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Music Critics Picks: Jezebels, Yonatan Gat, Manx, DB Cooper Music Festival

July 30-Aug. 2: live music in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area

Yonatan Gat plays a stew of Brazilian psych, pan-African rock, explosive punk and outre lo-fi indie.

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[GOODBYE]+ NOW 

It has been called The Barcode, The Mint and finally, this week it will close its doors for the last time as Jezebels.  Yes, the Olympia-based hip-hop and rap nightspot - often the center of scrutiny and critical review - will close its doors as owner Mark Valerio re-focuses on his military-hotbed venue in Yelm, Fair Game. Regardless of your opinion of Jezebels, it has been an important part of nightlife in the Puget Sound, having hosted KRS-ONE, Ying Yang Twins, Digital Underground, more recently Masta Ace and Shai. DJ Drastic, Heretic The Heathen and several other "heads" will drop by Jezebels this week. A new venue will open in the spacer in August. {JOSE GUTIERREZ}

JEZEBELS GRAND CLOSING, 414 Fourth Ave., Olympia

[ROCK] + FRI, AUG. 1

Yonatan Gat was recently voted "Best Guitarist of 2013" by the Village Voice. There. Now go to the show. More? Formerly of the Israeli garage rock powerhouses, Monotonix, Gat has turned his eyes to the far corners of musical expression. Incorporating a dizzying variety of cultural influences - tropicalia, Middle Eastern music, psych rock, blistering punk, African pop - Gat has emerged as a chameleonic interpreter of rock ‘n' roll in its many shifting forms. This is all a long way of saying that his guitar mastery has churned and congealed into wonderfully thrilling music. At the Northern, he will be joined by Arrington de Dionyso, another culturally voracious and experimental musician, as well as the king of Olympia weirdos, Calvin Johnson. This show is gonna be one for the history books. {REV. ADAM MCKINNEY}

YONATAN GAT, w/ Arrington de Dionyso, Calvin Johnson, 8 p.m., Northern, 414 ½ E. Fourth Ave., Olympia, $6

[ROCK] + SAT, AUG. 2

Manx hail from Portland, and their music is the kind of blazing, no-frills rock 'n' roll practiced by the likes of Fox and the Law. Though tinged with glam rock swagger, Manx don't pretend to be anything other than a dopamine-soaked delivery system of sick riffs to your brain parts. The vocals are nimble and confident, bringing to mind the '70s, and their nonstop streak of otherworldly bandleaders. As a trio, Manx are about as tight and propulsive as you can get. As if this wouldn't be enough to convince you to make it out to the Java Jive, this show will also mark the final performance from Tacoma rock royalty, KRAMER. This show is set to be a monstrous collection of the sort of top-notch that's best experienced in the cozy confines of a coffee pot. {REV. AM}

MANX, w/ KRAMER, Red Hex, Mercenaries, 8 p.m., Bob's Java Jive, 2102 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma, $5, 253.475.9843

[FESTIVAL] + SAT, AUG. 2

On the afternoon of Nov. 24, 1971, Thanksgiving Eve, a man who identified himself as Dan Cooper (no middle B - that was a media error) boarded Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, one-way, from Portland to Seattle. A guy could book a flight with sketchy ID in that pre-9/11 era. He could also smoke on the plane; "Cooper" did. He drank a bourbon cocktail and ordered another. Then he informed the flight crew there was a bomb in his briefcase. A few hours later, he vanished from the Boeing 727 with a parachute and $200,000. Neither he nor much of the money he stole was ever found. My point is twofold: first, Wikipedia is amazing. Second, why the hell not name an awesome music festival in Chehalis after a hijacker's misreported alias? I'll be there. So will Alice Stuart, The Brown Edition, Bump Kitchen, SweetKiss Momma, Curtis Salgado and Vicci Martinez. So should you, assuming you're 21 or older. Happy landings! {CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL}

DB COOPER MUSIC FESTIVAL, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Southwest Washington Fairgrounds, 2555 N. National Ave., Chehalis, $35-$40, 360.740.1495 ext. 360

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