Crowmeat Bob’s musical nervous breakdown. BY HARRIS WHELESS

Crowmeat Bob performing at Neptune’s Parlour PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

The woodpeckers, blackbirds, and swallows nesting in the asylum garden shouted the same question at him over and over: “Are you not ashamed?”

We Can’t Believe Our Ears In a 120-year-old memoir of a nervous breakdown, Judge Schreber’s Avian Choir finds an allegory for the hallucinatory power of noise music

BY HARRIS WHELESS music@indyweek.com

In 1900, Daniel Paul Schreber, a former judge who had been institutionalized after a series of mental collapses, began writing a comprehensive account of his experiences to use in an appeal for his release.

“I hear words from the talking birds impinging on my ears from outside,” Schreber wrote. The woodpeckers, blackbirds, and swallows nesting in the asylum garden shouted the same question at him over and over: “Are you not ashamed?”

Our senses can be unreliable narrators of what is going on around us. Especially in abstract genres such as noise music, there are sounds that may or may not just be a trick of the ear. What are all these things we hear amid the crunch of distortion and the hair-raising gale of electronics? Are they really there at all? “I think that’s the attraction of noise music for a lot of people,” says Bob Pence. “You’re never sure what you’re hearing—whether what you’re hearing is in your mind or not.”

Pence, who makes music as Crowmeat Bob, is a horn player and guitarist who’s been a mainstay of the Triangle’s experimental and free-improv scene since he moved to Raleigh in 2000. Judge Schreber’s Avian Choir, his latest project, is his first as a bandleader. In October, it released BLEED, an album composed for heavy-metal band and strings. The record takes its concept from Schreber and what he was hearing outside of his window.

About 120 years later, Pence hands me the notes Schreber submitted in his defense, printed and bound in a book called Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. We’re sitting on the couch in Pence’s apartment, bordered on all sides by a musician’s equivalent of mounted game: instruments, lecterns, concert posters, and shelves and shelves of records. There is a precarious stack of books on the coffee table with a little desktop sign that says “Out to Lunch” perched on top. A record by old-school Chapel Hill psychobilly band Flat Duo Jets blares on the turntable.

Pence says that the “avian choir” Schreber heard outside of the asylum served as a jumping-off point for the album’s monster-movie string theatrics.

“I think the whole string orchestra thing lends itself to hallucination,” Pence says. “I was thinking about those dissonant harmonics on the higher end of the spectrum interacting and creating all these little weird sounds, ghost sounds, whatever you want to call them. If you turn it up really loud, get really high, you can hear all kinds of shit in it.”

The album also takes musical cues from two other wildly divergent sources: spectralism, an abstruse style of classical composition informed by the harmonic series, and ‘90s drone metal bands such as Earth.

“Just the thought of combining those dense, intense string sounds with the droney heavy metal stuff, I thought would make for some really cool shit,” Pence says.

Orchestral metal is something he’s done in live performances since the mid-aughts, with the Micro-East Collective and other large ensembles, but this is the first time he’s done it in a professional recording studio.

The blueprint for the record was sketched out in the same place we’re sitting. The acoustic guitar resting against the wall is the one Pence used to compose the riffs at the core of BLEED’s dense harmonic structure. The album is thrillingly frightening, with screaming strings, sharp peals of horns, raunchy guitar riffs, and a drummer who hauls ass like it’s the second coming.

“With all that overdrive on the guitars and the density of the sound and the har- monics, the overtones, it creates all these tinier molecular rhythms,” Pence says.

The album was recorded in one session— with some overdubs later—at Fidelitorium Recordings in Kernersville. It features a large ensemble: Pence on guitar and reeds, 14 string players, Jon Ferrell on bass, and Mike Isenberg on drums.

“The tightrope-walk was that you had so many people playing at once that ever- body had to get it right,” says Isenberg, who has previously played with Pence in bands such as Kolyma and Savage Knights. “Sometimes the rhythm or string section would nail something, but [Pence] would be aware that something else didn’t go right and wave his hand to call it off.” BLEED is separated into four parts. Side A, “THE UNFOLDING,” is steeped in the idea of time unfolding in widening intervals, with music that follows suit. Riffs extend and repeat, the strings become more dissonant with each second, the drums plod along at their own stubborn pace, and Pence’s horn seems to writhe in bodily anguish.

