the xx, Friendly Fires, Holly Miranda

The xx's songs are still and spacious things. The guitars and bass recall early New Order (when they still sounded hollowed out by the loss of Ian Curtis); the beats are muted, bedroom-bred stuff. But the sensual, often sexual tension in covocalists Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim's close-quartered, whisper-soft boy/girl duets fills their album's latent spaces with an animating electric charge. And deeper listens reveal subtle rhythmic action and addictive melody in their deceptively quiet songs. ERIC GRANDY

VS. (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis), Helladope, the Nextdoor Neighbors, Kung Foo Grip, Sabzi, hosted by Grynch

(Nectar) A couple months back, just in time for his Bumbershoot performance, Mack dropped The Unplanned Mixtape, much to his fans' delight. Mostly a collection of his guest appearances over the last few years, it also contains the misty watercolor 206-hop reminiscence "The Town" (and its video by Stranger Genius Award winner Zia Mohajerjasbi is near completion). VS.—on which Lewis crisply flips riffs from Beirut and Arcade Fire—shows Macklemore getting his feet under him again and getting to know himself better than ever. Songs like the frenetic memoir "Life Is Cinema," the proud closer "Irish Celebration" ("I put down the drink/­I couldn't drink like a gentleman"), and the epic "Kings," featuring Champagne Champagne and Mad Rad's Buffalo Madonna ("I'm super inspired by those guys these days," Haggerty says), are clearly the work of a better, stronger, more experienced MC—and person.

Eric Duncan, Trouble Dicso DJs

(Re-bar) With Still Going, Duncan helps to create some of the world's classiest nu-disco jams. James Murphy and Pat Mahoney sagely selected the elegantly cruising "Still Going Theme" for their Fabriclive 36 mix, while "Untitled Love"—featuring a thoughtful, subdued vocal performance by ex-Seattleite Reggie Watts—reveals the duo's ability to craft more contemplative material à la Tangerine Dream's finer soundtrack work. Still Going reached a new peak with 2009's "Spaghetti Circus," on which Watts supplies robust soul exhortations and ex—Hercules and Love Affair bassist Andrew Raposo leverages a throbbing, urgent riff. The track evokes some muscular, pumping Frankie Goes to Hollywood—ish action.

Wanda Jackson, Marshall Scott Warner, Petunia & the Vipers

(Tractor) Everybody has a story like this: Somebody offered you tickets to Johnny Cash when he was in town, and you passed because you were busy or because you were broke. Or you missed Merle Haggard for the same reason, and you've got to wait another five years before he blows back into town. Don't make that mistake here: Wanda Jackson is the queen of rockabilly, and if you miss her, you'll kick yourself for years to come. Jackson was there at the birth of rock and roll, and in many ways, her swagger—seriously, listen to "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad"—was more of a precursor to punk music than Elvis's velvet swoonery. This is like Mount Rushmore traveling to Seattle. This is monumental in every sense of the word. PAUL CONSTANT

The Pharmacy, Thee Sgt. Major III, Head

(Sunset) Did you know that Seattle expats Scott Yoder, Stefan Rubicz, and Brendhan Bowers—aka poppy party punks the Pharmacy—have a new LP called Weekend? An album birthed in a New Orleans bayou? And did you know it's rumored that they're now living in a van with an old four-track? And surviving exclusively off fried chicken and red wine and Dr Pepper? They're on tour right now. Bowers says, "We just played a basement in Helena, Montana, to five 16-year-olds who were all wearing matching Bad Religion T-shirts. Their dad smoked us out, and then we went to a strip club. Come see us in Seattle! Thee Sgt. Major III are playing. And Head, that old Seattle punk band! Neat." Neat, indeed. KELLY O

D.R.I., Black Breath, Countdown to Armageddon, Deathraid, Odd Rule

(El Corazón) When Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra chided "crossover" as "just another word for lack of ideas," he was deriding the glut of classic hardcore bands transitioning from their punk roots into the more marketable realm of heavy metal. To a certain extent, the gripe was valid: Many hardcore bands from the 1980s abandoned their early, vital sound in favor of slower, more adept, and far less interesting material. D.R.I. are considered the original "crossover" band, but it's strange that their blend of styles caused controversy. Their later albums were still solid affairs, even if they were markedly less thrashy. And in 2009, most modern hardcore bands proudly wear their metal influences on their sleeves. D.R.I. were just a step ahead of the game. BRIAN COOK

