Black Prairie will open up the evening at MilkBoy tonight.  The subtly-Baroque bluegrass group came together in 2007 when Decemberists members Chris Funk and Nate Query decided to start an off-shoot project with Jenny Conlee, Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld.  2012 saw Black Prairie’s sophomore release A Tear in the Eye is a Wound in the Heart, the follow-up to 2010′s debut Feast of the Hunter’s Moon.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show with John Wesley Harding can be found here; below, watch a live video of “How Do You Ruin Me.”

New York City’s Blonde Redhead come to Union Transfer tonight.  Comprised of Japanese singer Kazu Makino and Italian twins Simone and Amedeo Pace, Blonde Redhead has had a long and varied career since its inception in 1993.  Not ones to become stagnant in a genre for too long, the trio’s recordings have morphed between early experimental / noise albums and more recent dream pop / shoegaze efforts like 2010′s Penny Sparkle.  Tickets and information for tonight’s all-ages show with Exitmusic can be found here.  Watch the video for “Not Getting There” from Blonde Redhead below.

XPN welcomes David Johansen to World Cafe Live upstairs tonight.  Johansen is best known as the front-man for influential proto-punk ’70s group New York Dolls but started a solo career in 1978, finding success with a cabaret-style live show behind the stage name Buster Poindexter.  A New York Dolls reunion brought Johansen through Philadelphia in 2006 for an appearance at the XPoNential Music Festival after the two surviving original members (Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain) released One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This in 2005.  Tickets and information for tonight’s all-ages show can be found here.  Watch Johansen cover Arrow’s “Hot Hot Hot” as Buster Poindexter in the video below.

XPN welcomes Rhett Miller to The Abbey Bar in Harrisburg tonight.  Miller built a strong following as leader of Dallas alt-country band Old 97′s while simultaneously expanding his solo career throughout the 90s and into the new millennium.  Last year Miller released his well-received full-length The Dreamer and brought his crowd-pleasing live show to Camden for the XPoNential Music Festival, closing out the Wiggins Park portion of the event with chamber-rock / Americana songs including “Out of Love.”  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show can be found here.  Below, watch Rhett Miller perform “Singular Girl” live at the festival.

Nick Lowe performs Oct. 17 at World Cafe Live

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15
Politely speaking, the radio-friendly electronic pop found on Blonde Redhead‘s recently released Penny Sparkle is far removed from the noisy guitar work the band originally built its reputation on. But, for anyone who has followed the band’s trajectory over the last 15 years—from its Sonic-Youth-esque early years to the stripped-down art-rock of Melody Of Certain Damaged Lessons to 2007′s more commercial 23—it’s a very logical progression. (Of course, whether or not it is a welcome progression is an entirely different question.) It’s unlikely that the once-quintessential New York avant-pop trio is going to re-discover its roots any time soon, which means fans can either embrace the band’s slow-but-steady shift in musical direction, or simply hope to catch a lot of early material tonight. Blonde Redhead performs with Pantha Du Prince and Bloodfeathers at 8:30 p.m. at Electric Factory; tickets to the all ages show are $15-$22.50.

Also playing: Ingrid Michaelson, The Guggenheim Grotto at The Trocadero (8 p.m., all ages, SOLD OUT); Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers, Roy Jay at World Cafe Live (8 p.m., $25-$35)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16
Hey, have we mentioned that Kuf Knotz‘s record-release show is this Saturday night at World Cafe Live? OK, technically, Kuf’s solo debut, BoomBox Logic, doesn’t come out on MAD Dragon Records until October 26th, which makes this more of a “record-pre-release show.” Either way, you can hear new tracks such as “Sunny Philadelphia” and “Soul Music” live (and pick up a copy of the record) during Saturday night’s performance. Kuf Knotz performs with Jawnzap 7, Don McCloskey, and Chalk And The Beige Americans at 10 p.m. at World Cafe Live; tickets to the 21+ show are $13.

Also playing: Ryan Bingham And The Dead Horses, Rustlanders at North Star Bar (10 p.m., 21+, $17); Sounds of Kaleidoscope, The Lovetones, Far-Out Fangtooth at Kung Fu Necktie (7:30 p.m., $8)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17
Sixty-one-year-old English songwriting legend Nick Lowe hasn’t released a proper studio album since 2007′s self-consciously titled At My Age. So you have to wonder what new life lessons the man has learned in the last three years or so. Not that he really needs to earn any more cred with his fans. This is, after all the guy who played bass in Brinsley Schwartz, produced Elvis Costello’s first five albums, and recorded with Johnny Cash (whose stepdaughter he was once married to), among other credits. More importantly, however, is his status as a music-industry-weary-songwriter’s songwriter, a quote factory who has dropped such lines of wisdom as, “When you’re younger you get influenced by people. Nowadays I just steal the stuff. If I hear a good lick I’ll just pinch it.” Indeed, at his age, Nick Lowe can do whatever the hell he wants. Nick Lowe And His Band performs with Geraint Watkins at 7:30 p.m. at World Cafe Live; tickets are $40.50-$50.50.

Also playing: Dead Kennedys, Dirty Tactics at TLA (8 p.m., $15); Agent Orange, McRad, The Flyswatters, Jukebox Zero at Kung Fu Necktie (8 p.m., 21+, $13)