The first part of Side A, “Zarathustra’s Ape,” begins with a soft drone before the rhythm section kicks in with a swath of heavy distortion, which morphs into a hulk- ing monolith of fractured sounds. In the feedback and horns, second part “The Card- board Cutout Spiral Sundial” starts to take shape. A textured landscape appears: the whisper of a bow on strings, atmospheric static, gradual trills, and finally, a needle lapping against dead wax.

Side B, “THE RETURN,” opens with “The Bacillus of Revenge,” a long string piece- in which an extended drone teeters, rat- tles, and crumbles into a crescendo of bow-scraping and violent Psycho stabs. As the mist clears, you can hear a sample of the ‘30s radio show Lights Out—the gong and the doom-laden voice that says, “It is later than you think”—before the deafening thrash metal of “The Wheel of Ixion” brings the record home.

If you heard this coming out of a pass- ing car, you’d be halfway home before your groceries hit the ground. But when you approach it intentionally, the effect is one of startling rapture. To Isenberg, for avant-garde music, it’s markedly direct rath- er than rarified.

“Things like this can be sort of precious, but I think it has a genuine visceral quality, and the metal parts sound like metal,” he says. “I don’t think anything about it is terri- bly delicate. I think it’s a striking recording.”

Pence is a regular at underground haunts like Nightlight in Chapel Hill and Nep- tune’s in Raleigh. On the day we visited him, he had a show coming up with HardFace—a horn-and-electronics duo with Alex Swing— at The Wicked Witch. Pence hunched over his laptop, pulling up the Facebook event: “Eighteen going, 43 interested, baby!” he says. “Gonna be a big show!”

Located next to a tattoo parlor, behind a small, dark door that opens onto a staircase with duct tape at the edge of each step, The Wicked Witch has a distinct haunted-house feel. Smoke putters out of a fog machine in thin, looping swirls. The black walls and floor are bathed in red light, and there are floor-length mirrors around the perimeter. In one beside the stage, you can see Pence setting up mics and Swing readying his mix- ing board. There’s a brief sound check, and we’re off in a flurry of hair and sound.

Swing blows up distorted samples into zonked-out clouds of noise. Pence alternates between horns, cutting through the haze like an ocean liner through an ice sheet. His hands move frantically against the saxophone for several minutes; then he tosses it at its case and picks up a trom- bone. He muffles the sound with a plunger mute, and suddenly we’re in a boiler room with steam blowing out of our ears.

An amazing amount of thought and chops go into improvising a room full of noise or an album’s worth of harmonic phantoms. Whatever musical mode you’re working in, Pence says, your own voice—and in turn, your identity as a musician—comes through.

“Identity is manifold and in constant flux but reveals itself through these songs or interval patterns, reflex arcs, things that you do that are your own, for better or worse,” he says. “So when you talk about a musician’s identity, I think you’re talking about a kind of a territorial instinct. Like the birdsong.”

It’s worth noting that Pence also plays in a duo called Reflex Arc with Ginger Wagg, and the alacrity with which the phrase floats into his mind seems to reinforce his point. In the end, Schreber’s story is a useful frame for exploring the gap between sounds that exist and sounds we hear, but what matters is Pence’s musical fingerprint, one we’ve come to know through so many proj- ects, big and small, over two decades.

“It’s all kind of arbitrary, because lis- tening to the record, you’re not neces- sarily going to get any of that shit, and it doesn’t matter as long as it sounds good to you,” Pence says. W

Fri 2/21 Chocolate Covered Comedy 8pm Sat 2/22 Remona Jeannine Sun 2/23 NC Songwriters Co-op 1pm Fri 2/28 John Stevens with Zach Drill Sat 2/29 Larry Bach & John Gillespie Sun 3/1 Rob Gelblum 2pm Music Performed from 6pm to 10pm Beer & Wine Served Daily Timberlyne Shopping Center, Chapel Hill 1129 Weaver Dairy Rd • specialtreatsnc.com

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School of Rock Cary presents a medley of massive hits by artists Led Zeppelin, Duran Duran, Bon Jovi, Queen and much, much more! Durham Mardi Gras: The Bulltown Strutters / Katharine Whalen The Monti StorySLAM 7 DEADLY SINS Duke Performances presents Building Bridges: Muslims in America with GNAWA LANGUS OM Wovenhand Raund Haus 4 Year Anniversary featuring DAEDELUS

