> CONCERT SAMPLER
Live-music highlights for the week of May 18 to 24. Linda Carone Among the vintage covers on new LP Black Moonlight, Toronto voice Carone dips into Fats Waller collaborator Una Mae Carlisle’s oeuvre on the fitting track “Oh I’m Evil.” You might want to add “sultry,” “bluesy,” “mischievous” and “winning” too — just made for a cocktail lounge at midnight, while ace bass man George Koller walks nimbly underneath and couples canoodle by candlelight in the background. The new record gets its unveiling here in appropriately plush surroundings, with Koller, who also served as producer, among the formidable foursome rounded out by horn Johnny Johnson, Michael Shand on piano and drummer Mark Kelso. (Thursday, Jazz Bistro, 9 p.m.) Boss Hog These New Yorkers’ comeback LP Brood X is an entomologist’s rock dream, namechecking a cicada with a gestation cycle of 17 years: that’s as long as it’s been since the five-piece built around husband-wife pair Jon (Blues Explosion) Spencer and Cristina Martinez last entered the studio. Added since, Mickey Finn’s formally trained keys bring a slick polish, but there’s still plenty of spit from Martinez’s howls and Spencer’s splenetic blues guitar — reminiscent of noisemakers such as Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch, as well as the Lower East Side dirt encrusted under their fingernails. All of it amounts to a gloriously kick-ass return; with no plans to take it any further, it’s a one-off pick of the week, local faves Catl in support adding to the attraction. (Friday, Lee’s Palace, doors 8:30 p.m.) Yubisaki Nohaku In the tenth edition of Next Music From Tokyo (NMFT), it’s the four women of Yubisaki Nohaku who might well provide the most direct entry point — or at least as direct as this freewheeling series of prettymuch-unknown visitors gets. Their freaky prog-metal gets its kicks from Kimura Junko’s guitar-pedal combinations and especially the fierce slap-bass virtuoso Yukoshiko. Underground gems like this are what NMFT is all about — in its seventh year curated by local doctor and crowd-surfer Steve Tanaka, and now established as a biannual thing in Vancouver and Montreal as well, the only problem can be finding tickets. Online’s pretty much gone, but record shops may well have a few strays — otherwise do try the door. (Friday, Rivoli, and Saturday, Lee’s Palace, doors 8 p.m.) Sir Richard Bishop Longtime member of the long-gone, real-gone Sun City Girls and curator of traditions all over the map via the Sublime Frequencies label he cofounded, the American slinger falls none too squarely into the same neighbourhood of rangy, restless, prolific types such as fellow guitarist Richard Thompson and folkie spaceman Devendra Banhart. But pinning the American’s rich acoustic explorations down is a difficult task. He can freestyle flamenco-style one minute and pull out a chestnut from his old band, such as “Space Prophet Dogon,” the next, taking you to places freaky and new. Guitarist and multimedia artist Robert Millis and local mainstays Glass Orchestra set it up, though the term is used loosely — anarchy will be enjoyed and encouraged. (Saturday, Array Space, 8 p.m.) The Revolution Prince’s band from the hitmaking heyday of the early to mid-’80s up through Parade reformed in the wake of his untimely death a year ago for a couple of shows in the same Minneapolis club, First Avenue, that backdropped the Purple Rain movie. Now comes this full tour and there’s not much more that needs be said — add Aussies Midnight Oil Saturday on the Danforth and a nostalgic long weekend of singalongs awaits if you want it. (Sunday, Phoenix, doors 7 p.m.) The XX Jamie Smith’s side gig on the relatively effervescent, sample-based solo LP In Colour sounds as if it rubbed off on the rest of the threesome on third LP I See You, which in the single “On Hold” even includes a Hall and Oates snip. Given the drenching downpour that doused their Echo Beach visit four years ago, though, you’d hope that the XX, R&B new-waver Kelela on the undercard and everyone else in the house will pack raincoats and scarves. (Monday and Tuesday, Echo Beach, 8 p.m.)