Soundadvice

Get Out!

A concert with Baltimore's Fertile Ground is a trippin' experience. Combining elements of percussion and instrumentation with vocals that switch between poetry and singing, this collective of artists brings its spiritual energy to life onstage.

—Deesha Dyer

Sat., Aug. 4, 9 p.m., $16, with W. Ellington Felton, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400,

Smart, bluesy and pleasantly cockeyed, this D.C. trio engages with minimal strums and gentle jingle-jangling percussion. Except when they turn it up on Traveling Willburys-ish songs like "King and Aces" and you realize you could probably dance to it.

—Patrick Rapa

Fri., Aug. 3, 9:30 p.m., $8, with Adam Arcuragi, Cartright and Creeping Weeds, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 866-468-7619, www.johnnybrendas.com.

While Beach House's wobbly slide guitar leads may bring to mind whole-hog barbecue pits and getting lei'd, there's nothing kitschy about the duo's dream pop tunes. Goddamn gorgeous in every way, their self-titled Carpark debut is the sound of sinking into saltwater slowly, with a weight attached to your ankle, overloaded lungs and your entire life flashing before your eyes (yes, including that time you pissed in your pants during nap time).

—Andrew Parks

Tue., Aug. 7, 8 p.m., $15, with Blonde Redhead, Fillmore at the TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1010, www.livenation.com.

Old School and Road Trip had their gross-out moments, but director Todd Phillips really hit that nail on the head with Hated, his 1994 documentary about G.G. Allin. The Murder Junkies frontman was infamous for getting naked and taking a giant crap onstage (musically and literally ), and Phillips raw fly's-eye view of the madness from up close probably explains this punk antihero best. Warning: Hated contains male frontal nudity, vulgarity, vomiting, urophilia, excrement and Geraldo Rivera.

—Patrick Rapa

Mon., Aug. 6, 8 p.m., free, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-569-9700, www.thekhyber.com.

Who can nail a last-minute spot at Silk City? Spank Rock and friends. B-more's booty-funk heroes travel nowhere without a crew, usually the Baltimore Bass Connection, which includes producer Armani XXXchange. Also joining them at Silk are two of the top crunkmasters in Paris, DJ Orgasmic and Cuizinier. While frontman Naeem Juwan has a habit of popping onstage at Plastic Little shows, and seemingly everywhere else, since signing with Downtown Records, they haven't played here. Which means this will be one of those live gigs we'll still be feeling a week later.

—Kelly White

Fri., Aug. 3, 9 p.m., Silk City, 435 Spring Garden St., 215-592-8838, www.myspace.com/phillysilkcity.

Remember Fat Albert's band of junkyard instrumentalists? Well, that impulse blows up into full-scale civil war in This Ambitious Orchestra. The 20-piece "punk orchestra" brings together a convention of genre-befuddling NYers and Philadelphians who pit electric versus acoustic, throwing rock, jazz, industrial, folk, classical, and Eastern European traditional musics into a blender to create a cacophonous stylistic stew. The Oubliette, West Philadelphia Orchestra, Vic Thrill and The Po Po will also throw their many, many hats into the ring.

—Shaun Brady

Sat., Aug. 4, 9 p.m., $7, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., 215-573-3234, www.therotunda.org.