Cold Cave, Sleepy Eyes of Death, Absolute Monarchs

(Neumos) If you'd asked me what you'd get when you combined former American Nightmare/Some Girls screamer Wesley Eisold with noise artist Prurient (Ian Dominick Fernow), my first guess would not have been insanely catchy and affecting darkwave synth pop. But that's exactly what the two and their crew (which formerly included Xiu Xiu's Caralee McElroy and currently features Mika Miko's Jennifer Clavin) do in Cold Cave. The band's 2009 debut, Love Comes Close, is a superb record of morose new wave, its apathetic drum-machine beats and simply effective synth hooks treated with only the slightest touch of noisy fuzz. Its title track is like what New Order might have sounded like if Ian Curtis had lived to lead them; others sound like Crystal Castles if they'd just calm the fuck down. Cold Cave are further recommended by remixes from the likes of Optimo, Pantha Du Prince, and Arthur Baker. Damn! ERIC GRANDY

Tera Melos

(Vera) Sacramento's Tera Melos built a lofty rep for playing insanely intricate and spasmodic math rock—you could say they guzzled Hella Trumans Water, and their piss stream is rich in those groups' nourishing nutrients. At its best, Tera Melos's music careens thrillingly, emitting flurries of rusty guitar chimes and mercurial, precision-slapped beats while toggling schizophrenically between no-wave-y abrasion and fruity melodic flourishes. With the covers EP Idioms Vol. 1 and their new album, Patagonian Rats, Tera Melos have swerved into a more tuneful demeanor. They're good at this new, more accessible approach, but Tera Melos are really special when letting their inner Captain Beefheart run riot. Let's hope we get both sides of them at Vera. DAVE SEGAL

Menomena, Say Hi, Suckers

(Showbox at the Market) Menomena's new album, Mines, continues their drift toward conventional indie rock and away from their earlier quirky restlessness. Now the Portland trio is poised to fill big rooms with the sort of crowd-pleasing, widescreen, orchestral rock that many other midlevel bands peddle—you know, the kind of thing that earns the approval of middlebrow folks who work mid-management jobs at medium-sized companies. Mines' songs are well-written, well-played, well-produced, well-arranged, and... well, well. The band is maturing, softening its edges, becoming more popular, and aiming, it seems, to inspire mass bonhomie rather than befuddlement—although "Oh Pretty Boy, You're Such a Big Boy" comes close to achieving the latter feat. Menomena's trajectory resembles Mercury Rev's, which means Mines is their Deserter's Songs. You like 'em just fine. DAVE SEGAL

The Smashing Pumpkins, Bad City

(Showbox Sodo) It's not hard to find a punch line about Billy Corgan. Ha-ha, he dated pill-popping, fame-addicted train wreck Tila Tequila. Ha-ha, he dated—and musically collaborated with (!?)—Hollywood's favorite country bumpkin, Jessica Simpson. Ha-ha, he got Smashing Pumpkins back together for a mediocre new record and an entirely new lineup, because none of his former bandmates wanted anything to do with him. LULZ TIMES INFINITY! But despite Corgan's current joke status, the dude wrote some killer songs 10-plus years ago, songs that are so great they've allowed him and all his recent fuckery to still be held in high regard by tens of thousands of Smashing Pumpkins fans. It says something about how good Gish is that you can forget the whole Tila Tequila phase while listening to it. MEGAN SELING

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