Thursday, June 29

Pens and Needles, Social Memory Complex, Mic Savvy, DJ Soulfinger, The Library

This East Franklin club is a hub for local artists to flex their mic skills and see how the beats sound in a bigger room than their bedroom. Tonight, they import Asheville’s Pens and Needles, who sway from super lo-fidelity brag rap to over-the-top bits about big girls. Chapel Hill’s SMC revel in the same dudely humor, but usually cut through with some biting songs about more serious pursuits. $4/10 p.m. –CT

Kolyma, Cantwell, Gomez & Jordan, The Scholarships, Kings

Kolyma’s MySpace page reads like so: “We are Raleigh NC’s kings of snuff-jazz, hell-metal, neo-no wave, death punk.” That pretty much covers it. A perfect fit alongside the unhinged clomp-rock of Greensboro’s Scholarships and the frantic skronk of Durham’s Cantwell, Gomez & Jordan. 10 p.m. –RM

Friday, June 30

The Sammies, The Greatest Hits, Tiger Thief, Brent Jordan, Kings

People in Charlotte are talking like their The Sammies could be the band to push its music scene and its MoRisen Records to the national level, thanks in large part to the group’s recent radio-ready eponymous debut, a crisp ball of garage rock energy with the production accoutrement bona fide famous can require. Whether or not their amped retro-derivation makes them famous or not, they’re right at home on this Raleigh rock bill: Tiger Thief (nee Iconic) is symbolic of their Killers shimmer, while The Greatest Hits are a beefier embodiment of their the Replacements savagery. Opener Brent Jordan plays an acoustic guitar real steady-like. 10 p.m. –GC

Saturday, July 1

Drunk Horse, Birds of Avalon, Mountain High, Thunderlip, Kings

After seeing them awe longtime fans like Birds of Avalon’s Paul Siler and Cheetie Kumar and casual, unsuspecting onlookers at last weekend’s one-year anniversary part for The Reservoir, I do not repeal last week’s maxim: “Oakland’s Drunk Horse may very well be the best, most overlooked R-O-C-K band in the world.” They return to North Carolina with fellow road runners BOA and Wilmington’s trembling Thunderlip. Philly’s Mountain High–skeezy, punchy, funny, loud–open this one. Two horse rides in a week? Equine idyll. 10 p.m. –GC

Sunday, July 2

The Shondes, America’s Next Top Models, Beloved Binge, Chaz’s Bull City Records

Outcasts all, Brooklyn’s The Shondes (Yiddish for “disgrace”) burn on violin-and-guitar queercore fueled by the desire for sexual equality and Palestinian peace. Think Joshua Tree with the above criteria, only more nervous and jittery, like sporting doubly marginal politics on national tour. America’s Next Top Models–Durham’s destroying American satirists with an effrontery even W couldn’t miss–open. If Lee Ranaldo and Fontaine Toups had wed, Beloved Binge–new to the Bull City–would have been their Teen Beat babies. Free/8 p.m. –GC