DREW GROW AND The PASTORS' WIVES

>>> Friday, May 21

Talk about a friend of Tacoma - Drew Grow, and even his Pastors' Wives, feel like long-lost soul mates of Grit City. Originally won over by the warmth of the arts-slash-music scene emanating from The Warehouse (R.I.P.), and intrigued enough to come back even after the DIY venue's demise, the pop-sensible, hipster-spiritual Drew Grow and Pastors' Wives will be filling the Loft at Urban Grace this time around - more specifically, Friday. Since many of the same faces in charge of the Warehouse's final incarnation are helping get the Urban Grace Loft off the ground as a venue, Grow's return to their artist-first embrace only makes sense.  "All of you Tacomans (That can't be right - it looks like Taco-man) have been really kind to us," Grow wrote to me in email. "The Tacoma music world that we know is a stunning pocket of creative people." He's right about most of it. - Matt Driscoll

[The Loft at Urban Grace, with Big Sur, Valerie Warren, 7:30 p.m., all ages, $10, 902 Market St., Tacoma, thewarehouse@gmail.com]

NIGHT BEATS

>>> Saturday, May 22

Night Beats, originally from the Lone Star State, have carved out a niche for themselves in Seattle's garage rock underbelly. And while the song titles on their Street EP may inspire a sense of menace, violence and devastation (with "H-Bomb" and "Stampede" complemented by the creepy, enigmatic pronoun of "They Came in Through the Window"), Night Beats' sound isn't all that fearsome - they trade in an appreciably familiar brand of fuzz-spangled, surfadelic rock. They sound like a band that's lost out of time, not so much because they recall early wail-hunting '60s pioneers, but more because if only they'd emerged during the post-millennial rock boom (alongside acts like The Strokes and The White Stripes), they'd be household names by now. I wouldn't worry too much about this band's prospects, though - they've got serious abilities. - Jason Baxter

[Bob's Java Jive, with Apache Chief, Red Hex, Basemint, 8 p.m., cover TBA, 2102 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma, 253.475.9843]

THE MARRYING TYPE

>>> Saturday, May 22

As popular music moves into the future and becomes drenched in drones, break beats, intrusive synthesizers and various other ephemera, there will always be a contingent of musicians who will push to bring it back to its roots - or closer to them, at any rate. The Marrying Type, Canon Canyon and Xylophones, all performing on the same bill at the Den, will represent three interpretations of this attitude. Canon Canyon recall the Americana of ‘70's singer-songwriters, all hope and love in the midst of youthful crisis. Xylophones bring it all back to guitar and drums with their plaintive, minimalist pop songs. Finally, The Marrying Type introduce haze to the mix, performing the kind of dream-folk you'd expect to hear as background noise to the majority of our family videos. - Rev. Adam McKinney

[The Den @ urbanXchange, with Canon Canyon, Xylophones, 8 p.m., cover TBA, 1932 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.572.2280]

MAKEING TENTS

Saturday, May 22

To intentionally misspell a word makes me very uncomfortable. For a band to utilize a misspelled word is, to me, almost as bad as creating an unpronounceable name (!!!, for example). So, it's with a slight cringe that I write to you regarding Makeing Tents. And just now, Microsoft Word tried to correct me. Despite the band turning up their nose at the English language, Makeing Tents is deserving of attention. Creating music that they refer to as "electro-wilderness" - a term that denotes the mashing together of folk and electronics - the band frequently finds and presents arresting moments that result from the collision of musical viewpoints. Now, if only I could convince them to borrow my copy of A Writer's Reference. Meet me half-way, Makeing Tents. - Rev. AM

[Le Voyeur, with Soft Paws, Thought Bandit, 10 p.m., no cover, 404 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.943.5710]

ROUND MOUNTAIN

Wednesday, May 26

How many kinds of folk music can you name? There's Appalachian folk, Irish folk, Czech folk, Southern folk, ‘60s folk and modern indie folk. Anywhere there are folk, and there is music, there is folk music. "Folk," as a genre description, is about as useful as "rock" or "pop." But that doesn't stop Round Mountain from trying to play all of it. Billing themselves as simply "world folk," New Mexican brothers Char and Robby Rothschild run the gamut, wielding West African harps, Bulgarian bagpipes, and a dozen or so other wind, string and percussion instruments from around the country and the world. Expect both a world music lesson and a damn good performance out of Round Mountain Wednesday night. - Joe Izenman

[Mandolin Café, 7 p.m., no cover, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, 253.761.3482]