Jabon

October 28th at the Sunset Tavern in Seattle, WA

Happy Autumn Equinox! In celebration, the 4th and final part of the “Wheel of Year” series is released! Name your price.

STACIAN, ACINONYX, STELLA HAZE, JABON (AGAIN)

Milwaukee-based Stacian, who’s playing with Acinonyx, was heretofore unknown to me, but quick immersion in Stacian’s Bandcamp proved I’d been living a diminished life without this music. The few tracks I sampled sound like darker takes on early-’80s John Carpenter scores and the Liquid Sky soundtrackall disjointed beats, diseased synth tones, and queasy, alienated atmospheres. Stella Haze (aka Cristin Miller) uses her voice and electronics to create spectral drones of subtle beauty; for proof, check out “Like the Chinese Paper Bark Maple Anticipates Industry” on her website, www.cristinmiller.com. Aaannnddd… you’ve yet another chance to catch Jabon. Don’t blow it, Poindexter. Rendezvous, 9 pm, $5, 21+.

HANS GRUSEL’S KRANKENKABINET, JABON, THE MIDGET

This is a crazy mishmash of a show right here. Hans Grusel’s Krankenkabinet stretches conventional songcraft’s parameters to grotesquely whimsical dimensions, until you get lost in a vortex of unhinged melodies and mad Moog-ular sound effects. It’s a cavalierly subversive approach that makes the Residents sound like chart toppers. Of course (of course!), you know Jabon from past Data Breaker columns. When he sheds his studio engineer persona for his mystique-enhancing cloak and massive bank of synthesizers, he unleashes freaky frequencies that make you alternately ROFL and cower in terror. Jabon’s music is positively Mort Garsonic in its chillingness and wackiness. The Midget, by contrast, come off as a much more conventional proposition. First, they—Sean Curley and Amber Rossino—have worked with Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, MGMT, etc.), so their sound possesses a certain largeness and slickness. Second, they write pretty electro-pop ditties with choruses you can sing after 1.5 listens. Seriously, “City Drop” deserves to be a hit single in this electronic-music-loving metropolis, as Rossino coos angelically and sexily while Curley coaxes aerodynamic waves of chrome from his keyboards. I’m telling you, the Midget ought to be huge. (Rimshot.) Rendezvous, 9 pm, $5, 21+.

Glenwood Coffee and Books and ANTS