Music

Ever face one of those days when there’s just too much fun stuff going on? Wednesday, July 11 is that day for Salt Lake City music fans. No matter what genre you dig and where you like to indulge in the enjoyment of said genre, your wishes could come true.

First up, electro-pop savants Wye Oak grace Metro Music Hall’s stage. Frontwoman Jenn Wasner performed in Utah last year with her solo project, Flock of Dimes. But this week she returns with longtime bandmate Andy Stack and their collection of buzzy, woozy tunes off new record The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs. Where Wye Oak once trafficked in insular neo-folk interpretations, their recent material revels in its lack of creative boundaries, bouncing from bold syncopated beats to dream pop swaddles and electrifying indie rock squalls. As Wasner recently told Pitchfork.com, “As long as there are people who feel something from my songs, whether it’s comfort or joy or just feeling seen and understood, then it feels like a way to bring some good to the world.” Get your tickets here and get to the show early to hear opening act, Oakland-based folkie, baker, artist and cartoon enthusiast Madeline Kenney.
Yearning for the sweet absurdity of Pennsylvania rockers Ween? You and me both. One-half of our desires can be satisfied on Wednesday night when Dean Ween Group plugs in at The Commonwealth Room. Led by Dean Ween, otherwise known in real life as Mickey Melchiondo, Jr., this is classic sleaze rock and off-color twang a la Ween’s great albums 12 Golden Country Greats and White Pepper. Dean Ween Group’s 2018 album Deaner 2 is full of Boognish-certified proto-pysch, jazzy digressions and bluesy ball-busters, with song titles like “Someone Greased the Fatman,” “Love Theme from ‘Skinheads Kicking Your Ass’,” and Put Your Pussy on My Pillow.” Even the romantic-sounding “Sunset Over Belmar” adds a crass blast to the summertime tale of Dean Ween’s Jersey Shore charter fishing service (yes, it’s a real thing). Get your tickets here; you never know what Mickey’s gonna pull out of his 35-year bag of shock-rock tricks.

Ween shows are crazy, but if you haven’t seen Quintron & Miss Pussycat live, you haven’t seen anything yet. These two New Orleans-based multi-hyphenates successfully combine swamp disco, garage punk, organ rock, and puppetry into a kaleidoscopic orgy of the senses. Miss Pussycat (AKA Panacea Theriac) opens the show with her hand-sewn, hallucinogenic puppet show before Quintron (AKA Robert Rolston) storms the stage with his homemade instruments: a light-activated analog drum machine, a weather-controlled analog drone synthesizer and his trademark organ embedded in the front grill of an old Cadillac. Somehow, this freak-show gumbo captivates, dropping jaws, generating dance parties, and even ending up in museums. If your tastes tend to the gonzo, don’t miss this one at The Urban Lounge.

Speaking of superpowered two-piece shows, musician Liss Victory and comedian Krish Mohan bring their TransContinental Comedy & Music Show to The Underground on Wednesday. Billing themselves as “an interracial, cross-genre, mixed media couple,” Liss and Krish shoot socially conscious daggers in their own respective ways. Mohan’s standup doesn’t shy away from hot topics like race, religion and his role as an immigrant from India, while Victory “writes protest songs reflective of her white, middle-class upbringing: surrounded by a failing manufacturing industry set against a backdrop of the longest war in United States history.” Given our country’s ongoing convulsions, this is about as relevant as it gets—but it’s damn enjoyable, too. Bring $5 to The Underground and prepare to laugh, cringe, and walk away inspired.

Don’t see anything you like? Your Wednesday options still abound: modern reggae-rock with Ballyhoo!, Bumpin Uglies, and Tropidelic at Soundwell; Bay Area metal with Spite, Untamed Engine, and A Lost Asylum at The Loading Dock; Jazz at the Station at Ogden’s Union Station with Weber State University Jazz Ensembles director Dan Jonas and friends; more jazz up in Deer Valley with New Orleans soul ‘n’ blues combo Take 5; and a rare intimate performance from Circa Survive frontman Anthony Green, who is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his solo debut Avalon, along with folk-rock collective Good Old War and Found Wild at Kilby Court.