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N-Type, Kid Hops, Michael Manahan, Grym, Aksion

(Chop Suey) N-Type has cooked up mixes for prestigious DJ franchises like Dubstep Allstars (he did Vol.05) and Rinse (he did 09). With such lofty credentials, the London-based N-Type certainly has access to the newest, finest tracks from upper-echelon dubstep artists. The aforementioned discs feature N-Type’s predilection for the rougher end of the bass-music spectrum—which means sets heavy with cuts by Skream, Benga, Coki, LD, and Headhunter, and performances laden with rugged beats, internal-organ-shuddering bass frequencies, glowering atmospheres, and the odd soulful vocal interjection. Dubstep DJs from London are like techno producers from Germany, distance runners from Kenya, and foul, unbalanced news from Fox: You’re pretty much guaranteed the crème de la crème of whatever they’re peddling. DAVE SEGAL

See Data Breaker.

Broken Bells – Citizen by yodudeblog

Deck the Hall Ball: Broken Bells, the Black Keys, Jimmy Eat World, Cake, the Temper Trap, Sleigh Bells

(WaMu Theater) At last year’s Deck the Hall Ball, the annual winter concert put on by local corp-rock radio station The End, there were at least two good reasons to go: unflappably cool Frenchmen Phoenix and the smart and sweet Vampire Weekend, who were just beginning to tour for their outstanding second album, Contra. This year? Yeesh. Broken Bells are basically the Shins, but with everything but the boring bits removed. How the Black Keys’ bloozy rock classicism has taken them from barrooms to WaMu is a complete mystery. Jimmy Eat World haven’t recorded anything good since the A-side of 2001′s Bleed American (ridiculously retitled Jimmy Eat World after 9/11, which is a wuss move even for an emo band). Cake did that deadpan, trumpet-spiked frat-party cover of Gloria Gaynor’s disco hit “I Will Survive,” with which I actually have no real beef, but “The Distance” remains unforgivable. Also, what year is it, The End? Do you have Tripping Daisy backstage there, too? The Temper Trap aren’t even worth ragging on here. And everything on Sleigh Bells’ crushingly compressed album Treats (except for one airy Funkadelic sample) went from intriguing to fatiguing in like 2.5 spins. Better luck next year, Entercom. ERIC GRANDY

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Peter Hook Presents Unknown Pleasures

(Showbox at the Market) Joy Division made but two albums—1979′s Unknown Pleasures and 1980′s Closer—and a handful of EPs and singles, but their small output continues to resonate deeply with millions of fans worldwide. Singer Ian Curtis’s suicide on the eve of Joy Division’s first U.S. tour in 1980 ended the band but launched the mythos, creating a fascinating penumbra of martyred doom and soulful torment around every blackened, driving rocker and harrowingly atmospheric slow-burner. Curtis’s tragic death at age 23—brought on by fractured romantic relationships and complications from epilepsy—bestowed on Joy Division’s music an immortal gravitas.

Now, Joy Division bassist Peter Hook—one of the greatest melody makers ever to strap on a four-string—has formed the Light, a group of younger cats, including his 21-year-old son, Jack, on bass (Hooky will be singing), to play Unknown Pleasures in its entirety, plus a smattering of non-LP tracks like “Digital” and “No Love Lost.” It’s Hook’s sincere way of honoring Curtis’s memory on the 30th anniversary of his mate’s death. The Stranger reached the master riffmonger by phone at his home in England.

See preview, page 37.

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Blind Guardian, Holy Grail, Seven Kingdoms

(Showbox at the Market) Guitar Hero veterans Dragonforce might be the band that blew up the epic fantasy metal spot for the mainstream music world, but truthfully, there are none within that genre quite as triumphant as Blind Guardian. Hard at work since the late ’80s, the German four-piece recently released their ninth studio album of guitar bravado and geekology, At the Edge of Time. The band’s vision is simple yet effective: Lift an entire vocabulary from Tolkien, and team it with jaw-dropping Yngwie Malmsteen—esque guitar wizardy. The sheer theater of it speaks to the nerd in all of us. The Hobbit never sounded so evil. KEVIN DIERS

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