dent may, with ukulele.

Tonight, if the chatting, laughing, drinking, eating, and other assorted revelry of Blogsgiving hasn’t worn you to shreds, you might want to drop by Chop Suey on your way home. There, Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele(s) can show you that contrary to conventional wisdom, if you try hard enough, you can force a dance party. They open for sibling songwriting the Fiery Furnaces, an odd couple of boundary-stretching rockers who have taken inspiration from sources ranging as far and wide as Devo to their grandmother’s choir. $15, 8pm. With Cryptacize. [chopsuey]

Hey! Guess what’s happening tomorrow? OK, time’s up. It’s BLOGSGIVING. Bloggists meeting bloggers, meeting readers, having a real time. Get yourself over to Central Cinema tomorrow from 6 to 9 with a donation in hand and warmth in your heart. Arrive early for your best shot of scoring some free tasty vittles — caramel apples and pizzas — and getting a sip of a mulled beverage. We’ll be playing all of your favorite videos (have a suggestion, drop us a note or leave a URL in le comments. But first, click over to blogsgiving.org and let us know that we’ll see you there.

John Darnielle’s struggles with his faith may be the motivation behind his latest Mountain Goats album, but if previous shows are any indication, I expect a high level of devotion from his fans tonight at the Showbox. Whether the topic is fevered dreams or conversations with belief, the shows tend to be populated by legions of fans, getting sweatily pumped by the shared intensity of the moment. However, the real reason for this post is to encourage you to show up early enough to catch Owen Pallett, who, when he’s not arranging Arcade Fire string sections or Richard Kelly soundtracks, records and performs as Final Fantasy. Although his loop-happy violin covers of Joanna Newsom and Bloc Party may catapulted him to blogfame, his original material is also strong, creative, and engaging. Performances are typically solo, although sometimes a friend comes along to provide live overhead projector animations. I promise that this all sounds a whole lot more precious and treacly than it really is. $20, doors at 8. [showbox]

Hey! Remember last year when all of Seattle’s most wonderful bloggers and most adorable reader got together for drinks, amazing hand turkey art making, socializing, and raised a bunch of money for Northwest Harvest, convincing many an attendee from the mixer upstairs that we were more interesting and eligible than the techy singles? Well it’s time to do it all over again. Mark you calendars for the 18th of November and plan to be at Central Cinema from 6 to 9 with a donation in hand and warmth in your heart. It should be a super fun time — please pay a visit to blogsgiving.org and let us know that we’ll see you there.

The last time Dirty Projectors were in town I felt horrible about missing them, both because parts of their new record, Bitte Orca nearly caused me to trip over myself while listening to it on my morning commute and also because it was clear that the size of the venues they’d be visiting would only get bigger and bigger. Luckily, they saw fit to pay another visit to Seattle this year, upsizing from Chop Suey to the still intimate Neumo’s, which felt especially cozy with the swampy warmth of packed wall-to-not-so-well-ventillated-wall and hanging-over-the-balcony with adoring onlookers.

And for good reason, for all the astoundingness of their recorded material, seeing Dave Longstreth and crew onstage performing is all the more jaw-dropping. Moment by moment, line by line, and note by note, the songs feel like a tenuous and delicate exploration of the limits of what makes a song and how a story can be told musically. The songs tremble and glow, flit and dive around the surface of an idea, rise and fall into big surrendery swells, and challenge the ambitious listeners seeking to take their physical response beyond clapping head bobbing to full on dancing. Despite this rather academic-seeming descriptions, the music remains brainy without becoming coldly cerebral; in fact, with the swirling rhythmic eddies, each member beginning in their own apparent orbit, and eventually coalescing, it feels like future soul, forward-looking yet with a full heart to match its sophistication. From an opening solo performance, to stripped down duets, but especially with the talents of the full group on display, each melodic episode was its own kind of thrilling. While Longstreth is the clear engineer of the operation, he wisely leaves plenty of room for vocalists Amber Coffman, Angel Deeradorean, and Haley Dekle to shine. Until seeing them in person, it somehow never occurred to me that the all of interlocking vocals could exist organically, but the syncopated showstopper brought down the house with the multipart, perfectly coordinated, rollicking vocal gymnastics. It was so amazing that the encore-concluding “Knotty Pine” was hardly necessary, but highly appreciated.

