Weekly Music Picks: On Deadline Edition

Berklee and Essence have teamed up again this year to bring the best young talent out to compete in the Hip Hop Songwriting Contest. If you are, or know, an eligible teen (unsigned and between 15 and 18) the time is nigh. Deadline for submission is March 9. It's all for a good cause, helping to balance the message in hip hop music and giving young songwriters a stage and training, not to mention giving us something other than Fergie.

Tuesday, 2/27
Clipse with Low B (also Monday, which is sold out)
Pusha T and Malice burst onto the scene in 2002 with one of the year's hottest hip hop releases, Clipse's Lord Willin' (featuring the massive "Grindin'," which Blender Magazine recently listed among the greatest hip hop tracks of all time). Their new album, Hell Hath No Fury, produced by the Neptunes' Pharrell Williams, is just as great as their debut, featuring "wickedly crafted rhymes" and "avant-garde music tracks out of time and space that rock like a players ball held in a damp basement." Clipse is joined by DJ Low B, who, working with Diplo in Hollertronix, put Philly on the map as the hip hop party capital of the world. In his own mixes, Low B lays a foundation with hip hop and dance classics, then throws in everything from dirty south and Baltimore club to reggae, rock, and disco. Grab your tix before Tuesday's show also sells out.
Middle East, 18+, 9pm, $20 adv / $22 dos
Clipse: website | myspace
Low B: website | myspace | a lickle taste pon.mp3 | jamrock club remix.mp3

Lemonheads
Ben Deily may be out with his new venture Varsity Drag, but the Lemonheads keep on rocking. Evan Dando sings the praises of the latest incarnation of the Lemonheads every time he gets a chance, and if their album released last fall is any testament to what you'll hear live the show will be worth it. Tonight's gig is followed only by one in New Haven before the band takes off to a land down under for an Australian leg of the tour.
Paradise Rock Club, 18+, doors at 7pm, $20
Lemonheads: website | myspace

Thursday, 3/1
Monique Ortiz
Lead vox (and bassist, and songwriter) for Bourbon Princess, Monique Ortiz makes a solo appearance for the early show at Lizzard Lounge. How can you resist "a psychedelic smoke-swing, baby"?
Lizard Lounge, doors at 7:30pm, free
Monique Ortiz: website | myspace | DMY.m3u | reclining female.m3u

Muck and the Mires
Garage rock in Somerville. Loud with a PBR please. Muck and the Mires keep it short and sweet – we swear we've never heard them play a song that lasted longer than 174 seconds. They're headed to SXSW to be discovered – catch them quick.
Abbey Lounge, main stage, 10:45pm set, $8
Muck and the Mires: website | myspace | page o' clips

Friday, 3/2
Los Amigos Invisibles
These Latin disco funk mavens mix a "carnival of sexed up lyrics, wah-wah guitar riffs, and hot conga rhythms" with the "booty shaking of disco, the deep rhythms of house, the sass of salsa, and the plush-sofa vibe of electronic lounge." The band's The Venezuelan Zinga Son (produced by Masters at Work Kenny Dope and Louie Vega) melted turntables around the globe a few years ago while the band's latest Superpop Venezuela was nominated for a grammy. And has it really been seven years since the Los Amigos took us on A Venezuelan Journey into Space (Arepa 3000)? Damn, time flies when your dancing your ass off. Of course the boys have been busy remixing Basement Jaxx, Beastie Boys and others as of late. Friday finds Los Amigos surrounded by the surprisingly sedate trappings of the Regattabar. Get a table up front and you can dance face-to-face with this Typical and Autoctonal Venezuelean Dance Band.
Regattabar, 7:30pm & 10pm, $20
website | purchase

TV on the Radio
In case you weren't one of the 15K amassed on City Hall Plaza this summer for their free concert with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, here's your chance to see Bostonist favorite TVOTR in a more intimate setting. Last year TVOTR put out one of the best albums of the year. Return to Cookie Mountain included the post-punk, doo-wop, soul, free jazz, and gospel elements of past TVOTR joints, but was a giant step forward. "I Was a Lover," alone is worth the price of admission with its stuttering, Timbaland-style beats, glorious My Bloody Valentine noise, sitars, blurting horns, quirky electronics and, of course, Tunde Adebimpe's incredible vocals, backed-up by Kyp Malone's "otherwordly doo-wop" falsetto harmonies. What more could you ask for?
Avalon, all ages, 7pm, $16
website | myspace | dry drunk emperor.mp3

The Essex Green
Indie enough for Elephant 6, but pH balanced for Gilmore Girls, the Essex Green make sunny music that's pop but never simple. The Specific Heats (one-third local, two-thirds Brooklynite), Jeffrey Simmons, and Left Hand Does open.
TT the Bear's, 18+, 9 pm, $10
The Specific Heats: myspace
The Essex Green: web site | Don't Know Why (You Stay) .mp3

Cassavettes, The Vital Might.
Before there was Bang Camaro there were Cassavettes. Everyone loved them and the local press gave them lots of tender care. We're still into them and we'll never let them go. They share the bill with power-pop trio The Vital Might.
Paradise Lounge, doors at 8pm, 18+, $8

Saturday, 3/3
The Thermals
Winter may be thawing out, but we still need our Thermals. Tickets are sold out online, but you can still get your power chord fix if you bring cash to the TT's box office. The Big Sleep, Read Yellow, and the Perennials open.
TT the Bear's, 18+, 9 pm, $12
Read Yellow: myspace | Bigmouth Strikes Again .mp3
The Thermals: myspace live video of St. Rosa & the Swallows | Here's Your Future .mp3

Monday, 3/5
Badly Drawn Boy
Back in the states for a tour after the latest album dropped, Badly Drawn Boy will take stage at the Somerville Theatre.
Somerville Theatre, $21, 7:30 pm
Badly Drawn Boy: website | myspace

Matt Durutti and C. Fernsebner contributed to this post