This Week in Sound: Death Cab for Cutie, Frightened Rabbit, The Weeknd and more

Indie flagship band Death Cab for Cutie (July 29 @ The Molson Amphitheatre) are indie only in name and don’t need to be introduced. Their electronics-heavy new album Codes and Keys has bewildered critics, and, well, Narrow Stairs wasn’t exactly their finest 45 minutes either — but it’s easy to forget that Death Cab are still among the sturdiest acts in indie rock, with a huge stable of quality material reaching back to 1998. How much of it they’ll play, mind you, is anyone’s guess.

I like them so much I gave them their own paragraph, even though it’s the same show: Frightened Rabbit (July 29 @ The Molson Amphitheatre) will be warming the crowd for Death Cab. Singer Scott Hutchison must have been bedridden with the measles the day they taught positive self-image in social studies class, but his angst makes for very engaging narrative-based folk-rock songs, and his band delivers plenty of dopamine-rush climaxes. If you’re not down with Death Cab’s new material, go to see Frightened Rabbit and just hope Death Cab plays "Transatlanticism."

Out of the Box Music Festival (July 29 – 31 @ various venues) lives up to its name. Toss a space-themed prom (“You have just graduated from the Intergalactic School of Debauchery…”), a 3D rock concert and a lineup of mostly Toronto and Ontario-based acts ranging from folk to psychedelia into a blender, and you’ve got two whole weeks worth of weird in one easy-to-drink, three-day milkshake.

This is not a generic hip-hop drop-in from a rock music listener: I actually find Kid Cudi (July 30 @ The Molson Amphitheatre) charming. His "Pursuit of Happiness" vid was so disarmingly emo and self-loathing that I watched it ten or twenty times. The big strike against him is that he was a little mean to Canada’s finest bipedal napkin, Narduwar the Human Serviette. Not cool, Kid Cudi, not cool at all.

My weekends usually involve beer and reading Wikipedia for six hours at a time, but if yours are more along the lines of flash strobe lights and sweaty, gyrating bodies, you might want to check Toronto’s own The Weeknd (July 31 @ The Molson Amphitheatre). At twenty years young, singer Abel Tesfaye is offers disturbingly mature R&B fables with ultra-NSFW lyrics (re women, sex and altered states) over moody, sputtering beats.

This is a generic hip-hop drop-in from a rock music listener: big names Rick Ross and Drake (July 31 @ The Molson Amphitheatre) will be getting the party started this weekend. Young girls will scream, hands will be thrown in the air like their owners just don’t care, etc.

And, of course, this week’s dose of nostalgia: remember when you thought that Third Eye Blind (July 28 @ Echo Beach) was so, so cool—along with pogs, baggy shorts and wallet-chains? Um, yeah. Anyway, those with an underdeveloped sense of shame can shout along to “Jumper” on Thursday.

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