SUN 3/1 School of Rock Chapel Hill Mid-Season Showcase COMING SOON: Little People, Frameworks, Ellis Dyson & The Shambles, Lee Fields and The Expressions, Post Animal, Against Me!, Asgeir, Mdou Moctar, 75 Dollar Bill, Tiny Moving Parts, Laura Marling, Dance With The Dead, Magic Sword, Black Atlantic, Caspian, Deafheaven, Vundabar, Shannon & the Clams, Kevin Morby, Sebadoh, Okilly Dokilly, Harley Poe, Oso Oso, Prince Daddy & The Heyena, CBDB, Napalm Death, Fu Manchu, Neil Hamburger, The Cybertronic Spree, Diet Cig, Greer

CAT'S CRADLE 2/19 YBN CORDAE ($20/$22.50) 2/21 ARCHER'S OF LOAF ($25) SA 2/22 HAYES CARLL (SOLO) W/ALLISON MOORER SEATED SHOW ($25/$28) TH 2/27 DAN DEACON W/ ED SCHRADER'S MUSIC BEAT, BOULEVARDS, JENNY BESETZT ($15/$17) FR 2/28 JUNIOR BROWN W/BUCKSHOT BETTY ($20/$24) SA 2/29 OF MONTREAL W/LILY'S BAND ($17) TH 3/5 MOLLY TUTTLE W/OLIVER HAZARD ($20/ $23) WE 3/11 DESTROYER W/NAP EYES ($20/$23) SA 3/14 RADICAL FACE W/AXEL FLÓVENT ($25/$28) WE 3/18 WHITE REAPER W/YOUNG GUV, BUDDY CRIME ($15/$17) SA 3/21 BEST COAST THE ALWAYS TOMORROW TOUR W/MANNEQUIN PUSSY ($25/$27) TU 3/24 PORCHES W/SASSY 009 ($16/$18) TH 3/26 REBIRTH BRASS BAND ($20/$23) FR 3/27 SOCCER MOMMY W/ TOMBERLIN ($18/$20) SA 3/28 ANTIBALAS ($18/$22) FR 4/3 SHOVELS & ROPE W/INDIANOLA ($25/$28) TU 4/7 ATERCIOPELADOS AND LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES ($32/$35) WE 4/8 STEPHEN MALKMUS W/QAIS ESSAR & THE MAGIK CARPET ($20/$23) FR 4/10 BROTHER ALI - OPEN MIKE EAGLE, DJ LAST WORD ($18/$20) MO 4/20 REAL ESTATE ($25/$28) WE 4/22 CRANK IT LOUD PRESENTS: NOTHING, NOWHERE. W/DANGER INCORPORATED, RO RANSOM, BOGUES ($18/$22) MO 4/27 WAVVES KING OF THE BEACH 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY USA TOUR W/SADGIRL ($22/$25) TU 4/28 47 SOUL ($20/$23) SA 5/2 GUIDED BY VOICES ($30/$35) SU 5/3 THE RESIDENTS ($30/$35) MO 5/4 STEREOLAB ($35/$38) TU 5/5 ANDY SHAUF W/ FAYE WEBSTER ($18/$20) SA 5/9 POOLSIDE ($20/ $25) SU 5/10 GREG DULLI W/JOSEPH ARTHUR ($33/$38) MO 5/11 BARNS COURTNEY ($22/$25) WE 5/13 BOB SCHNEIDER (SOLO) ($20/$23) TH 5/14 YOLA WALK THROUGH FIRE WORLD TOUR W/AMYTHYST KIAH ($20/23) SA 6/6 BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB ($32/$35) TH 6/11 BAYSIDE W/SENSES FAIL, HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS, CAN'T SWIM ($25/$29) MO 6/15 THE GROWLERS ($30) WE 6/17 PINEGROVE W/HOVVDY ($21/$25) SA 8/8 WEYES BLOOD ($17/$20) SOLD OUT SOLD OUT FR 9/18 ADHOC PRESENTS OH SEES W/ MR. ELEVATOR ($25/$28) MO 9/21 ADHOC PRESENTS BIKINI KILL ($29.50/ $35) SA 11/14 HOODOO GURUS ($25/$28) CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM WE 2/19 BLACK LIPS W/WARISH ($15) TH 2/20 THE BROOK & THE BLUFF W/JORDY SEARCY ($12/$14) FR 2/21 POST-ARCHERS OF LOAF THROWDOWN WITH PIPE AND LACY JAGS (FREE!) SA 2/22 TIM BARRY W/ ROGER HARVEY & FRIENDS ($15) SU 2/23 SLOAN ($25) TU 2/25 SHAUN MARTIN OF SNARKY PUPPY AND ELECTRIC KIF ($12/$15) WE 2/26 WISH YOU WERE HERE (JESSEE BARNETT OF STICK TO YOUR GUNS) ($12/$14) TH 2/27 ZEN FRISBEE W/TEETH OF ENGLAND, JOE BRZOSKA ($8) FR 2/28 PALEHOUND W/ADULT MOM ($13/$15) SA 2/29 ENO MOUNTAIN BOYS W/CHUCK MOUNTAIN, WINFIELD ($8) TU 3/3 KNUCKLE PUCK W/HEART ATTACK MAN, BETTER LOVE ($23) WE 3/4 J RODDY WALSTON (SOLO) W/ PALM PALM ($15) FR 3/6 SIR WOMAN (KELSEY WILSON OF WILD CHILD/ GLORIETTA) SA 3/7 TYLER RAMSEY ($15) SU 3/8 DAN RODRIGUEZ ($15) TU 3/10 PHANGS W/90’S KIDS, LOWBORN, SEASONS ($12/$14) WE 3/11 HEART BONES W/COLD CREAM ($10/$12) TH 3/12 SONG TRAVELER'S WRITERS NIGHT FR 3/13 SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND W/BIG FAT GAP ($12/$15) SA 3/14 VERSUS ($15) SU 3/15 CALL ME KARIZMA W/CYRUS, MXRCUS ALEXIS, STICKY ARROW ($15/$18) MO 3/16 GRADUATING LIFE W/KING OF HECK TU 3/17 BAMBARA W/BLACK SURFER ($10/$12) FR 3/20 THE OLD CEREMONY W/REESE MCHENRY ( $10/$12) TU 3/24 STEVE GUNN, MARY LATTIMORE, & WILLIAM TYLER ($20/$22) TH 3/26 CONSIDER THE SOURCE W/EMMA'S LOUNGE ($10/$12) SA 3/28 LAUREN SANDERSON - MIDWEST KIDS CAN MAKE IT BIG TOUR SU 3/29 THE JACKS MO 3/30 VILRAY ($12) TH 4/2 VAGABON W/ANGELICA GARCIA ($14/$16) FR 4/3 HONEY MAGPIE ALBUM RELEASE W/RODES AND ENO RIVER RATS ($8/$10) SA 4/4 CHERRY POOLS W/JET BLACK ALLEY CAT, SMALL TALKS, MOBS ($13/$15) SOLD OUT SOLD OUT SOLD OUT

