THE PHARMACY
Seattle trio The Pharmacy are like a leftover from a '60s garage-rock trip. Rocking lo-fi sounds, the lads relish in the trippy era, sometime evoking early Rolling Stones, while other times channeling killer psych-garage bands like the Lyres and Redd Kross. In the song "Pines," the singer mumbles "I get the sense that the present tense is where I should reside." Not so fast, as where they do reside, musically, is a pretty cool place. The band's new recording, Stoned & Alone, should be on the streets by the time they roll into town. They continue honing the stuttering, tinny guitars, swirling keyboards and spare, yet feisty percussion, where the quirky ditties oft convulse into a noisy mess. Hey, maybe that's the point. With Modern Primitives, Cop Graves and the Orchidales. $5-$7. Nov. 30, 9 p.m. Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Road. 704-398-0472.

WATER LIARS
St. Louis singer-songwriter Justin Kinkel-Schuster and Oxford, Miss., drummer-producer Andrew Bryant formed the heartland duo Water Liars on a whim, recording their debut LP Phantom Limb over three days with a single microphone. So it's no surprise that their oeuvre lands smack dab at the crossroads of blues, country and folk. Despite the occasional squall of Melvins-styled sludge, Water Liars' songs are played simply, relying on visceral emotion, the duo's intuition and the twin specters of lonely nights and precious mementos left behind. Kinkel-Schuster's compositions have a lived-in feel, nodding to Appalachian rocker Hasil Adkins, The Replacements' Paul Westerberg, acid folk man Skip Spence and Neil Young stumbling "out of the blue and into the black." Since the group takes its name from Mississippi writer Barry Hannah's best-known short story, Faulkner-esque tomes from Flannery O'Connor's Christ-haunted South pull predictably on their sensibilities. Unexpected is a quote from British occultist and Great Beast 666 Aleister Crowley that kicks off the austere hymn "It is Well." Behind Water Liars' veil of grounded familiarity lurks a glimpse of the undiscovered country. With Miami Dice, Mechanical River and Callisto. $5. Nov. 30, 10 p.m. Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. 704-333-9799.

SILVERSUN PICKUPS
Hey you! Yes you, with the mouse hovering over the "purchase" button for Silversun Pickups tickets. What do you think you're doing? Don't you know Christmas is right around the corner, and that you should be saving your money for presents? Listen, I know you miss the Smashing Pumpkins. We all do. But if you want to hear someone appropriating the sounds of that once-great band, why not just watch some YouTube videos of Zwan or something? Seeing the Silversun Pickups is going to leave you feeling empty and disappointed inside, just like the nostalgic goodbye Twinkie you ate when you heard that Hostess was shutting down. There, there. Someday, someone will write an album as good as Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. But Silversun Pickups are not those someones. Now go find something nice for your mom for the holidays. With Civil Twilight and Morning Parade. $33. Nov. 29, 8 p.m. The Fillmore, 1000 N.C. Music Factory Blvd. 704-549-5555.

TOUBAB KREWE
When Ry Cooder jammed with Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré in 1995, Western musicians woke up to the rich musical legacy of West Africa. Actually, the West African connection was there all along, since American blues is largely derived from the tribal music of Mali. In turn, West African musicians responded in the 1960's to the influence of western bluesmen like John Lee Hooker, and so on. It's been a trans-Atlantic ping pong game of musical influences for generations now, and Asheville's Toubab Krewe are merely the latest volley. TK band members caught the West African music bug in the late 1990's, trekking to Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Mali to study and live with master musicians. Such deep wood-shedding pays off in Toubab Krewe's energetic percussive grooves and founder Justin Perkins' mastery of the kora, a 21-string Malian harp-cum-lute. But the Krewe flip the script, adding a mix of zydeco, N'Awlins R&B and Southern-fried rock 'n' roll to the African stew, then top it off with Arabic surf guitar scales by way of Dick Dale. It should all be a mess, but Toubab Krewe's exotic electro world-funk reaches giddy psychedelic heights. Toubab Krewe may wander all over the map, but they always know where they're going. With John Brown's Body. $15-$17. Nov. 27, 8 p.m. Visulite Theatre, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. 704-358-9200.

