15 metro Phoenix local music picks for July

Local music picks for Phoenix in July include the Thunder Bubble taping and release celebrations by Jerry Lawson, the Through & Through Gospel Review, Twin Ponies, the Bittersweet Way, Fetti Profoun and Taylor Upsahl.

7/1: Round 'Bout Midnight

Presented by the Nash, the Valley Bar's monthly jazz night features Soulful Sax Guy and Home Cookin' performing the music of Grover Washington, Jr., Stanley Turrentine, Maceo Parker, Hank Crawford, Eddie Harris and David Sanborn.

Details: 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 1. Valley Bar, 130 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. $5. valleybarphx.com.

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7/1: Mill's End

These guys tend to serve their alternative-country on the raucous side, sounding a bit like a scrappier Old 97's on the train-beat-driven "Castle" and taking their sound in a heavier Southern rock direction on "Believe," which also serves an excellent showcase for the fuzz-drenched heroics of lead guitarist Keith Perillo. They're joined by two great local bands, with the Action Jets bringing the power-pop and Carol Pacey and the Honey Shakers adding more Americana (and guitar heroics) to the lineup.

Details: 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 1. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $8; $5 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.

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7/3: Taylor Upsahl album release

This local folk-pop singer will release an album titled "Viscerotonic," which follows a self-titled effort that hit the streets in 2013. If you haven't heard of Upsahl, what you need to know is that her voice is pretty much the perfect instrument with which to put this kind of stuff across.

And if you also like more raucous kinds of stuff, by all means, do not miss Le Zets, who release a great first album last month, in the opening slot, followed by Lost in the Sun.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 3. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $12; $10 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.

7/4: The Bittersweet Way release show

They're releasing a followup to last year's "Heavens," an album that eased in with the understated, melancholy folk of "How It Ends" before taking the energy up a few notches with the wistful chiming of the folk-pop charmer "Mostly Alright," on which singer Jedidiah Foster memorably tells us, "She gave up on cigarettes and I gave up on godless girlfriends." The new album is "Songs We Want to Sing." Also playing: Manifest Sound, Some Magical Animal, Genre and Field Tripp.

Details: 9 p.m. Saturday, July 4. Rogue Bar, 423 N. Scottsdale Road. 480-947-3580, facebook.com/theroguebar.

7/7: Run-On Sunshine tour kickoff

Run-On Sunshine is lo-fi cuddlecore singer Mullarkey, who's kicking off the Feline Thesis Defense Tour, an 11-week tour on which he's promising that "the eternal sunshine of the feline mind is going to spread all over scores of states and one province." It's quirky stuff that should appeal to fans of Daniel Johnston and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Also playing: Miss Massive Snowflake, Off the Horizon, Alli Gato and Egg Princess.

Details: 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 7. Trunk Space, 1506 N.W. Grand Ave., Phoenix. $6. 602-256-6006, thetrunkspace.com.

7/9: Cover the Crescent

The latest installment of the Crescent's covers night include one local act, Genre, covering Jimmy Eat World. How local is that? Also featured: Bad Neighbors as Modest Mouse and Owl & Penny taking on the songs of Brand New.

Details: 8 p.m. Thursday, July 9. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $5. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.

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7/9: Emby Alexander

Last month, they kicked off a tour with a record-release show celebration for "Behaves Like Beehives" at the Rebel Lounge. And they're already back to their old stomping grounds. A followup to last year's "Frontispiece," "Behaves Like Beehives" is a densely textured psychedelic headphone album whose highlights range from experimental pop singalong "Dance to the Pulse of the Throbbing Pain" and the echo-laden atmospherics of "Remember Wishing We Was Born Dumb." Also playing: Spiritual Warfare (Joel Marquard of Gospel Claws gone Bollywood) and Foreign Language.

Details: 8 p.m. Thursday, July 9. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $8; $5 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.

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7/10: Numb Bats EP release / tour kickoff.

Emily Hobeheidar, Mo Neuharth, and Sophie Opich eased listeners into last year's "Gentle Horror" with an understated 47-second shot of haunted folk-rock harmonies before rocking the fuzz guitars like their first taste of '60s garage-rock was hearing it filtered through Mudhoney's first couple records. Any number of the album's highlights would, in fact, have sounded right at home on the underground rock scene of the '90s. And they're following through with a new EP before hitting the road.

