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Psych Rock: The Purrs aren't new to this game. When the Seattle psych-rock band (which needs two hands worth of fingers to count its years together, and recently released its sixth record, Tearing Down Paisley Garden) hits Tacoma this week, they'll know exactly what to do. Jima, The Purrs' singer, will be right at home leading the constructively spacey, dare we say paisley, rock jams; the deadpan vocals adding the perfect lockstep to the band's Velvet Underground-hued, sour, druggy, musically soaring and lamenting disposition. Basically, songs like "It Could Be So Wonderful," and even the band's cover of Lee Hazlewood's "I Move Around," are good EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT HIGH - which for a band often branded as "psychedelic," is saying quite a bit. With Bandolier and Skeletons with Flesh, Friday, June 18, 9 p.m., The New Frontier Lounge, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020 - Matt Driscoll
Alternative Rock: Bacon Moon's name may conjure up the fleet of psychedelic bands that sound as if they picked their names from words in a hat (Strawberry Alarm Clock, et al.), but Bacon Moon's music is firmly planted in the lo-fi alternative rock of the early '90s. They have a quality similar to Guided by Voices. As with Robert Pollard's GBV, Bacon Moon possess a preternatural gift for pop structure, for constructing these humble little gems that stubbornly stick in your head - try as you might to shake them loose. With Oxcart and Ralpheene, Friday, June 18, 10 p.m., no cover, Le Voyeur, 404 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.943.5710 - The Rev. Adam McKinney
Singer-Songstress: It seems that the powers behind bringing sweet-ass bands to town and putting on shows at The Loft at Urban Grace (many of the same faces behind the final incarnation of The Warehouse) have a thing for artists from Portland record label Amigo/Amiga. They've long since established an infatuation with Drew Grow and Pastor's Wives - which blossomed into Grow playing Tacoma more than we probably deserve, with awesome effect; now Kelli Schaeffer is heading to town. At a quarter century of age, but sounding wise beyond her years, Schaeffer is another in a line of genre exploding PDX songsters soon to show Tacoma what people have been talking about. In short, you'll feel like a dolt if you miss this show. With Michael Vermillion, Kirsten Wenlock with Travis Barker, Friday, June 18, 8 p.m., all ages, $8, The Loft at Urban Grace, 902 Market St., Tacoma, 253.272.2184 - MD