Wednesday, May 3

Eef Barzelay, Local 506

Across the albums from his band Clem Snide, Eef Barzelay’s songs have been so compellingly off-center–telling stories of a Nick Drake type and studying Lucille Ball–it’s as if he picks his topics on a songwriting dare. When his new, stripped-down and Snideless Bitter Honey begins “That was my ass you saw bouncing next to Ludacris,” you know he’s at it again. Erie Choir and American Aquarium open. $8-10/9:30 p.m. –RC

Mofro, The Jamie McLean Band, The Pour House

Florida chicken farmer and class surfer J.J. Grey and guitarist Daryl Hance are Mofro. They call their sound “front porch soul.” It has a rootsy, swampy feel. On 2004’s Lochloosa, “Six Ways From Sunday” sounds like The Band sittin’ in with Skynyrd. It’s funky, edgy and dangerous, like Tony Joe White rasslin’ the Dave Matthews Band. Jamie McLean, guitarist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, opens. $8-10/10 p.m. –GB

Thursday, May 4

Say Anything, The Bled, Cat’s Cradle

This is some of that big deal, Alternative Press– adored, Fuse TV-reppin’, Cali post-(pop-)punk. Say Anything–besides borrowing their name from the sensitive-guy John Hughes movie where High Fidelity dude holds a radio over his head–are mediocre relationship-complaint rock, with crunchy guitars and whined vocals. The Bled have a stupid name but traverse a tad more tolerable terrain, cribbing Glassjaw melodrama and metal core machismo. Have fun attempting to distinguish the boys in black T-shirts and girl’s jeans from the girls in black T-shirts and girl’s jeans. $9-11/7:30 pm. –RM

Captured! by Robots, Eyes to Space, Experimental Dental School, Kings

Face on crooked: That’s how you’ll feel when this one ends. Eyes to Space get geeky with keytars and glasses, and they can be unendingly fun; Experimental Dental School recalls early Deerhoof sans Satomi Matsuzaki’s vocals, but made even more weird and spazzy by a pile of keyboard, guitar and bass mini-melodies running face-first into one another; the well-publicized Captured! by Robots features a human dude forced to obey the rock muse of his mechanical man-nappers. Holy antics! 10 p.m. –GC

Friday, May 5

Hobex, Spencer Acuff, Danielle Howle, Cat’s Cradle

After shutting down Dillon Fence in ’95, founder Greg Humphries called his new band Hobex. It’s shorthand for “I’m all over that like a hobo on a ham sandwich,” a phrase invented by a friend to mean you’re enjoying the moment. Humphries’ classic soul-style vocals with jazz-funk accompaniment have made it possible for the band to celebrate the 10th anniversary of that moment this year. $10/8:30 p.m. –GB

Saturday, May 6

Dr. Dog, The Capitol Years, Velvet, Local 506

Philly’s Dr. Dog creates highly baked psychedelic rock with big-bottom Badfinger grooves and freak-Beatles leanings: You’ll either love it or be bored with nostalgia. I’m the latter. But do surrender to The Capitol Years’ lush acoustic trance, which somehow beckons My Bloody Valentine’s sonic smears while revering the shape of the melodies inside. Chapel Hill’s Velvet recently split ties with Eskimo Kiss Records to found their own Double Decker Bus imprint, and the freedom of being DIY seems to have given their new material room to breathe: It’s the most embracing work they’ve recorded yet. 10 p.m. –GC

Mel Melton & the Wicked Mojos, Tir Na Nog

Roy “Mel” Melton got his start playing alongside legendary zydeco band leader Clifton Chenier and an up-and-coming slide guitar hero named Sonny Landreth. Nice beginning, kid. Some 35 years later, Melton is going strong and still calling on those Lafayette, La., days as he and the Mojos serve up everything from Cajun waltzes to New Orleans-style soul funk. Free/10:30 p.m. –RC

Future Islands, Clik Clak, Kings

Future Islands is a more direct, less campy incarnation of Art Lord & The Self Portraits–Greenville, N.C.’s erstwhile party-starting, fake-accent-having new wavers. This go-’round there’s no playful German jokes, no costumes and no performance art. But in the jocularity’s absence, it’s apparent that the Art Lord boys were hitting on something more than comedy with those bouncy ’80s-inspired new wave pomp ups, and broken glass bass lines. –RM

Cyril Lance, Blue Bayou

As a teenager, Cyril Lance was lying around on the beach in Honolulu playing slack-key guitar when a Muddy song on the radio moved him to move to Boston to dig up some roots. The blues excavation helped him form a sound that mixes Latin, funk, jazz and blues, like the Allman Brothers meet the Meters way down south. $8-10/9:30 p.m. –GB

After-Skool Special, Fuse

Gnarly-haired Jamaicans rightly call DJs “selecters.” Through their records sequence and overlap, they build a vibe and control it within a crowd. The best selecters cross genre badlands to wrench their interlocking pieces into place. Here Triangle long-timers Uzi and Silvaback bridge classic hip hop, electronic cuts and funky crowd pleasers on the first Saturday monthly. Free/10 p.m. –CT

Monday, May 8

Diamond Rio, Jason Marks, Lincoln Theatre

Perhaps the cheekiest band in modern country music, Diamond Rio turned a harmony-singing, mandolin-swingin’ rock-country hybrid into one of the most commercially successful sounds of the ’90s, stringing together hits from “Love a Little Stronger,” “Unbelievable,” “Walking Away” and “You’re Gone.” If none of those titles sound familiar, you probably want to forego this show, a CD release party (“Why Raleigh?” We’re wondering, too) for their second volume of greatest hits. $10/6:30 p.m. –GC