LIVE MUSIC TODAY IN THE SOUTH SOUND >>>
INDIE ROCK: Remember Sylvester Park way back, like, 15 years ago? When you were young and defiant and totally comfortable doing anything from having drum circles and smoking jays to making out and getting homemade tattoos? A time when the gazebo was a living room for you and your best buds to laze around and get creative in? Well, that creativity still thrives and is being brought back by a talented handful of bands this Saturday as part of Olympia's second annual Independent Music Festival. Bands will be rocking the park with unbridled sweaty jams in a fiasco of summer music lovin'. Featuring Hard Way, Glass Elevator, One Nation Undereducated, Noah Parriott, Sea of Tides, Oly Mountain Boys, Dry Ink, Saturday, July 3, noon to 9 p.m., all ages, free, Sylvester Park, Capitol Way and Legion, Olympia - Nikki Talotta
HIP-HOP: Hip-hopper Josh Rizeberg is everywhere, from shows to poetry readings to art workshops to the express checkout lane at the grocery store. Straight off a performance at The Den last night, Rizeberg will fill (hopefully) Rocket Records on Sixth Avenue for a free, in-store performance today. While you're there, pick up Rizeberg's latest gem, A Word to the Wize - a record that, impressively, might just outdo his critically acclaimed debut, Spoken Worldz. Saturday, July 3, 5 p.m., all ages, no cover, Rocket Records, 3843 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.756.5186 - Michael Swan
GOSPEL PUNK: Ian Svenonius is an artist in the truest sense of the word. Regularly described (endearingly) as a mouthpiece and even "slyly legendary," Svenious has written books and hosted online talk shows, but is best known for fronting bands that teetered on the artistic ledge, from his first D.C. outfit Nation of Ulysses, which made it its goal to destroy the "corrupt medium" of rock and roll, to the Make Up and the band's self-ascribed genre "Gospel Yeh-Yeh," to Cupid Car Club, to Weird War, to his newest incarnation, Chain and the Gang - which incorporates a strict set of musical rules that materialize into familiar, reductionist, prison-blues tropes, a call and response backbone and a driving R&B feel. Read the full story here. With Nightbeats, Basemint, DJ Dub Narcotic, Saturday, July 3, 9 p.m., $5, The New Frointier Lounge, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020 - Matt Driscoll
BLUES: While Walter Trout doesn't have the most recognizable name in blues or rock, he should be up there, and the fact that the kids of today know nothing of the guitarist's career worth of musical accomplishments strikes Bobble Tiki as both unjust and inevitable. Rock and roll and blues were once the soundtracks of youthful rebellion. Today they're more like the founding fathers. Most kids today don't know a damn thing about William Whipple either. Born in New Jersey in 1951, Trout cut his teeth in the same local music scene as Steel Mill, which featured a fresh face by the name of Bruce Springsteen. After moving to Los Angeles, Trout eventually hooked up with Canned Heat and then John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - where he and Coco Montoya formed one of the most fearsome guitar tandems of all time. It was during this period that Trout made a name for himself. See what he's all about tonight. Saturday, July 3, 8 p.m., $15, Jazzbones, 2803 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.396.9169 - Bobble Tiki
PROG/NOISE ROCK: If you're not hip to Minneapolis' Gay Beast yet - described as "Minnesota's premier agit-prog queer band" by the their label, Skin Graft, on skingraftrecords.com - there's still plenty of time to get on board the guitar/synth/drums, math-y and sporadic bandwagon - even if the New Yorker has beaten you to it. Luckily, most mainstream ears haven't - nor would they tolerate it.Which is just fine by Bobble Tiki, since mainstream ears don't deserve what guitarist Isaac Rotto, keyboardist and vocalist Daniel Luedtke and drummer Angela Gerend bring to the table. Gay Beast is - indeed - a best, and one worth hearing and seeing yourself. With The Awesomes and Broken water, Saturday, July 3, 9 p.m. all ages, $5, Northern, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia - BT