Friday 30
PERFECT PANTHER This local quartet, which has been honing its sound for the past three years, plays it gritty and bitter–the songs are dark, shambling, and literate, full of the sort of world-weariness you’d expect more from a country act than an indie-rock band. Front man and guitarist Miles Raymer (who works at the Reader) has the kind of voice that makes him sound 20 years older than he actually is, and the band–bass, drums, and keyboards–plays like it’s been together longer than it actually has. They’re planning to self-release a debut, the seven-song Hang Up the Phone, in late February. Red Eyed Legends headline; Mannequin Men and Quiet Life open. 8:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, $8. –Monica Kendrick
Saturday 31
DJ LOGIC In the early 90s New York’s DJ Logic, aka Jason Kibler, hooked up with the Black Rock Coalition, a collective led by guitarist Vernon Reid, and he’s since played with Reid in the rock-and-hip-hop hybrids My Science Project and the Yohimbe Brothers. But Logic made his reputation with jazz-oriented groups, finding ways to insert his equally coloristic and rhythmic playing into more open-ended settings; Don Byron, Joshua Redman, Graham Haynes, and Medeski, Martin & Wood have all used his services. This year he became the latest guest in Groundtruther–the duo of guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Bobby Previte–providing fluid additions to the hard funk and fusion grooves on Longitude (Thirsty Ear). Solo he’s kind of a crapshoot: on his most recent album, 2001’s The Anomaly (Ropeadope), he employs a full band to ping-pong between taut rhythmic exercises that show off his nimble scratching and stale jazz-funk tunes that spin in circles. Tonight he’ll perform solo and play with the funky local jam band Future Rock. a 9:30 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, 773-278-6600 or 800-594-8499, $70 (includes open bar). –Peter Margasak
Wednesday 4
CHRIS MILLS & THE CITY THAT WORKS Much ink has been spilled about the creation of Chris Mills’s most recent album, The Wall to Wall Sessions (Ernest Jenning Record Co.): last January the journeyman singer-songwriter returned to town to pull a sort of Chicago-style Phil Spector production, recording live to two-track in three days flat with a small army of local luminaries. There’s nothing like trying to gather a dozen or so musicians during blizzard season to inspire some Windy City resourcefulness, but the credit for the album’s success really has to go to the songwriting. Supporting the weight of that many singers, strings, horns, percussion, and whatnot demands sturdier tunes than the alt-country Mills was previously known for, and for the most part he comes through–he sells even the wobbly parts with the urgency in his voice and myriad points of beauty in the arrangements. Those lines about Richard Pryor’s freebasing accident in “Chris Mills Is Living the Dream” sound a little cheaper now, though. The Glass opens. 8:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, $8. –Monica Kendrick
Thursday 5
NAYSAYERS In 2004 local drummer Jim Gifford tried to collect some back rent on a rehearsal space from a tenant named Tiffany Danielle, a singer-guitarist whose band had just broken up. They began playing together soon thereafter as the Naysayers, and have been gigging regularly over the last year. The two songs they have up online (naysayers.net) are very promising: while Danielle’s voice can preen into late-Bangles territory on occasion, her guitar playing–which sounds spurred and pushed by Gifford–provides a tough background to shade her pop instincts. The band recently recorded five new songs for an EP due sometime in 2006. Milk at Midnight headlines, My Left Arm plays second, and the Naysayers open. 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $7. –Monica Kendrick
QUIET KID The no-nonsense guitar rock on the second album by this local band, the Mike Hagler-produced Somewhere (NeedleDrop), is tailor-made for alt-rock radio, but for once I don’t mean that in a nasty way. This is mostly the way it ought to be: tidy and aggressive and tuneful. Tuffy UK headlines and the Rolls open. 9 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, $7. –Monica Kendrick