September 27Creature9 p.m.Urban Lounge (241 S. 500 East)
Although a rap artist with a concern for “the hustle” is no anomaly in the street ethics of the hip-hop genre, Creature seems especially bent on earning the title of hardest working man on the underground grind. This veteran emcee spits aggressive-yet-reflective verses about street life and the modern man’s plight in the 21st century, all in his distinctive colloquial drawl. In addition to being the self-promoted king of hustle, Creature is an author and co-wrote The Underdog’s Manifesto, a guide to every aspiring DIY artist, hip-hop or otherwise. With appearances on Rob Sonic’s debut full length, Telicatessen (Def Jux, 2004) and MF Doom aka Viktor Vaughn’s Vaudeville Villain (Sound Ink, 2003), anyone with even an ounce of hip-hop sense will take these auspicious appearances as reason enough to hear Creature perform his own solo material.
September 28Smashing Pumpkins$757 p.m.McKay Events Center(800 W. University Parkway, Orem)
The resurrected Smashing Pumpkins’ lineup lacks original members James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky (thus provoking the argument of whether or not it should even maintain the illustrious Pumpkin moniker), but the new effort, titled Zeitgeist, is enjoyable nonetheless. While Billy Boy reminds one of the cult horror film series “Pet Sematery,” in which mourners resuscitate deceased loved ones by burying them in an ancient Indian graveyard only to find they come back as demonic shadows of their former selves, Zeitgeist is at least an improvement from Corgan’s other post-Pumpkin abomination, Zwan. With standards set unreachably high after such seminal albums as Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Zeitgeist‘s single, “Tarantula,” is at the very least a listenable, if not completely worthy, re-incarnation of “Bullets with Butterfly Wings.”
Black Mountain$88 p.m.Kilby Court(741 S. 330 West)
Three out of the five members of Vancouver-based rock group Black Mountain work for Insite, the first government-sanctioned injection clinic for addicts of heroin, morphine and cocaine. Thwarting social injustice and drug addiction by day, three of Black Mountain’s members discard their civil positions by night to produce similarly therapeutic and psychedelic indie rock. Crafting euphoric, lethargic hymns that will soothe even the most square of music listeners, Black Mountain is just one appendage of The Black Mountain Army-a British Columbia-based music collective that promises to rival its Omaha-based competitors.
October 1Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs$88 p.m.Kilby Court(741 S. 330 West)
Holly Golightly is an original member of Thee Headcoatees, the female counterparts to underground icon Billy Childish’s Thee Headcoats. The Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs duo is comprised of the equally prolific Golightly and Lawyer Dave, a blues-folk symbiosis that creates Dust Bowl tunes dirty enough to make Howlin’ Wolf proud.