SWEATSHOP UNION

>>> Thursday, May 13

Working class, gritty and grimy hip-hop rears its beautiful head with the arrival of Sweatshop Union in the South Puget Sound tonight. A mighty contingent of Canadian DJs and MCs prepare to wreck shop with one of the dopest live shows you will see.  Homeland Security once again brings the powerful group to the stage of Olympia's Royal Lounge, along with Oly upstart Puget, who just dropped his debut album, Music Is The Key in April.  Sand People and Debaser will also rock the stage and usher in a busy summer of hip-hop shows scheduled at South Sound venues.  Debaser dropped their second album, Peerless, earlier this month - and only add to what should be a memorable night. - Jose S. Gutierrez Jr.

[The Royal Lounge, with Puget, Sand People, Debaser, 8 p.m., cover TBA, 311 Capital Way N., Olympia, 360.705.0760]

HOSANNAS

>>> Thursday, May 13

Brandon Laws of Hosannas is "totally sick of the name change questions." It's understandable. Sure, Portland's Hosannas was known as Church until some dick-ass Australian band from the ‘80s, The Church, threatened to sue. Then the band became Ape Cave - but only for a few weeks. And now Laws, his brother Richard, and the rest of band call themselves Hosannas. So what? Get over it. The important thing is now these guys can concentrate on what's important - the music, or as the Portland Mercury so eloquently put it, "some of the best, most unfuckwithable, avant-pop" they've heard. The assessment is hard to argue. Hosannas will be in Olympia Thursday with a new (re)release in tow - the Hush Records backed Then and Now and Then, a collection of the band's first two EPs -originally self released and only sold at shows.- Matt Driscoll

[Northern, with Prairie Bastards, Saint Street, 8 p.m., all ages $5, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia, northernolympia.org]

CANDYSOUND

>>> Saturday, May 15

Bellingham, famously, is the birthplace of titanic indie mopesters Death Cab for Cutie. In the years since those hometown boys made good, however, Bellingham has striven to cultivate an offbeat DIY music scene, encompassed by a plethora of rough-hewn genre-benders and the hush-hush house venues they frequent. In spite of - and in the midst of - this atmosphere of underground experimentalism, the pop-minded upstarts in Candysound have already found great success at home and in Washington State at large (they're competitors in this year's Sound Off! Competition). The band revels in their use of familiar indie rock chord progressions, arrangements, and structures, doling out sugary and characteristically Northwestern basement pop with a charming off-handedness. Which is not to say that they're slipshod musicians-quite the opposite: they're an aptly-named and promising young band with admirably palatable instincts. - Jason Baxter

[The Den @ urbanXchange, with Shenandoah Davis and , 8 p.m., all ages, cover TBA, 1934 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2280]

SQUEAK AND SQUAWK 2 FUNDRAISER

>>> Saturday, May 15

I tried my best, guys. I tapped on shoulders. I caught up to them in mid-stride. I pulled newspapers down from their faces. Not a single Tacoma citizen seems to know anything about the Squeak and Squawk fundraiser this Saturday at The New Frontier. When I asked who was set to play, they blew their pipe smoke in my face and said, "Bah!" They were all in on it. Indomitably, I tied a hanky on a stick and set out for answers. Against everyone's vehement advice and wagging fingers; I decided to seek out the elusive Sean Alexander, co-founder of the Squeak and Squawk music festival. I found him on his porch, wrapped in the hide of a black bear, smoking a pipe. I said, "What's the deal with the fundraiser on Saturday night? Is it a secret or something?" His whispered word seemed to hang in the air: "Timshel!" His eyes closed and he slept. Go to the show Saturday night. Pay $5 and get a Squeak and Squawk sampler CD! - Heather Loepp

[The New Frontier Lounge, with TBA, 9 p.m., $5, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]

HOTEL ST. GEORGE

>>> Wednesday, May 19

Hotel St. George's music is the kind of damaged pop that we've grown to know through bands like Spoon or Guided By Voices - as disparate as those bands might seem. Their melodies are pure and catchy as all get out, but the vocals and lyrics are desperate, longing pleas for love - or maybe just help. The guitars are strummed with veined forearms and gritted teeth, and the vocals keep it cool over an undertone of panic and unease. This kind of dark pop sustains music in general, coming along every so often to make sure it prospers. And we, as its consumers, inherit its riches to someday pass on to our heirs. Music - pop music-is the circle of life. Hotel St. George live on in that tradition. - Rev. Adam McKinney

[Le Voyeur, with Johnny Cheezbrgr, Apes of Wrath, Fine Slew, 10 p.m., no cover, 404 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.943.5710]

SOCIAL STUDIES

>>> Wednesday, May 19

I tell you this honestly: There was a period of my life when I would walk along with a copy of Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies by Of Montreal in my CD player, and it truly scared me. Walking the Tacoma streets at night with the schizophrenic pop blaring in my ears was enough to make me question my sanity. Social Studies take this sound and - thankfully - soften it a bit. The super clean, psychedelic pop sounds are still there, but stillness and ease are added to the pot, creating an easier, not quite so disturbing listen. Some songs even venture further into the more comfortable realm of pop-rock, without relinquishing the buzzing baroque that made the band special to begin with. Giving your mind a moment of rest is not a weakness. - Rev. AM

[The Den @ urbanXchange, 7 p.m., all ages, cover TBA, 1934 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2280]