Tonight, the Sasquatch Festival hullabaloo begins:

Sasquatch! Pre-Party with: Doves, Wild Light

(Crocodile) In the wake of Coldplay's massive success, a deluge of emulators (Travis, Elbow, half of Astralwerks' '00s roster) followed, seemingly hell-bent on compromise. It's as if these groups formed with the express purpose of putting rock fans to sleep under a large, beige blanket. Doves hover somewhere in the middle of this muddle. They create mediocre, pleasant stadium rock that wouldn't dare color outside of the lines or get too raucous, although "Winter Hill" from the new Kingdom of Rust is decent Spiritualized lite. Such an approach is always a safe bet for a band: The world overwhelmingly consists of people content with colorless, flavorless, frictionless music that emits faint signifiers of sonic excitement—an orderly bombast that won't ruffle or moisten expensive couture or coiffures. One shouldn't be surprised by the popularity of bands like Doves, but it's nevertheless baffling that anyone gets excited by—and pays good money for—such utter blandness. DAVE SEGAL

DJ AM, Matt & Kim, Drop the Lime

(Neumos, free) For some dumb reason, when I first scanned this lineup, I read it as saying "DJ A-Trak" rather than, as is in fact the case, DJ AM. Bummer, because while both are what you might call celebrity DJs, they are of vastly different class. Ah well, in any case, Drop the Lime is good, bassbin-rattling fun, if you didn't make it off the Hill to catch him at See Sound Lounge a few weeks ago. Matt & Kim are a fine punk-pop singles band, even if I can't quite sit through a whole album (haven't checked my stamina against their live set in a while; maybe I should). And, hell, the whole thing's free (on Bacardi and VH1's dime) if you go and submit some personal information (presumably for marketing/demographic purposes) to www.getpartytickets.com, where you'll also note that L.A. gets Tiga and James Murphy for their affiliated party. Dang. ERIC GRANDY

Remember to check our online music calendar for a complete listing of bands, DJs and live music.