Soundadvice

Get Out!

Mixing Phil Spector's girl-group sound with C-86-style primitive songwriting (think The Shop Assistants), the all-female Vivian Girls play short, sweet pop songs that stick in your head for days. Topped off with a noisily lo-fi, shoegaze sheen, their tunes tend to hover under the three-minute mark, so time your bathroom breaks wisely.

—Kevin Pearson

Sun., Sept. 21, 8 p.m., $8 donation, with FNU Ronnies, Black Time and Static Static, Danger Danger Gallery, 5013 Baltimore Ave., r5productions.com.

In less than two months, Love on the Inside — Sugarland's third at-bat in the majors — has gone platinum, knocked Miley Cyrus out of the top spot on the Billboard 200 and earned the country duo comparisons to John Mellencamp and U2. But you'd never catch Bono entreating a peer to make him his muse and missus, as Jennifer Nettles does on the honky-tonk hot-stepper "Steve Earle."

—M.J. Fine

Sat., Sept. 20, 8 p.m., $35-$45, with Ashton Shepherd, Mark G. Etess Arena at Trump Taj Mahal, 1000 Boardwalk (at Virginia Avenue), Atlantic City, N.J., 800-736-1420, ticketmaster.com.

Usually a solo vehicle for the hauntingly tender vocals and atmospheric folk of Joel Thibodeau, the live incarnation of Death Vessel features a full band that fleshes out his stark sound while maintaining its fragility. Much like Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, Thibodeau's intimate singing voice sounds slightly feminine on first listen. But where Hegarty, leans toward the baroque, Thibodeau's intonation is higher in scale, seamlessly intertwining with his delicate acoustic-based finger picking.

—Kevin Pearson

Thu., Sept. 18, 9 p.m., $10, with Micah Blue Smaldone and Peasant, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 Frankford Ave., 866-468-7619, johnnybrendas.com.

Hard to know quite what to make of this trio, as each member would seem to pull it in completely different, if equally intriguing directions. Trumpeter Peter Evans and guitarist Mary Halvorson are both New Yorkers; he plays with the extreme range of noise he can generate from his horn, while she applies a quirky pop bent to jagged, angular melodies. Bay Area-based drummer Weasel Walter, founder of the Flying Luttenbachers, is a no wave/free-jazz/death metal bludgeon, perfectly willing to trample sensibilities at a moment's notice.

—Shaun Brady

Thu., Sept. 18, 8 p.m., free, The Rotunda, 4012 Walnut St., arsnovaworkshop.com.

Pianist Arturo O'Farrill's 18-piece ensemble isn't only a big band in terms of membership; it's also enormous in terms of ambition and ideas. So big, in fact, that after five years as the Latin jazz appendage of Wynton Marsalis' Jazz at Lincoln Center, the band broke away to realize O'Farrill's loftier goals. None of that behind-the-curtain drama will matter, however, when O'Farrill and his orchestra take the Bride's stage and launch into their equally outsized grooves.

—Shaun Brady

Sat., Sept. 20, 7 and 9 p.m., $25, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, paintedbride.org.