FR 2/28 @CAT’S CRADLE JUNIOR BROWN W/BUCKSHOT BETTY

SU 2/23 @CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM SLOAN

SU 4/5 CALEB CAUDLE ALBUM RELEASE TOUR W/WILD PONIES AND DAWN LANDES ( $15/$20) MO 4/6 MIGHTY OAKS ($12/$14) WE 4/8 VETIVER ($15/ $18) TH 4/9 THE NATIONAL PARKS ACOUSTIC SET ($12/$15) FR 4/10 MATTIEL ($10/$12) TU 4/14 ALLAN RAYMAN ($22/$25) WE 4/14 BENT KNEE ($15) TH 4/16 INDIGO DE SOUZA W/ TRUTH CLUB ($10/$12) FR 4/17 AN EVENING WITH JILL ANDREWS ($14/$17) SA 4/18 JOHN CRAIGIE W/HONEYSUCKLE ($12/$15) MO 4/19 DYLAN LEBLANC TU 4/21 KATIE PRUITT ($10) SU 4/26 SAMMY RAE & THE FRIENDS ($12/$15) FR 5/1 KEVIN KRAUTER W/WHY BONNIE ($10/$12) SA 5/23 FRANCES QUINLAN ($16/$18) WE 6/17 PINEGROVE W/HOVVDY ($21/$25)