The Lonely H, the Raggedy Anns

(High Dive) The '70s-rock record bins of Port Angeles must be dusty and vacant—the five boys of the Lonely H plundered them all. You can hear the long nights of grooving to Bob Seger, the Eagles, and the rest of those geezers in the Lonely H's cocaine-Clapton guitar licks, Hammond chords, and rambling, country-rock song structures. And the lyrics! "I'm a singer/I'm a vagabond/Tradin' verses for a tear/I'm a singer/Livin' close to dead/Open roads and empty beds." They look too fresh-faced and rosy-cheeked for that kind of talk. But they've got the hair—and some of the best local talent directing their music videos: Lynn Shelton, Ben Kasulke. Rock! The Raggedy Anns make sweet, swinging pop rock. Sometimes their songs carry a little ragtime shuffle, sometimes they have a happy Britpop bounce, and sometimes they have both. The Raggedy Anns and the Draytones must've been separated at birth. BRENDAN KILEY

Constant Lovers, Blood Red Dancers, Final Spins, Jonathan Kimball

(Comet) That horrid and ill-defined tag of "post-punk" generally implies a disjointed, discordant, and deconstructed approach to the standard pop template. Forefathers like Gang of Four and Public Image Ltd. unleashed strangely coherent yet decisively bracing and unfriendly music, and we've been subjected to an endless stream of their stripped-down, no-frills, agitated descendants ever since. Constant Lovers are part of this ongoing legacy, yet they have both the aptitude and the ability to push the envelope one step further. Their music is even more barren, more separated, and more disrespectful. At points, one might even wonder how it qualifies as music at all. And while that approach is guaranteed to alienate some folks, those who "get it" wind up all the more enraptured. BRIAN COOK

The Vic Chesnutt Band, Fences, Liz Durrett

(Crocodile) The leader of the Vic Chesnutt Band starts their new album, At the Cut (Constellation Records), by proclaiming, "I am a coward!" That's pretty brave. That leadoff song, "Coward," is a turbulent piece of orchestral rock somewhere between the Dirty Three and fellow Constellation artists Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band. The rest of the disc mostly eschews that sort of storm-and-stress dynamic and delves into stripped-to-the-bone, folk-rock balladry (emphasis on "dry"). Chesnutt, who's been a paraplegic since a 1983 car accident, bluntly sings about hardships in a weathered, thin, but not unpleasant voice. The man in the wheelchair's stark, moving music commands your attention and respect. Seattle's Fences (Chris Mansfield) provides a partly sunnier take on folk rock; his understatedly rootsy songs twinkle more than they brood. DAVE SEGAL

Indecisive Rhythm, Antique Scream, NightShirt

(Blue Moon) I've said it before and I'll say it again: Indecisive Rhythm should get another name. "Indecisive Rhythm," to me, sounds like a hippie jam band or an outfit specializing in a cappella ska covers, and it horribly undervalues what IR have going on for themselves. They play Pixies-style rock—by which I mean heroically catchy pop rock of the verse-chorus-verse variety—and when they unleash the rock, they can destroy the room and make it look easy. The lead singer, Ms. Rhythm, is my favorite unsigned female vocalist currently playing in Seattle; she can purr and then let loose with an enormous, brassy howl that will make you drop to your knees, pledge allegiance to her band, and forget all about their atrocious name. PAUL CONSTANT

Indijinis, Soul the Interrogator, Dan Fajans, EvergreenOne

(Rendevouz) On November 27 at the Corner, shake off the gravy-induced 'itis and catch Indijinis, Soul the Interrogator, Olympian talent Dan Fajans, and proud Tacoma MC EvergreenOne. Evergreen, an entertainingly unpretentious live performer, is working on something with MC/producer Todd Sykes, and the few tracks I've heard are dope—jazzy, sloppy, drunk 253 b-boy shit-talk and half-crooned, for-the-ladies jams. LARRY MIZELL

And there's always more in our complete music calendar listings.