phil elverum, at mfnw. photo credit: josh

• Tonight’s lineup at the Vera Project could be hazardous to your perception of reality. Or at least that’s how it seems. Phil Elverum’s latest recording as Mount Eerie, Wind’s Poem, famously takes its inspiration from black metal. Performing on this tour with a band, some of the songs unsettlingly abandon Elverum’s recent traditions of introspection in favor of the sounds of the sky and trees splitting at their very fabric. When Yoni Wolf, of headliners, WHY? sings, the universe seems to bend and flutter in unexpected ways. More words than seem possible seem to fit and fold into spaces far too small without even slightly upsetting the linear course of engaging stories. It falls into some uncharted realm between hiphop and indie rock, compelling awestruck attention. $13, 7:30 pm, with No Kids. [veraproject]

• I confess that I didn’t follow Austin’s … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead much beyond the temporal cocoon surrounding their near-perfect (or, according to pitchfork at the time, 10.0) early century Source Tags and Codes. In the intervening years, the guitar-swinging, piano trashing, soul-bearing art rockers have left both Texas and Interscope, funding this year’s The Century of Self on their own. Tonight, their tour brings them to town with Future of Left , born from two-thirds of the remains of mclusky. When they played at this summer’s block party, nearly everyone who saw them stumbled back onto the sidewalk beaming. Arrive early, Born Anchors open. $15, 8pm. [neumos]

• Molly Moon is now a big enough enterprise to demand dairy that’s free of corn syrup. [wallyhood]
• Mountlake Terrace might be getting its own medical marijuana storefront. [mltnews]
• Now even the voters guide has an outtakes and deleted scenes reel. [times, via slog]
• there was an equality march on Sunday on Broadway [chs]; from apartments overlooking the parade, some nonrepresentative chants may have been misheard. [slog]
• Some people think we’re unattractive with good farmers’ markets but terrible Thanksgivings. [travel+leisure]
• Others, at least, appreciate our above normal intelligence. [dailybeast]

starfucker, this summer.

• At this summer’s Capitol Hill Block Party it was difficult to find a crowd going more dance crazy than the pack crushed against the stage for Starfucker. In an effort to book more family friendly venues and tours, the band is retiring their name and replacing it with something generated from an online contest, hoping to attract fewer asterisks or “unpublishable” references in less liberal print outlets. Dance like crazy and give the great old name a proper send off. Friday, 7:30, $10. [veraproject]
• Japanese post-rock outfit MONO make the sort of music that could take down crumbling viaducts while keeping a smile on everyone’s melting faces. Friday, 8 pm, $13 [neumos]
• Watch your neighbors getting naked in the Stranger’s annual two-day festival of amateur pornography fleeting superstardom. Most shows sold out. On the Boards. Friday-Saturday. [hump]
• The slickest and besweatered sexy Canadian dance rock this side of the rockies. Junior Boys tour in support of their new album. 9pm, $15. [chop suey]
• Can’t make it to DC to march for equality? Have vigil, rally, and bar crawl in solidarity on our own Capitol Hill instead. With R-71 on the ballots, local efforts are every bit as important as the drama playing out on the national scene. Friday-Sunday [seattleoutprotest.org]
• Runners, walkers, and fans of music will converge in Seward Park on Sunday for a 5k run/walk to support The Vera Project. Those who find strenuous morning exercise less than thrilling may be goaded into participating not just for the great causes of local music and art, but also by the presence of live music, eighties dancers, food, and fundraising prizes. Sunday, 8:30am-3pm. Registration is free, suggested fundraising goal, $100. [runverarun.org]
• Passion Pit’s promotional materials call this year’s Manners a “a bird-flipping break from the blogosphere by a 21 year old with much more on his manic mind than girls, girls, girls.” I call it an album that I resisted initially yet found myself hopelessly addicted to in the middle of summer. Their live performances reportedly simmer until they drive audiences to hand waving wildery. Tickets are sold out; so try your chances or drop in at their a free in-store at Easy Street at 2 pm. 8pm, $20. [showbox] Both shows are cancelled due to illness in the band; at minimum, the Showbox event will be rescheduled and tickets for the original will be honored.