WHEELS FUN PARK SA 2/22 DANTE HIGH ROLLER SKATE DANCE PARTY W/RALEIGH ROCKERS B-BOY CREW DJ SWEET WILLIAM ($15/$20) NC MUSEUM OF ART (RAL) SU 4/26 BRITTANY HOWARD (OF ALABAMA SHAKES) W/ NU MANGOS ($35-$60) ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO) TU 3/24 JAMES MCMURTRY W/BONNIE WHITMORE ($22/$25) MOTORCO (DUR) FR 3/6 ELLIS DYSON & THE SHAMBLES W/DOWNTOWN ABBY AND THE ECHOS ($10/$12) TU 3/17 POST ANIMAL W/TWEN ($15/$17) WE 3/25 TINY MOVING PARTS W/ BELMONT, CAPSTAN, JETTY BONES ($18/$22) TU 4/14 DEAFHEAVEN W/INTER ARMA, GREET DEATH, ALL YOUR SISTERS ( $25/$28) FR 6/5 DIET CIG W/SAD13 ($15/$17) HAW RIVER BALLROOM SA 2/22 GARZA FT. ROB GARZA OF THIEVERY CORPORATION WHERE THE MOON HIDES TOUR W/BODY GAMES ($20/$23) TH 2/27 TODD SNIDER W/LILLY HART ($25/$28) TU 3/24 JOHN MORELAND W/S.G.GOODMAN ($15/$18) MO 4/20 SHARON VAN ETTEN W/JAY SOM ($28/$31) FR 4/24 WAXAHATCHEE W/OHMME ($18 ADV/ $20) FR 5/1 TENNIS W/MOLLY BURCH ($18/$20) SU 5/3 SNAIL MAIL W/ HOTLINE TNT ($20 / $22) SU 6/21 GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV W/ CHE APACHE MO 6/22 GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV W/ CHE APACHE THE CAROLINA THEATER (DURHAM) WE 4/15 ANGEL OLSEN W/MADI DIAZ ($32.50/$35) TH 4/30 BEN GIBBARD ($32.70+) DPAC (DURHAM) TH 8/27* CODY KO & NOEL MILLER TINY MEAT GANG - GLOBAL DOMINATION ($24.50+) *rescheduled from april FLETCHER HALL (RAL) TH 5/14 BRUCE COCKBURN ($37-$50) SOLD OUT

DOWN THE ROAD* *Be on the lookout for these big

names coming through the Triangle

Wye Oak performs at Baldwin Auditorium on Friday, February 28. PHOTO BY KENDALL BAILEY ATWATER

Feb. 28 Wye Oak Baldwin Auditorium, 8 p.m., $25

Apr. 2 Vagabon Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m., $14–$16

Mar. 3 Jacquees The Ritz, 8 p.m., $25

Mar. 4 Zac Brown Band PNC Arena, 7 p.m., $30+

Mar. 12 Billie Eilish PNC Arena, 7:30 p.m., SOLD OUT

Mar. 20 Michael Bublé PNC Arena, 8 p.m., $65+

Mar. 21 Best Coast Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m., $25–$27

Mar. 27 Soccer Mommy Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m., $18–$20

Mar. 30 Mandy Moore DPAC, 8 p.m., $40+

Apr. 15 Angel Olsen Carolina Theatre, 8 p.m., $33–$35

Apr. 20 Sharon Van Etten Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m., SOLD OUT

Apr. 22 Lake Street Dive DPAC, 7:30 p.m., $35+

Apr. 24 Waxahatchee Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m., $18-$20

May 3 Snail Mail Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m., $20-$22

May 24 Ozuna PNC Arena, 8 p.m., $40+

Jun. 2 Local Natives Red Hat Amphitheatre, 6:30 p.m., $25+

Jun. 2 The Lumineers Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $35+

Jun. 20 The Doobie Brothers Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, $30+

Jun. 23 Alanis Morissette Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $55+

Jul. 4 The Black Crowes Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 8 p.m., $29+

Jul. 10 Thomas Rhett Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7:30 p.m., $44+

Jul. 11 Tedeschi Trucks Band Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 6:30 p.m., $45+

Aug. 1 Harry Styles PNC Arena, 8 p.m., $36+

Aug. 2 Rage Against the Machine PNC Arena, 8 p.m.

