice and outfits made of zippers and electrical tape. She's doing much of the same now, without the Epoxies. In fact, she's bounced back from that breakup and found a new place with the appropriately named Roxy Epoxy and the Rebound, who released their debut, Bandaids on Bullet Holes, earlier this year. MEGAN SELING

Also tonight: Black Whales at Piecora's, New Faces and Deer City at the EMP Sky Church, the Builders and the Butchers and Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground at the Crocodile, Coconut Coolouts and Loving Thunder at the Greenhouse, and holy shit, I can't name everything, just see everything for yourself in our online calendar.