Weekly Music Picks: Passover Edition or Prelude to Marathon Monday

It seems everyone is talking about bib numbers, their knees, or the New Balance they hope are broken in by the time Marathon Monday rolls around. There’s not much time to train for the treck past Heartbreak Hill, but it’s not stopping lots of people out there. These bands aren’t on the run. They’re kicking up the amps and pumping pure, sweet decibels of goodness into our ears all week long.

Tuesday 4/11
Shumai
Indie pop invades PA's, expect nothing less than the adorable. Shumai with Bunnygrunt, The Specific Heats, B for Brontosaurus.
Bostonist has B for Brontosaurus on our watch list. Rumor has it that they’re in the studio this month finishing up a full length album. Their fun sounds we’ve caught at gigs around the Hub is sure to be a hit in coming months.
PAs Lounge
21+, 8:30PM, $7
Shumai: myspace | Are You Jeff Corwin Experienced?.mp3 | purchase
B for Brontosaurus: myspace | website | RUT!.mp3 | Who Will Sail My Ship Ashore?.mp3

The Glass Family
Austin-based Indie Rockers The Glass Family with locals The Pilot Light, Choo Choo LaRouge and The Exchange Rate.
TT the Bears.
21+, 9pm, $7
The Glass Family: myspace | Swimming in Fiction.mp3 | purchase
Choo Choo LaRouge: myspace | She is a Bomb.mp3 | purchase

Wednesday 4/12
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
David Bowie tested, David Byrne approved. All we’ve got to say we’ve said before. Good music at an “independent” price.
Avalon (moved because the Paradise wasn't big enough, seriously)
8 pm, $14.25
CYHSY: myspace | web site | live on NPR | Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood .mp3 | purchase

The Gris Gris
Modern psychedelia from Oakland.
Great Scott
9 pm, 18+, $7
The Gris Gris: myspace | Year Zero .mp3 | purchase

Thursday 4/13
Ghostface (Wu-Tang) with M1 (Dead Prez)
The blogs, the fork, the slate, and the Globe all agree: Ghostface Killah's Fishscale is the hip hop album of the year front runner (at least until Gnarls Barkley's (Dangermouse & Cee-Lo) St. Elsewhere is released next month). Check the mighty Ghostface with M1 of Dead Prez and Natural III.
Paradise Rock Club
18+, 9PM $20 / $22 dos
Ghostface: website | myspace | purchase
M1: website | myspace

Layo& Bushwacka
London DJ phenoms Layo & Bushwacka bring their "trippy, downtempo, atmospheric breakbeat" and bass-heavy dub sound to Avalon. With Boston's Filthy.
Avalon
9PM
website | myspace

Friday 4/14
Emergency Music
FNX's New England Product at Bills Bar, with the Bleedin Bleedins. Emergency Music had to cancel their spring tour due to a van mishap, but the good news? More local shows.
21+, 9pm, $5
Emergency Music: myspace | Up For Hours.mp3 | purchase

Saturday 4/15
Gogol Bordello
Gypsy punk from Eastern Europe by way of New York, with a reputation for crazy fun shows.
The Roxy
6:45 pm, $15
Gogol Bordello: myspace | web site | Troubled Friends (live) .mp3 | purchase

Hugh Masekela
Despite the fact that the calendar says Spring and Tuesday is the Red Sox home opener, it's a bit early to sit outside for a stone soul picnic, "Grazin' in the Grass" (although it's a gas, can you dig it?) But you you can hear a breezy mix of jazz, funk and Afrobeat as South African music legend Hugh Masekela brings his band to Beantown. As world music dot org notes, Masekela's "trumpet has long been a call to freedom and a celebration of the resilience of his people."
Somerville Theatre
8PM, $28 & $35
website | wikipedia | purchase

Humanwine & Beat Circus
These Goth/Punk/Cabaret bands prepare to make the Dresden Dolls seem precious. With Alec K Redfearn & The Eyesores and Guignol.
21+, 9pm, $10
TT the Bears.
Humanwine: myspace | vin d' humaine.mp3 | purchase
Beat Circus: myspace | Mandalay Song.mp3 | purchase

Die Kolner Akademie, Meder’s St. Matthew Passion
Die Kölner Akademie, a young German ensemble under the direction of the
American conductor Michael Alexander Willins, will at last bring
Boston the other St. Matthew Passion: Johann Valentin Meder's, slightly earlier than JS
Bach's and recently rediscovered by modern musicians. Soloists Joseph Cornwell
(Evangelist), Christian Hilz (Jesus) and Nicky Kennedy (soprano) perform with the intimate and thoughtful Baroque orchestra. BEMF's write-up is here, but the audio
is still "coming soon." (As is the Judas Passion?)
8 p.m.;
Sanders Theatre, Harvard University;
$53, $37, $21

Lora Valente, Matt Durutti, and C. Fernsebner, and Christina contributed to this post