Aug. 10 Journey, The Pretenders Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $35+

Aug. 25 Goo Goo Dolls Red Hat Amphitheatre, 6:30 p.m., $25+

Sep. 9 KISS Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7:30 p.m., $40+

Sep. 12 Maroon 5, Meghan Trainor Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $50+

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Daedelus PHOTO COURTESY OF MOTORCO MUSIC HALL

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 Ally J Singer Allison Johnson treats everything like the blues. Yeah, she does soul and R&B and jazz and funk and other things, too, but she sings them all with the urgency and fire of the blues. Originally from Akron, Ohio, Ally J has been bouncing around the Durham music scene since 2007 and has been a staple of Third Fridays at Arcana for at least the past year or so. This time, she’ll be joined by Steve Munoz. —Dan Ruccia

Arcana, Durham 9 p.m., FREE

pick SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22 Daedelus

If you had to beatify a patron saint for the Durhambased beat-music collective and label Raund Haus, you could do much worse than Daedelus. The LA-based producer has fused brainy electronic music and instrumental hip-hop for some of the most prominent labels where that fusion thrives, from Mush and Ninja Tune to Anticon and Brainfeeder. His sound, which has hip-hop at its core but proceeds wherever it wants from there, is writ large in the eclectic aesthetic that Raund Haus has developed over the last four years, so it’s a coup that he will headline the crew’s fourth birthday party at Motorco. Fresh off a release by Pixl Prymd, with new records from Ronnie Flash and a Tokyo-based collective in the pipeline, the young but essential label has a lot to celebrate. Made of Oak (the solo electronic alias of Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn), Charlotte’s Axnt, Durham’s Treee City and Trandle, and others raund—er, round out the bill. —Brian Howe

Motorco Music Hall, Durham 8 p.m., $12

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 Raleigh Blues Festival The 11th Annual Raleigh Blues Festival is an evening-long jaunt into the blues and beyond, with Louisiana’s Tucka channeling quiet storm crooners, the delightfully swaggering Pokey Bear performing his blend of bayou soul, and contemporary blues singer Nellie “Tiger” Travis filling the room with her smoky singing. 60s soul songwriter and producer Roy C, meanwhile, boasts the prescient career footnote of having worked with a group of high school students called The Honey Drippers to release “Impeach The President” in 1973, a song now frequently sampled in hip-hop tracks. Rounding out the night are Lacee and Big G. —Josephine McRobbie Duke Energy Center, Raleigh 8 p.m., $49 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 Blue Cactus Celebrating the release of a new seven-inch with this full-band show, Blue Cactus is rooted in classic twang— like the loping honky-tonk shuffles that back the biting Trump takedown “Finger On The Button” and its disillusioned b-side cousin, “Quittin’ Again”—though its adventurous Americana spans heartland anthems and cosmic country while echoing Tom Petty and Neil Young. Opener Chris Frisina fills folk rambles with warmth and gentle humor, and Christy Jean Smith adds gorgeously aching, rustic tunes. A dollar from each record will go to local non-profit Transplanting Traditions Community Farm. —Spencer Griffith

The Pinhook, Durham 8 p.m., $12

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22 Youth League, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, A Bottle Volcanic Scuzzy riffs and sludgy grooves are capped by wild wails on last year’s aptly dubbed Grease Beast EP from Austin three-piece Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, whose mix of monolithic headbangers and melodic buzzsaws leaves a path of destruction in its wake. Durham trio Youth League crafts succinct yet cinematic post-rock with mathy moments. Wilmington’s A Bottle Volcanic makes a rare Triangle appearance, bringing along its dynamic doom spiked with surprising folk elements. —Spencer Griffith Slim’s Downtown, Raleigh 9 p.m., $7

Wednesday Night Titans Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $12-$15. YBN Cordae, 24kGldn, L0NR Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m. Sold out.

Ally J performs at Arcana on Friday, February 21. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Wed. 2/19

Black Lips Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 9 p.m. $15. Tatiana Hargraves, Libby Rodenbough, Alex Bingham, and other special guests Arcana, 8 p.m. Hari Kondabolu, Liz Miele Motorco Music Hall, 8 p.m. $25. Sanborn, Schatz, & McCaughan Neptunes Parlour, 10 p.m. $10. UNC Wind Ensemble, UNC Symphony Band UNC Campus: Memorial Hall, 7:30 p.m. $10. Upward Dogs The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Thu. 2/20

