For the release of Umber Sleeping's latest CD, there's no better pairing to go with one of Tacoma's favorite bands than Gems. Both emphasize rhythm - with Umber Sleeping's frontman, Peter Tietjen, sitting behind the kit, and with Gems utilizing two drummers. And both are lead by strong, fat synthesizer melodies. But where Umber Sleeping tends to embrace a kind of repetition reminiscent of Philip Glass or Stereolab, Gems take the synths out on auditory explorations. The band's songs are equally built for black lights and full dance floors as they are solo listening in the dark of one's home. This is a show of different, yet simpatico bands, rounded out by the on-the-rise Not From Brooklyn - yet another band that manages to synthesize the electronic and the analog.

[The New Frontier Lounge, with Umber Sleeping, Not From Brooklyn, DJ Darren Selector, 9 p.m., cover TBA, 301 E. 25^th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]