Soundadvice

Get Out!

The searing intensity of the Walkmen may have subsided over time, but it's been replaced by a melancholic cohesiveness and a refined, subtle charm. While Hamilton Leithauser's caustic croon still cuts through each song like a drunk Dylan in a Vegas lounge, the instrumentation has swapped its tightly wound drive for a more textured approach. From the whiskey-soaked waltz of "Red Moon" to the group-hug, beer-stained "In the New Year," the Walkmen's latest album, You & Me (Gigantic), is not only their best yet, but it's best heard with a drink in hand.

—Kevin Pearson

Sat., Dec. 6, 8 p.m., $16, with Beach House and The Subjects, TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1011, livenation.com.

It's been more than a year since Yeasayer dropped their debut and close to 10 months since they last stepped foot in Philadelphia. They've spent this time touring the world — which might've been a fact-finding mission, given Brooklyn-based band's global influences. And while their mix of New Age mysticism and Paul Simon-sanctioned African sounds might be off-putting on paper, they inject just the right amount of ethereal melody into each song to balance out their prog leanings with world-pop fusions.

—Kevin Pearson

Thu., Dec. 4, 8.30 p.m., $13, with Chairlift, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.

After People Take Warning: Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs, everything on the Tompkins Square label seems cheery. Hmm. I take that back. Poet/guitarist/activist Max Ochs — cousin of the legendary folksinger Phil Ochs, friend of John Fahey, author of "Imaginational Anthem" — released the arch and mournful Hooray for Another Day last week. Max's prose is bleak at first listen, his primitive blues more black than anything else. But when the sun does manage to sneak through, Ochs proves to be a joyful if not pragmatic performer.

—A.D. Amorosi

Sat., Dec. 6, 8 p.m., $5 suggested donation, with Ghost Ship, Brick Bat Books, 709 S. Fourth St., 215-592-1207, balancingman.org.

Chicago and Amsterdam have long been sort-of sister cities, at least as far as improvised music goes. If Amsterdam's Instant Composers Pool Orchestra leaned a little more toward Dada humor and Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians towards philosophizing down the barrel of a saxophone, they nevertheless wound up traversing much the same territory. So this sextet, composed of a group of Windy City improvisers led by Dutch saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra, is a compatible intermarriage, as is the music: an expansive blend of chamber-minimalist composition with free-for-all improv and electronic textures.

—Shaun Brady

Sun., Dec. 7, 8 p.m., $12, International House, 3701 Chestnut St., 215-387-5125, arsnovaworkshop.com.

Sure, they still give their songs silly, fey titles such as "Dream of a Young Girl as a Flower," but on Snowflake Midnight (Yep Roc), their recently released seventh album, Mercury Rev meshes the dreamily organic sound of their later albums with a combination of harsher, slightly more electronic elements. It isn't exactly a return to form, or necessarily a step in the right direction, but the band's signature overblown bombast always blooms in the live environment.

—Kevin Pearson

Sat., Dec. 6, 8 p.m., $17.50-$20, with Dean & Britta and Like a Fox, The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-LIVE, thetroc.com.