20th Century Boy, Valefor Local 506, 8 p.m. $5. The Brook & The Bluff, Jordy Searcy Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 8 p.m. Sold out. Brother Hawk, Doomstress, Bedowyn The Maywood, 9 p.m. $10. Cajammers Blue Note Grill, 7 p.m. Paul Cauthen, The Kernal Motorco Music Hall, 8 p.m. $12-$20. DL Zene, Nun AfterHours, SunQueen Kelcey Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $5. Flamenco Night: Eduardo de Rosamaria, Dennis Aberle, Teresa Fernandez Arcana, 7 p.m. $10-$20. Jazz Combos UNC Campus: Hill Hall, 7:30 p.m.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 Isabel Leonard Isabel Leonard is a Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano and versatile opera performer, a quality which has served her well in a diverse set of gigs including hosting The Metropolitan Opera’s movie-theater transmissions, visiting Sesame Street, and performing for the Supreme Court (Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a fan). In this performance with the UNC Symphony Orchestra, Leonard sings arias by Gounod, Bizet, and Berlioz, as well as Ravel’s Shéhérazade song cycle. —Josephine McRobbie

UNC’s Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill 7:30 p.m., $27

Konbanwa, Heavy for the Vintage, Exclusive Humor, Gub Gub the Lizard King Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $5. No Visa Dance Party Nightlight, 9:30 p.m. $5-$10. Rodes, Riley Moore, Rachel Despard The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested. Status Lost, Waking April, Meag Kings, 8 p.m. $10. Whizthekid, OTS Nasi, Bigbankk2x, OTS Jalen, king Phill, zone The Pinhook, 8 p.m. $10.

Fri. 2/21

11th Annual Raleigh Blues Festival Memorial Auditorium, 8 p.m. $50-99. Archers of Loaf, Gauche Cat’s Cradle, 9 p.m. Sold out. Brookelynne Basuka Ruby Deluxe, 10 p.m. Blue Cactus, Chris Frisina, Christy Jean Smith The Pinhook, 8 p.m. $12-$15. Brooks Hubbard Band, Biggins Kings, 10:30 p.m. $10-$12. Chad Eby Trio Sharp Nine Gallery, 8 p.m. $20.

Eric Chesson Pour House Music Hall, 5 p.m. Dead Casual, Windley, With Clarity Schoolkids Records Raleigh, 7 p.m. Duke Jazz Ensemble, Ulysses Owens Jr. Duke Campus: Baldwin Auditorium, 8 p.m. $10. Gnarbot, Zephyranthes Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $7-$10. Andy Lyle Hall The Station, 9 p.m. I Am Soteria Haw River Ballroom, 7 p.m. $15-$20. Johnny Mathis Meymandi Concert Hall, Showtimes: Fri. & Sat.: 8 p.m. $80+. Office Hours Duke Coffeehouse, 9 p.m. $10. Railroad Earth, Handmade Moments Lincoln Theatre, 8 p.m. $25. Ravary, Rafael Green Local 506, 9 p.m. $7-$10. Remember Jones, Triangle Afrobeat Orchestra Motorco Music Hall, 8 p.m. $15-$25. Jon Shain, FJ Ventre Wake Forest Listening Room, 7 p.m. $12. Sibannac, Sex Negative, Dan Mac The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested. The Whiskey Honeys Blue Note Grill, 9 p.m. UNC Jazz Bands UNC Campus: Hill Hall, 8 p.m. Paul Van Dyk The Fruit, 10 p.m. $35.

Blue Cactus releases a new 7-inch at the Pinhook on Friday, February 21. PHOTO BY CHRIS FRISINA