GAZA
Heavy music isn't necessarily aggressive, even when it comes in clashing and raging like Gaza. The band's chopped, math-rock crust, if anything, evinces desperation: a severe adverse reaction to organized religion and its societal effects, coupled with and soured by knowledge of its power. Not an ultimately surprising tack for a band from Salt Lake City - hub and headquarters for all things Mormon - though that church is far from their only target. The band's discordant, Converge-esque approach twists metal and hardcore into an occasionally gruesome mess of incompatible chords and hoarse roars. In short, they sound pretty fucking pissed. With Young and in the Way, Code Orange Kids, Full of Hell, and Narratives. $8-$12. Nov. 27, 9 p.m. Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Road. 704-398-0472.

MEGADETH
It must have been heartbreaking for fans of '80s thrash metal to watch Metallica, the titans of the genre, fade into curmudgeon-y assholes. Fortunately, those who want to hold on to pre-Mastodon metal ideals have Megadeth, whose singer, David Mustaine, was even briefly a member of Metallica. As the band's contemporaries changed with the times, Megadeth stayed virtually the same. Mustaine, a veritable caricature of himself as an aging rocker with a bad-boy pout, is still surfing the nostalgia wave more than 25 years after the band's '86 breakout record, Peace Sells. Peace Sells was a scathing condemnation of Reagan-era politics back in the day, but it seems like Mustaine has gone off the deep end with his recent comments stating President Obama was behind the deadly shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin earlier this year. Though if you're still pissed about the Star Wars missile defense program and trickle-down economics, moshing to Mustaine as he swishes his strawberry blond locks may be just what the doctor ordered. With Kyng. $32.50. Nov. 25, 8 p.m. The Fillmore, 1000 N.C. Music Factory Blvd. 704-549-5555.

HIP-HOP FAMILY REUNION
Two weeks ago, in our annual music issue, we discussed the growing strength of the city's music scene by asking, "Where is the black music in Charlotte?" This weekend, the answer to that question is at Chop Shop. If you're looking for some of the Queen City's finest rappers, they'll all be under one roof. From Golden Era-style to street anthem swag, the inaugural Hip-Hop Family Reunion is a great place to check the pulse of the local scene. Performers include Forever FC (Lute, Jimmy Kelso, Schyler Chaise and Ry), Royal-Tee, Elevator Jay, Luca Brazi, Mullah Mugzie, Shome, Lotta, Stranger Day, Yachts and Makeda. $10. Nov. 25, 6 p.m. Chop Shop, 399 E. 35th St. 704-765-2466.

NAPALM DEATH
Undeniably one of the most menacing and uncompromising bands in the land of metal, Napalm Death birthed grindcore nearly 30 years ago. It's been a quarter century since the band's groundbreaking (and ground-shaking) debut recording, and the blokes from Birmingham, U.K., continue to mutate young minds with their noise. The band's recent, 15th studio outing, Utilitarian, is evidence the music hasn't gotten any mellower with age. The breakneck riffing, piercing growling and machine-gun drumming are fully intact while lyrics attacking weasels in politics and religion stitch it all together. The band members' varied influences and tastes drizzle into their songs with avant garde flourishes amidst the mayhem, and while most songs are short and spastic, expect an occasional five-minute dirge, which is practically an epic in the world of Napalm Death. Also on the bill are Municipal Waste, Exhumed and Speedwolf. $15. Nov. 24, 8:30 p.m. Tremont Music Hall, 400 W. Tremont Ave. 704-343-9494.

GHOST TREES
Ghost Trees is the new vehicle of local hornman Brent Bagwell and his Eastern Seaboard bandmate, drummer Seth Nanaa. The two played during Great Architect's Snug Harbor residency recently sans Seaboard bassist Jordan Schranz, and really clicked duo-style. The combination of saxophone and drums feels primal and immediate, an energy never captured better (or likely to be improved upon) than when John Coltrane and Rashied Ali did it on the seminal sax/drums statement, Interstellar Space. Still, it's great to hear Bagwell, the city's most adventurous reedsman, in a setting where he's playing against/around/through a mostly rhythmic entity, as he does on the duo's gorgeous self-titled 10-inch picture disc whose release they'll be celebrating at Snug Harbor. On "Serpico's Dream," for instance, Bagwell and Nanaa joust and parry in ever-tightening circles before wrestling a surprisingly tight melody into submission. It's not quite as free as, say, peer collabs like those between drummer Frank Rosaly and saxophonist Dave Rempis, but their years together in Eastern Seaboard serve Bagwell and Nanaa well in establishing the trust level necessary to create some truly intriguing and adventurous moments. With Bo White, Great Architect and Blossoms. $5. Nov. 23, 10 p.m. Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. 704-333-9799. .