Pete Swanson, Nadja, Hemingway, Tecumseh

(Josephine) While in D. Yellow Swans, electronics wiz Pete Swanson helped to forge some of America's most nuanced noise sculptures. By 2007's At All Ends, the Portland duo were even delving into blissful, My Bloody Valentine—esque drone poems, albeit with more disturbing undertones. Now solo, Swanson releases prodigiously on cassette and CD-R in damnably hard-to-find editions. Based on his past achievements, though, it's safe to assume he'll find ingenious ways to toxify the air around you. Speaking of MBV, Nadja cover that band's "Only Shallow" on their recent covers album, When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV, swathing it in thousand-pound layers of opium-soaked gauze. Wooozzzyyy. With Nadja, metal meets shoegaze in the drone-atorium, ambient accrues substantial girth and dirt, and heads loll ever so pleasantly before they're steamrolled. DAVE SEGAL

NoMeansNo, the Pack A.D.

(Neumos) Mention a punk band that's been around for 30 years and chances are you're referring to weathered alcoholics playing dive bars on the outskirts of town, or a group shamelessly pandering to the next generation of Warped Tour attendees, or even some sad reunion tour featuring one original member. NoMeansNo, thankfully, are none of the above. Rather, the band continually favored challenging audiences' minds over challenging The Man. Through the span of their career, the trio amassed an impressive catalog of cerebral punk, brimming with odd time signatures, polyrhythms, and unique instrument interplay—a distinction that's led several critics to cite them as a primary influence on the math-rock explosion of the '90s. Even after three decades, NoMeansNo are as relevant as ever. BRIAN COOK

Sleepy Sun, This Blinding Light, Justin Ripley

(Sunset) San Francisco's Sleepy Sun create psych rock that's in a fairly constant struggle between dreamy tranquility and intoxicating tumult. They carry something of the early Verve's flair for dramatic song structures and charismatic choruses, and Brightblack Morning Light's stoned air of spiritualized blues. This Blinding Light rank among this city's top outward-bound rock bands. The first time I saw them perform at the Comet, they fireballed through my senses like Loop in a flaming, priest-driven ambulance. This Blinding Light feature two members of Hypatia Lake, but TBL hit the FX'd-to-heaven, trance-rock bull's-eye more solidly than those solid dudes do. DAVE SEGAL

Jack Wilson & the Wife Stealers, the Whiskey Wailers, James Hunnicutt

(Chop Suey) Jack Wilson has the kind of heartfelt, wizened voice that lots of country-folk men have: It's a warm, pull-up-a-barstool-and-I'll-tell-you-a-story-of-heartbreak-my-friend kind of a voice. Lots of musicians coast on that kind of voice, writing songs about how their true love has hair like shafts of wheat but not anymore because she is dead or some silly shit like that. But Wilson ventures out into the fringes of country to push at expectations in a tremendously satisfying way. He out-and-out croons, for instance, on "Out of Bed," stretching his voice in a way that, say, Bonnie "Prince" Billy would never dare to risk. And Wilson writes some straight-up romantic duets, too; he's not afraid to drop the pretense and craft a love song that works. PAUL CONSTANT

Find more shows tonight in the Stranger's complete music calendar listings.