In Up & Coming:

The Fucking Eagles, the Girls, Leaders

(Comet) Like their peers in Asheville's Reigning Sound, Tacoma's the Fucking Eagles have garage rock down pat. From the rousing multivocal melodies to the rowdy, fuzzed-out guitar work to the pounding toms and tinny, warm production, the Fucking Eagles' sound seems to originate from that genre's heyday rather than from this decade. Dudes knock out covers and originals with equal aplomb, and if their live show is half as good as their recorded material, tonight will be well worth the price of admission. Maybe there's something in Tacoma's water that facilitates great garage rock. Reportedly, the band have a concept album to be released in August, however, which is totally prog of them. GRANT BRISSEY

Diamond D, Cancer Rising, Eardrumz & Sentric, Scribes, Fever One, Marc Sense

(Nectar) Diamond D is in that class of hiphop producers and rappers who are not exceptional but are far from wack. Diamond D has always made high-grade hiphop. He won't transport you to other worlds, but he will not let you or the art down. He knows his stuff. D's first hit, "I'm Not Playing," which was released over 20 years ago, made the idea of hiphop professionalism a reality. The track was not groundbreaking, in a period of constant groundbreaking (De La Soul, Public Enemy, Slick Rick, etc.), but tight (a modulated blues lick) and hardcore (a muscular bass line). Diamond D also made the classic "Sally Got a One Track Mind" and, in the mid '90s, formed the legendary D.I.T.C. Also, in my opinion, D provided the freshest track on Soundbombing II, "When It Pours It Rains" (I think 50 Cent bit his whole style from that recording). Diamond D's history is as long as it is impressive. CHARLES MUDEDE See also My Philosophy.

Gene Ween, Solo Amandla, Claude Coleman Jr.

(Crocodile) Ween have been maddeningly inconsistent over their two-plus decades of making stoners snort beer through their nostrils via the absurd power of their music. Their large catalog is awash with both sublimely beautiful art rock (see especially The Mollusk) and banal, misguided goofs and spoofs of nearly every genre under the moon. Guitarist/vocalist Gene Ween (aka Aaron Freeman) is a gifted player with an idiosyncratic voice that spans many timbres and styles. So it's a shame he sometimes adopts Frank Zappa's most juvenile tendencies to provoke cheap laughs in his own work, because when Gene's in serious mode, he can move you as deeply as late Funkadelic ax hero Eddie Hazel or twisted psych-pop mavericks like Syd Barrett and Skip Spence. DAVE SEGAL