Local dream punks Acid Kicks (who actually weave more nightmarish soundscapes) just released a new album Live from Silk City on January 11th, 2012. It contains a couple tracks from their Life Dreams 7” as well as a few new ones that you might find on their upcoming split 12” with True Gold due out later this year via Phonographic Arts. Acid Kicks have been looking for permanent drummer to replace Alex Zilinski since he moved last year to New Orleans to join touring with Dead People. Performing with them on the skins for this recording is Joseph Idell. You can take a listen to one of their new jams called “The Great Sleep” below as well as the rest of the album HERE.

Philadelphia by way of Allentown noise assassins Pissed Jeans are bringing their brand of heavy/hardcore punk in the vein of SST record’s 80’s roster to Johnny Brenda’s tonight, alongside local badass avant-garde duo Blues Control, who recently collaborated with zitherist/composer Laraaji for a mind-bending installment of RVNG Intl.’s FRKWYS series. Pissed Jeans latest release 2009’s King of Jeans, a diss to the wave of similarly named and sounding bands that has sprung up from the underground in the wake of the group’s breakthrough album, Hope for Men (cough White Denim cough). The group’s discography for Sub Pop is full of volatile, head-banging worthy noise-punk and Black Sabbath-inspired riffs that would fit perfectly in any record collection next to Black Flag’s My War. Get in your brotherly shoves this evening! Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave, $10-12, 8 pm, 21+ – Dan Brightcliffe

 

Untz untz untz. A DJ named Sam Kennerly asked a kid with an asymmetrical haircut (Mitch Routman) to play bass, and Philly’s Negative Department was born. The duo’s intoxicating electro sequences are upbeat and fun, and with tracks like “Jersey Girls,” surely restoring any Jersey girl’s reputation after the run of MTV’s fist-pumping Jersey Shore. According to the band, a new song is in store for tonight’s show, and was described as “a big ridiculous dance anthem, sort of like Calvin Harris or the new Erasure album.” You’ve been warned. The duo’s bleep-bloopy-untzy electrical sound will be bedeck The Level Room tonight as they open for the mixed surf rock/grunge/pop tones of Philly’s Sure Juror. Joining the bill will also be Massachusetts’s indie-billy rockers Pray for Polanski and New Jersey’s alternative shoegazers The Only Ghost In Town. The Level Room, 2102 Market St., 8pm, $8, 21+ – Brandi Lukas

 

As Archer Spade, Daniel Blacksberg and Nick Millevoi twist their contemporary classical repertoire into avant-garde doctrines of minimalists rhythms and ethereal space noise. It’s rough in the best way – an always-unwinding tape of eccentric textural experiments and idiosyncratic art-house overtures that seem to manifest right in the moment. But it seems apposite of these visionary local composer/performers who, while only a year old as Archer Spade, have more than a decade of experience as both collaborators and individual artists. They put this empiricism to positive use – not only have the pair journeyed to California early this month for a collaboration with famous jazz instrumentalist/educator/composer and Art Ensemble of Chicago co-founder Roscoe Mitchell on a Thomas Buckner-commissioned trio composition with saxophonist Drew Cecatto, they also launched a Kickstarter campaign for their Archer Spade Commissioning Series, which closes on Monday and premieres in April, that will fund an inspiring project with bassist Johnny DeBlase (of Many Arms and Zevious), dynamic composer Dave Soldier, and local composer/musician/director Gene Coleman. And, as a bonus, the West Philly-based duo will debut a new long-form electric guitar/amplified trombone piece, "So Timid Persons Can Kill Their Own Fowl," in addition to performing a Johnny Deblase-composed piece, "Sound Matrix," as well as original compositions, at their gig tonight at The Rotunda, which comes on the heels of their return from the West. The best way to understand Archer Spade is to watch them live. The magic is always apparent. The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., 8pm, Free, All Ages – Annamarya Scaccia