YBN Cordae
Saturday, July 27The Pressroom
A member of the YBN (Young Boss N*ggaz) collective, Cordae Dunston, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, has been pitched as a missing link between the dusty old school of rap and its colorful, youthful present. He’s had a quick rise since he began pursuing music in earnest last year, freestyling over songs like Eminem’s “My Name Is” and Kendrick Lamar’s “DUCKWORTH.,” responding to J. Cole’s “1985” on “Old Niggaz,” touring with Juice WRLD, and performing as part of YBN in Europe and at Rolling Loud in Miami. His show on Saturday night at The Pressroom starts at 7 p.m. Ambjaay will open. Tickets are $20 to $40. Douglas Markowitz
Circa Survive are doing a pop-up show surrounded by art by Esao Andrews, the artist for their surreal album covers.
Hayley Rippy
Circa Survive
Saturday, July 27Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum
The band members of Circa Survive will be gaining a different perspective from their set this weekend at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum – meaning it's happening in the early afternoon in late July. Not that the aughts-famous, experimental rock band hasn’t performed a midday slot at a music festival, but a typical performance from Circa’s Phoenix stop usually happens at someplace like Marquee Theatre, at night.
Not so at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, which is hosting the special summer exhibition, "Petrichor," by Esao Andrews. Circa Survive fans know the work of this Japanese-American artist even if they don’t know him by name. Andrews has almost exclusively done all the surrealist album artwork for Circa Survive’s official releases, including Juturna and On Letting Go.
Therefore, Circa will be performing a stripped-down, pop-up performance to accompany Andrews for his mid-career retrospective exhibition – which is presented by Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in collaboration with Thinkspace Gallery. The free performance does not require an RSVP, but space is limited. Circa Survive is set to perform at 1 p.m. Lauren Cusimano
Drab Majesty
Saturday, July 27Crescent Ballroom
Drab Majesty had achieved cult status by the time 2015’s Careless was released. The band consist of Deb DeMure, a trans darkwave musician looking equal parts Alien Sex Fiend and David Bowie, and keyboardist and vocalist Mona D (a.k.a. Alex Nicolaou). Since forming in 2011, the Los Angeles-based group are putting out music with cool atmospheres and sweeping, swirling melodies, conjuring the image of a near-future goth star in an intergalactic utopia.
There’s an urgency in many of Drab Majesty’s songs that, while brooding, isn’t truly gloomy. Their latest release, Modern Mirror, has been described by Paste as a “contemporary re-telling of Ovid’s “Narcissus,” the classic Greco-Roman myth about a man so obsessed with himself, he dies staring into his own reflection while the devastated nymph who can’t shake him out of her head watches from afar.” Such heady material isn’t anything new for Drab Majesty as their 2017 album, The Demonstration, explored how identities emerge from within the mind and as a result of social interactions. The duo will serve up such audio mind trips on Saturday at Crescent Ballroom at 8 p.m. Hide and Body of Light will open. Tickets are $15 in advance, $22 at the door. Tom Murphy
Rockstar Energy Drink Disrupt Festival
Saturday, July 27Ak-Chin Pavilion
Stepping into a Warped Tour-shaped hole in the festival market, Rockstar Energy Drink's Disrupt Festival will bring a smorgasbord of popular metal, nu-metal, metalcore, and punk bands to Ak-Chin Pavilion on Saturday. The lineup is subject to change from city to city, but the Phoenix event, the penultimate chapter in the tour, will feature The Used, Thrice, Circa Survive, Sum 41, Sleeping With Sirens, Andy Black, Memphis May Fire, Meg & Dia, Juliet Simms, and Hyro the Hero. Gates open at 1:30 p.m. and tickets are $19.99 to $29.99. Douglas Markowitz
Tritonal
Sunday, July 28Maya Day & Nightclub in Scottsdale
Austin is known for its guitar music. Few people think of the Texas capital as an EDM hot spot, but electronic geniuses Tritonal call it home. The DJ duo, which consist of Chad Cisneros and Dave Reed, first encountered each other in cyberspace, however. “We met through an online forum on a synthesizer we both owned, Access Virus TI," Cisneros says. "It was the first synthesizer that connected to hard drives and acted like an audio interface. It allowed us to arrange 16 tracks simultaneously." While Reed was in Washington, D.C., and Cisneros was in Texas, they sent each other clips of their music.
After a while, Reed decided to move to Texas and commit to their musical partnership. A decade later, the pair are in great demand, playing more than 100 shows per year, including this weekend at Maya Day & Nightclub in Scottsdale. They’ve also been quite prolific, releasing three studio albums (including 2019’s U & Me), nine EPs, and several dozen singles and remixes. On Sunday afternoon, you can catch Tritonal holding it down at Maya’s latest Soundwave pool party. Gates open at noon and admission is $10. David Rolland
