Tonight In Music: French Letters, William Fitzsimmons, Curren$y*, The Chicharones, of Montreal*, and more

French Letters , The Super8, Baby Guns, Stephen Nielsen @ The High Dive | 5/11 | $6 | 8pm | 21+

Photo via French Letters' Facebook

The French Letters are like the narration of a movie. Michael Crossley gently leads you through a story, one with highs and lows, beginnings and endings; all while keeping your interest piqued by back drumbeats, bluesy guitar, and Crossley’s cadences. You get the hint of a Southern accent, without the country music feel. A majority of the French Letters’ songs are spoken poems but there are a few tracks that are sung like American Skeleton and Melanie Says. The French Letters are a very avant-garde group; their way of blending poetry with live music is prodigious and extremely unique. As odd as it may seem to go watch a group perform spoken word songs, The French Letters will not disappoint and put on quite an impressive show.

The Super8 is a local trio that has a mature sound to them, one that is mixed of vocals that are similar to Willie Nelson’s with the depth and wisdom of Johnny Cash. The simplistic nature of The Super8’s sound is what makes them so real. The finger-picking of the guitar is a classic complement to the raw vocals in each song. A Catch In The Rye has a fantastic Spanish blues jazz vibe to it that is on-par with the emotion of Hotel California by The Eagles.

Baby Guns is a lo-fi electro group that specializes in more background music with their mostly non-lyrical songs. A majority of their tracks consist of strong distortion and synth-work and there are a few tracks where you hear a faint female voice. Their music makes the listener feel as if they got lost in a world between reality and a video game, where you listen to laid-back electronic music and feel no immediate need to find your way back home.

From songs about getting kicked out to more innocent campfires, Stephen Nielsen brings a rustic Americana swagger to the High Dive tonight.  His Bob Dylan-esque vocals really bring a vintage styling to the lineup.  This folk rock singer/songwriter will definitely garner the audiences attention with his guitar skills and soul-shattering vocals.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3qJf6oZwuU

William Fitzsimmons, Slow Runner @ The Triple Door | 5/11 | $18 (Get Tickets) | All Ages

It’s easy to see why some would compare William Fitzsimmons to Iron & Wine. After all, Fitzsimmons dons the beard, flannel shirt, and soft-spoken raspy voice that Iron &Wine is so well-known for. On the other hand, what sets Fitzsimmons apart is that he also can masterfully have electronica backbeats while still singing softly. He just released his sixth album back in March and has been out on tour promoting Gold In The Shadow. He has gained a lot of success and in turn has had some of his tracks featured on TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and One Tree Hill.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3AB6NrfiaM

Photo via Slow Runner

Slow Runner has been accompanying Fitzsimmons on his tour and will continue on when they all head overseas to Europe. This indie pop group is based from Charleston, South Carolina and their latest album Danger Points has a video game theme from the cover art to even tracks like Strange Days that have a nice retro 8-bit beat going on.

Curren$y with Trademark da Skydiver, Young Roddy, Fiend, Cornerboy P, Nesby Phips, Monstabeatz, Smoke DZA and Logics at Neumos | 5/11 | $18 SOLD OUT | 8 pm | All Ages / Bar with ID

New Orleans’ Curren$y brings his Jet Life Tour to Neumos fresh on the heels of his excellent 420 collaboration with The Alchemist, Covert Coup. The freely downloadable mixtape sees Spitta doing what he does best: kicking tumbling verses dedicated to discussing fashion, freaks, and pharmaceutical grade over stoned and stunted soundscapes. Simply put, Curren$y is weird in the best way possible, a dexterous lyricist who inserts off-beat imagery into description of rote rap topics. A girl getting the run-around is a “rotisserie chicken,” while being smoked into oblivion is “all Himalaya-ish.”

To the reach the summit that is a Curren$y live performance may seem insurmountable — a pothead of his purported proportions has a lengthy bill full of weed carriers. Standing out among the long list of forgettable openers (with more surely to be added without prior notice) is Smoke DZA, whose George Kush da Button and THC (The Hustler’s Catalog) almost rival the headliner’s work in the recent jazz-and-joints bend of blunted hip-hop, and Nesby Phips, an up-and-comer whose remixed tracks of Miles Davis cuts (with go-to Curren$y producer Ski Beatz) are worthy of a sesh spin.