Details: 9 p.m. Friday, July 10. Yucca Tap Room, 29 W. Southern Ave., Tempe. Free. 480-967-4777, yuccatap.com.

7/12: Sundressed and Merit double release show

The infectious pop-punk melodies on Sundressed's new EP, "Dig Up a Miracle," should speak to anyone who cut their teeth on early Blink-182 or Green Day, while the lyrics speak to, as they describe it, "the struggle of living a sober life despite a rough past of addiction, while finding hope and passion for life." The first words on the opening track, for example, are "Wait, I don't want to / But they say we have to / I don't wanna act that way." They're sharing the release-show spotlight with Merit, releasing "The Comfort and the Confusion," a four-song EP that should speak to emo fans of several ages if the track I've heard (the bittersweet whisper-to-a-tortured-howl that is "Take Care") is any indication.

Details: 8 p.m. Sunday, July 12. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $10; $8 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.

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7/17: Twin Ponies EP release

Three of these guys — Wayne Jones, Phillip Hanna and Jordan Tompkins — were in Tugboat together. Guitarist Jacob Lauxman is a great addition to that core lineup. They've releasing a followup to "Pore," a 2013 EP whose more inspired moments appeared to be channeling the artier and more infectious side of the '90s alternative-rock sound at the same time. This one's titled "Friendly Pet Mass Graves." They're joined in the festivites by Celebration Guns, Lips and Daisy Face.

Details: 8 p.m. Friday, July 17. Rebel Lounge, 2303 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. $10; $8 in advance. 602-296-7013, therebellounge.com.

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7/18: The Through & Through Gospel Review LP Release

Joel Marquard of Gospel Claws and Samuel L Cool J is back with a second album by his other other group, the one whose songs are steeped in traditional gospel but filtered through Marquard's own sensibilities. That last part is crucial because as cool as it sounds when he channels the spirit of an overdriven Alan Lomax field recording of a spiritual in the opening seconds of "On the Lord's Wrecking Ball," it's infinitely cooler that the track keeps getting noisier and weirder. By the time they hit the third track, "God Provides," it sounds like gospel as the Clash might have done it toward the end of "Sandinista!" Other tracks betray his love of doo-wop and he signs off with a reverb-saturated shot of soulful country-blues, "I'm Pleased." Also playing: MRCH and Field Tripp.

Details: 8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 18. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $12; $10 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.

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7/20: Ozark Pappy

They're not really from the Ozarks. And for all we know, they have no children either. What they do have is a great first album, last year's "If Our Boat Begins to Sink." After setting with a haunted folktronica ballad called "Dust in the Dirt" and stripping it down to acoustic guitar and aching vocals on the understated folk of "Eugene," they rock like Neil Young fronting Crazy Horse on "Fidel," which as the name would suggest, is a song about Castro.

Details: 8 p.m. Monday, July 20. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $5; $3 in advance. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.

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7/24: The Thunder Bubble

This is the filming of the first four episodes of a "late-night-talk-show-styled" web television series, hosted by Jeff Moses, with music by the Blank Waves (6-7 p.m.), New York City's BUMPY103 (7-8), Field Tripp (8-9) and Snake! Snake! Snakes! (9-10). In addition to playing, each act will be interview by Moses.

Details: 6 p.m. Friday, July 24. The Firehouse Gallery, 1015 N. First St., Phoenix. $5. 602-300-7575 facebook.com/firehousephoenix.

7/25: Fetti Profoun album release show

This conspiracy hip-hop veteran has rocking mics in Phoenix for more than a decade. He's releasing an album called "Thought Criminal," on which the first words out of Fetti's mouth "They say it's 2015 / Feels more like 1984 / You disagree with the system / You a thought criminal / We must worship these imperialists / Or be called a terrorist." A copy of the album is included with the show's $10 cover.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 25. Last Exit Live, 717 S. Central Ave., Phoenix. $10. 602-271-7000, lastexitlive.com.

7/31: Jerry Lawson album release celebration

For 40 years, he sang for Brooklyn soul greats the Persuasions, moving to Phoenix in 2002 to work with the developmentally disabled. This performance celebrates the release of Lawson's "Just a Mortal Man," on which the veteran singer effortlessly taps into the essence of the golden age of soul, kicking things off with a gospel-flavored reinvention of Paul Simon's "Peace Like a River."

Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 31. Musical Instrument Museum, 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix. $37.50-$42.50. 480-478-6000, mim.org.

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