SCHOOLBOY Q
Remember when Nas told Jay-Z that Eminem murdered him on his own track? Go listen to A$AP Rocky's "Brand New Guy" and hear Schoolboy Q's verse steal the show in similar fashion. While Kendrick Lamar is resuscitating West Coast hip-hop for mainstream consumption, his TDE/Black Hippy crew is busy making sure people know it is more than a one-man movement. Ab-Soul and Jay Rock have made noise but Schoolboy Q has proven to be the dopest and most distinctive rapper in the camp. If anything has become his calling card, it's fearless and off-kilter verses spit with a reckless abandon that the anti-mainstream can appreciate, but they're also dope enough for radio to find room for. This hippy may have achieved balance. $31-$75. Nov. 15, 7 p.m. The Fillmore, 1000 N.C. Music Factory Blvd. 704-549-5555.

LINDSAY FULLER
On her third full-length, You, Anniversary, Alabama-raised Seattle native Lindsay Fuller shoots for the same dark poetic fires burning in other female artists like Thalia Zedek or Shannon Wright, though Fuller's songs are less shy about their pop and Americana roots. But there's more Southern Gothic in Fuller's songwriting, which is why the bleak-but-redemptive works of Nick Cave are another touchstone you hear in conjunction with Fuller. That suits Fuller's narrative vein, as do the specters of late poets, writers and friends that haunt sometimes explicitly, sometimes not her songs. Besides the W.S. Merwin poem that inspired the LP title track and an Edgar Allen Poe name-drop, the mortality-occupied storytelling also conjures images of Southern artists of all stripes from O'Connor and Faulkner to 16 Horsepower and Vic Chesnutt, as our transience and frailty play out tragically in Fuller's songs. With Lucy Wainwright Roche and Kaia Wilson. $12-$15. Nov. 15, 8 p.m. Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. 704-376-3737.

LUCY WAINWRIGHT ROCHE
If Lucy Wainwright Roche was the bragging type, she could boast an illustrious bloodline. With Lucy's aunts, mother Suzzy Roche founded the quirky and inventive folk vocal trio The Roches. Lucy's half siblings, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, craft lush theatrical pop with more than a hint of drama queen. Father Loudon Wainwright III is justly celebrated as a scathingly satirical chronicler of family dysfunction. At every family gathering there's always the quiet one, the perceptive witness who frequently forms the keenest insights - and that's where Lucy fits in. With a warmly funny, almost gawky, stage demeanor and a clear, lilting voice, she sings of small towns, being on the road and the absurd humor of random disaster. Not as showboating as Martha or Rufus, Lucy crafts narratives that are openhearted, keenly observed and candid. Compassion is her strong suit, and it's no accident that she does a killer cover of "Hungry Heart," Bruce Springsteen's rousing ode to empathy. It may seem faint praise to call a smart and funny singer/songwriter even-keeled, but Roche is every bit as incisive as her father and her siblings - there's just no trace of bitterness. With Lindsay Fuller and Kaia Wilson. $12-$15. Nov. 15, 8 p.m. Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. 704-376-3737.

STEPHANE WREMBEL
French-born guitarist/composer Stephane Wrembel follows in the footsteps of Gypsy musical genius Django Reinhardt, the Romani who revolutionized jazz and guitar playing in general. Though classically trained, Wrembel spent his youth learning guitar in Gypsy camps. There he acquired the dexterity, speed and percussive down-stroke picking pioneered by the legendary Reinhardt. As Wrembel mastered the Master’s style, the mainstream beckoned, most notably when Woody Allen hired Wrembel to compose “Bisto Fada,” the title theme for Midnight in Paris. Swinging, melodic and romantic, Gypsy jazz has a growing cadre of fans. Those fans were aghast when Wrembel began to strike out on his own, reaching far beyond the traditions of Manouche guitar. Nowadays, Wrembel draws on rock aggression, Middle Eastern tonalities and Japanese influences as well as Gypsy swing. Favoring dramatic juxtapositions and abrupt tempo shifts, Wrembel admits that he’s all over the map — a musical impressionist, composing with an ever-shifting picture in mind. As Wrembel likes to say, he plays “in the light of Django, instead of his shadow”. Call him Django unchained. $15-$20. Nov. 10, 8 p.m. Amos’ Southend, 1423 S. Tryon St. 704-377-6874.

PRETTY LIGHTS
Derek Vincent Smith calls his electronic brainchild Pretty Lights “electro/hip hop/soul dance music.” His 2012 Illumination Tour boasts a massive set with LED towers suggesting a looming cityscape, but Pretty Lights doesn’t draw its name from this monster light show. Instead, Smith plucked the name from a flyer for a 1966 Pink Floyd show. Amid the psychedelic lettering was the key phrase: “Come and see the pretty lights.” The early Floyd reference is fitting, since like Syd Barrett’s cosmonautic crew, Pretty Lights strives to give the concert goer a totally enthralling experience. Though Smith’s dance-music attack is different from classic rockers like Floyd, the two approaches aren’t poles apart. Smith borrows riffs from Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails, and he seeks to fuse the cutting edge with organic soul. Indeed, break-out track “Finally Moving” samples “Something’s Got a Hold on Me,” pairing the velvety vocals of Etta James with futuristic textures. Consider too that Smith has collaborated with hard-scrabble country legend Dr. Ralph Stanley on an update of “Wayfaring Stranger,” and it’s clear there’s more to Pretty Lights than meets the electronic eye. Inside that cyborg casing beats a soulful heart. $25-$34.50. Nov. 10, 8 p.m. Bojangles’ Coliseum, 2700 E. Independence Blvd. 704-372-3600.