Even though Dan Boeckner is a critical player of the Voltron-like organism that is Wolf Parade, its hardly worth considering Handsome Furs a mere side-project. With this year’s Face Control, he and his wife Alexei Perry have recorded one of the better albums to show up on iTunes libraries this year. It bursts and snarls with electronics and deep beats around unresigned vocals, and suggests something compelling about early twenty-first century humanity, or at least gives you the feeling of being rejected from a buffet for not meeting the attractiveness standards of capitalist Russians [times].

In person, people are sure to dance and raise beer bottles and sing along loudly at their favorite parts. They play tonight at Neumo’s with Feral Children and the Cinnamon Band ($15, 8 pm [neumos]) and we have a pair of tickets for one of you. Send an e-mail to seattle.mebtlogs@gmail.com and I’ll pick a winner by this afternoon.

jens lekman at the crocodile last night.

At last night’s show Jens Lekman admitted to not having slept in days, but that didn’t get in the way of putting on an exceptionally charming beyond description show that spanned new material as well as beloved classics like “Black Cab” and “Maple Leaves”. Even as his voice withered away through the now-iconic tale of a summer visit to Berlin for vegetarian dinner and posing as his lesbian pal’s fiancee, he managed to return for a haunting rendition of “Shirin” to close out the evening. For your sake, here’s hoping that he spends today resting and sipping tea dosed with lemons and honey so that tonight’s can will live up to last night. [crocodile]