Sat. 2/22

15th North Carolina Regional Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival UNC Campus: Hill Hall, 8 a.m. BRAINxTOILET, Budd Dwyer, Kryptcest, Father Montego, M.S.D., Pathogenesis, Leachate, Junt, Sunday Girl, Acwelan, Cave Grave, Secretion, Self Termination The Maywood, 5 p.m. $20. Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs Wake Forest Listening Room, 7 p.m. $10. Hayes Carll, Allison Moorer Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m. Sold out. Dante High Roller Skate Dance Party Wheels Fun Park, 11 p.m. $15-$20. Garza Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m. $20-$23. Goth Prom: 20th Century Boy Arcana, 7 p.m. $5. Jefferson Hart & Ghosts of Old N. St, GSO, Jerry Kee The Kraken, 8 p.m. Madhatter, Honeybadger, Hypgnosis, Neuron Husky Nightlight, 10 p.m. $10. Maria Schneider Orchestra UNC Campus: Memorial Hall, 8 p.m. $27+. Jack Marion Pour House Music Hall, 3 p.m. Michael Daughtry Pour House Music Hall, 5 p.m. NC K-Pop Festival The Ritz, 6 p.m. $16. Neilfest 2020 Kings, 8 p.m. $10. Paladin, Datura, Knightmare, Inanimus Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $8-$12. Phatlynx, Boo Hag, Bo-Stevens, Tupelo Crush The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested. Ana Popovic Blue Note Grill, 8 p.m. $20-$25. Raund Haus 4 Year Anniversary Motorco Music Hall, 9 p.m. $12-$15. Sadie Rock and the Mad Ryans Local 506, 7:30 p.m. $7-$10. Samba Jovem, NC Brazilian Arts, Oxente, Brazilian Drumming, DJ Junior Guedes, Caique Vidal & Batuque Rhythms Live Music Hall, 8 p.m. $12. Same As It Ever Was Lincoln Theatre, 9 p.m. $12. Spaced Angel, Caffeine Day Dream, Stranded Bandits, Night Crew The Wicked Witch, 9 p.m. $10. The Lowdown Dirty, Greatscot, Matt Southern & Lost Gold Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $5. The Wait (The Band Tribute), C. Albert Blomquist and The Buck-Ups The Station, 10 p.m.

Sun. 2/23

Seong-Jin Cho Duke Campus: Baldwin Auditorium, 7 p.m. Sold out. Danny Feedback, The Callers The Station, 8 p.m. The Doppler Effect UNC Campus: Hill Hall, 7:30 p.m. $15. The Family Crest Kings, 8 p.m. $15. Great Music For Soaring Spaces Duke Campus: Duke Chapel, 4 p.m. Free. James K, Hank Jackson, Solo Termite, GOVERNANCE, Sponge Bath Nightlight, 9 p.m. $8. Kinda Nice, Sidewalk Furniture Slim’s Downtown, 8 p.m. $5. Moses & Cutshall, Heavenly Creatures Duke Coffeehouse, 8:30 p.m. $5. Mysti Mayhem Blue Note Grill, 5 p.m. Putter, Sluice, Toss Arcana, 8:30 p.m. $7-$10. Sarah With an H Pour House Music Hall, 5 p.m. School of Rock Cary: A Medley Of Massive Hits Motorco Music Hall, 12 p.m. $5. Sloan Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 8 p.m. $25. Wallows The Ritz, 8 p.m. Sold out.

Mon. 2/24

Dexter Romweber The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Tue. 2/25 Boom Unit Brass Band, Rollin Dynamite Blue Note Grill, 8 p.m. Drew and Ellie Holcomb Carolina Theatre, 8 p.m. $35-$50. Durham Mardi Gras: The Bulltown Strutters, Katherine Whalen Motorco Music Hall, 7:30 p.m. Free. Howlin Rain, Sunwatchers, Night Jeans Kings, 10 p.m. $10. Isabel Leonard & The UNC Symphony Orchestra UNC Campus: Memorial Hall, 7:30 p.m. $27+. Shaun Martin, Electric Kif Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 8 p.m. $12-$15. Nordista Freeze Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $10-$12. Tommy Stinson Schoolkids Records Raleigh, 7 p.m. $25-$1. Stranded Bandits, Danny Feedback, Roar the Engines Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $5. Alex Travers, Josh Miller, Hank and Brendon The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Wed. 2/26 $5 Elvis The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested. 919noise Showcase: High Tunnels, feltbattery, Benjamin David Felton, Heavy For The Vintage Nightlight, 8:30 p.m. $7. Jesse Barnett Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 8 p.m. $12-$14. Dermot Kennedy The Ritz, 8 p.m. $35-$225. Passafire, Bumpin Uglies, Joey Harkum Pour House Music Hall, 8 p.m. $15-$18. Peekaboo Lincoln Theatre, 9 p.m. $15-$22. Pocket Vinyl, Spaced Angel, Lazaris Pit The Maywood, 8:30 p.m. $8. Zephyranthes, Shake the Baby Til the Love Comes Out, Green Aisles, Through the Tallwoods Ruby Deluxe, 8 p.m. $7.