Friday, July 26
Ken Carson’s 2023 album A Great Chaos features some of the most daubed, smudged, blown-out hip-hop ever to become popular, taking the abrasion of Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red and pushing it deeper into busted speaker-noise abstraction. The 24-year-old is as much an inspiration to young SoundCloud rappers prioritizing energy over sonic fidelity as he is to older indie-rockers like Alan Sparhawk and Kim Gordon, whose recent electronic experiments have more than a bit in common with his. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave. 7 pm. $55. All ages.
Saturday, July 27
Portland artist Ruth Radelet’s dusky voice is so evocative of red curtains, lipstick stains and smudged mascara it’s no wonder David Lynch picked her and her former band Chromatics to perform on the third season of Twin Peaks, stepping into the shoes of uncanny-valley arch-diva Julee Cruise. What happened to Chromatics following the shelving of their masterpiece-to-be Dear Tommy is anyone’s guess, but we’re lucky to still have Radelet haunting Portland’s music halls with her brooding, neon-lit synth pop. Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Court. 7 pm. $15. 21+.
Saturday, July 27
The Flenser is one of America’s best metal labels, championing sonically and politically progressive bands with a mystical bent. Ragana and Agriculture are two of its flagship acts: the former a righteous queer witch-doom duo split between Olympia and Oakland, the latter a thorny and technical L.A. black metal band aiming for transcendence. Eugene screamo stalwarts Senza open for the two bands’ co-headlining Mississippi show, which should double as a crash course in the vanguard of American heavy music. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 7 p.m. $18. 21+.