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Friday, May 31
Portland-via-Arizona collective Foot Ox emerges every six years or so with a collection of pleasingly rustic yet ticklishly unpredictable music driven by Teague Cullen’s irascible honk of a voice. Their latest album, Judee & the Sun, was not named for cult singer-songwriter and recent documentary beneficiary Judee Sill, but those troubled by a latter-day dearth of psych-folk eccentrics like Sill can find solace that artists like Cullen are still out there grinding. Also performing are local janglers Neilson Family and the dreamy-fuzzy “mostly girl band” Moth Kit. Swan Dive, 727 SE Grand Ave. 8 pm. $10. 21+.
Sunday, June 2
Dear Nora’s music contrasts the minutiae of human behavior with the grandeur of the Pacific Northwest. Leader Katy Davidson isn’t above skewering tech bros and space entrepreneurs, but on their newest album, human futures, the excesses of late capitalism are even more grotesque when compared with the implacable vastness of the cosmos. The Portland band might be the Pacific Northwest’s greatest transcendentalist folk-punk band since the Microphones, and they’ve become low-key legends over the past decade, influencing indie heroes like Girlpool and Joyce Manor. Turn! Turn! Turn!, 8 NE Killingsworth St. 8 pm. Sliding scale. 21+.
Sunday, June 2.
Saxophonist Kamasi Washington is a contemporary jazz colossus, as fêted for his contributions to Kendrick Lamar’s landmark To Pimp a Butterfly as his own three-hour odysseys Heaven & Earth and The Epic. His new album, Fearless Movement, is a little funkier and lower-stakes than most of his past work, but it’s still three LPs of formidable jazz rap, fiery fusion, and lush ambient landscapes—including a collaboration with André 3000, the erstwhile rapper whose music for the Portland-set indie drama Showing Up heralded his second wind as a flutist. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St. 6:30 pm. $40. All ages.