Last time he was in Seattle for the Smoker’s Club Tour, Curren$y came on to close the night after set upon set of might-don’t-got-its. Appearing onstage to cheers of equal enthusiasm and relief, he announced he was just charging his Blackberry (which he plugged in) before leaving briefly. Goofily gleeful at his little joke, he proceeded to slink and slither across stage as he spit his verses with precision and passion, something easily missed in his recorded rhymes given his low-key persona. Hip-hop heads: do not let this plane leave town without experiencing the Jet Life first.

Win tickets to Curren$y and the Jet Life Tour at Neumos. E-mail contests@ssgmusic.com with “#JetsGo Neumos (5/11)” in the subject line and your full name in the message’s body. We’ll hit back if you’re the winner. And be sure to follow @SSGPromo for all our show giveaway updates! – Joe Gustav

Pigeon John, The Chicharones @ Chop Suey | 05/11 | 9pm | $10 adv

via The Chicharones Facebook page

Among other great and wonderful things, this week the good people at Chop Suey will have The Chicharones over. For those who don’t know, The Chicharones are the undeniably fresh on-again off-again collaboration between Canadian emcee Josh Martinez and Sleep (of Strange Famous Records/ Oldominion) named after the greasy latin american version of pork rinds. Not for the faint of heart, chicharrones are very tasty but if you want them Cuban-style, all the back fat is left on each cut so every bite is an oily mess of burnt meat mixed simultaneously gooey and tough pork-fat.

But I digress– the hip-hop Chicharones, however, would appeal to anyone with an ear for smart, witty hip-hop. One can easily see how Sleep wound up on Sage Francis’ label. These guys would be a welcome addition to any POS show and would have fit in nicely on the Epitaph Records roster when they started to dip their toes in the hip-hop pool five or so years ago. It’s always interesting to experience hip-hop from a fresh perspective, and the Josh Martinez/Sleep combo is no exception. Expect plenty of syncopated rapping with off-kilter production that often contains indie-rock samples (Martinez’ 2009 Sex Buffet album contains what amounts to a hip-hop Violent Femmes re-interpretation). Click here to download a free Chicharones album and bone up before the show.

Chicharones, Seattle welcomes your quirky, oft-mustachioed brand of hip-hop.

Want to catch the big Pigeon John and Chicharones show at Chop Suey for free? The good news is that the folks here at SSG Music have a pair of tickets to give away to a reader and their lucky date. To enter to win, click HERE or e-mail contests@ssgmusic.com with the words “Taco Wagon (05/11)” in the subject line and your first name, last name, and choice of show date/time in the body. Winners will be chosen and notified by e-mail today or tomorrow. – Gabriel Argulles

of Montreal w/ Painted Palms and Beat Connection @ Showbox at the Market| 5/11 | 8PM | All Ages |$23.50 Advanced

Photo courtesy of Tympanogram

It seems like just yesterday of Montreal played a show in Seattle. To be exact, their last performance in town was at the Paramount in October 2010, and it was a grandly farcical affair to remember. You never quite know what will happen at an of Montreal show, but you can always count on the appearance of a handful of things: animals (occasionally real, usually just people in costume), spandex, glitter, cross-dressing, and frontman Kevin Barnes humping everything. The band released a new EP on April 26 via Polyvinyl Records titled thecontrollersphere.

This time around we won’t get the fabulous Janelle Monáe opening for the Athens, Georgia-bred band. But we will get two sunny electronic duos: California and Louisiana based duo Painted Palms and Seattle’s own Beat Connection, whose song “In the Water” was recently featured as Record of the Week by BBC Radio 1′s Nick Grimshaw.

Excited yet? You should be, because we have two tickets to give away to see of Montreal with Painted Palms and Beat Connection! E-mail contests@ssgmusic.com with the phrase “thecontrollersphere” in the title and your full name in the body of the e-mail. We’ll hit you back if you’re the winner! – Tiffany Wan