The 12 Madison shows we’re most excited about seeing this fall

Michael Ian Black (Sept. 16, Majestic Theatre)
Sketch comedy snark-prince Michael Ian Black may always be best known for trying to figure out why the mailman keeps stuffing tacos into his mailbox on The State or his manically surreal performance with Stella, but he’s also no stranger to stand-up. On Black’s last trip through Madison, he was sharing a headline with fellow The State and Stella member and frequent collaborator Michael Showalter. Black’s name will be alone on the marquee of the Majestic Theatre Sept. 16 for a stop on his Black Is White tour in support of his freshly released stand-up record, Very Famous. While we would be pretty pumped for a Stella reunion with Showalter and David Wain, but this will definitely do.

Dave Attell (Sept. 23-24, Comedy Club On State)
While Dave Attell’s output seems to have screeched to a halt since 2007’s batshit Captain Miserable special, we’ll never forget the alternative-comedy legend’s commentary on Reno, Nevada not having a zoo: “After a couple days of drinking, gambling, and banging hookers, you kind of want to see a panda.” Long after the heyday of Insomniac With Dave Attell in the early-to-mid ’00s, the absurdist raunchball’s mighty delivery can still be heard bleeding through the routines of Marc Maron and Patton Oswalt. In the worst case scenario, Attell will spit some classic gags about anal sex, Amish sex, and animal sex when he swings through the Comedy Club On State Sept. 23-24. Sounds good to us.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (Sept. 26, High Noon Saloon)
The last time Brooklyn, New York dream-poppers The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart came through town, the group charmed the pants off of the crowd with perfectly fuzzed-out recreations of tunes from its self-titled debut, and singer-guitarist Kip Berman got gold stars for being born in Madison and being an enthusiastic Packers fan. This time around Pains has another stellar album, Belong, to rip through, a back catalog that still sounds fantastic, and a champion football team to bond over.

Girls (Sept. 30, Majestic Theatre)
Of all the bands that lit up the blogosphere circa 2009, Girls seemed the most unlikely. After all, the band was led by Christopher Owens, who fled the Children Of God cult as a young man, and the band’s music wasn’t pulling from the same reference points as the rest of the class of 2009: Girls clearly listened to more surf rock than new wave. But Girls’ hype has remained surprisingly durable, running strong all the way until the imminent release of their second full-length, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, an album with great songs that have titles like “Vomit.” You can expect a few things at their show at the Majestic in September: more vintage guitar solos than all of Beatles 1, a lot of flannel, and a former cult member shredding faces with “Hellhole Ratrace.”

Man Or Astro-Man? (Oct. 9, Majestic Theatre)
The mysterious space surf martians in Man Or Astro-Man? disrupted their swirling vortex of album production right around the release of 2000’s A Spectrum Of Infinite Scale. But the band’s supersonic, prolific run in the ’90s banked a light years-deep discography; shiny spacesuits never lose their luster, sci-fi movie samples have an incredible shelf life, and the band’s insanely tight and energetic live show blows brains out (functioning Tesla coil or not). But if the classics aren’t enough for the Madison show, the band recently announced some new songs in the works. So keep your ears peeled.

Dum Dum Girls (Oct. 13, High Noon Saloon)
The timing of the Dum Dum Girls’ Oct. 13 visit to the High Noon Saloon couldn’t be more perfect for Madisonians catching the dreamy songsters for the first time. The Girls have already delivered one solid full-length in last year’s I Will Be, become seasoned veterans of relentless touring, and shown us their more polished future with their jangled and totally awesome A.V. Undercover rendition of Big Star’s “September Gurls” and the He Gets Me High EP. That’s not to mention that Kristin “Dee Dee” Gundred and company will be touring under the powerful Pretenders-tinged rockers of the upcoming Only In Dreams. The upcoming album’s punchier, cleaner production ensures Gundred won’t be serving her gourmet wedding cake voice on the lid of a trash can anymore. (That’s not to say it wasn’t an endearing trash can to begin with, though.)

Primus (Oct. 13, Orpheum Theatre)
A reunited Primus has been plying crowds with warped bass, screeching guitars, and demented hillbilly theatrics for several years now without the benefit of a new album behind it. But when Les Claypool and crew set upon Madison, it’ll be in support of their first album in 11 years, Green Naugahyde, and judging by new songs like “Jilly’s On Smack” and “Green Ranger,” the band will be in fine, grotesque, chilling form.

Smoking Popes (Oct. 15, High Noon Saloon)
It’s tough not to feel that Chicago’s crooniest-of-croon-rockers, Smoking Popes, are on borrowed time. Sure, they just cranked out another consistent power-pop record this year in This Is Only A Test, and the band’s 2005 “reunion” is now an impressive six years strong. (The Popes originally split up in 1999.) But even though the odds of the three Caterer brothers trekking through Madison again in the foreseeable future are better than that of The Police (who should really stay broken up this time), the Popes’ Oct. 15 stop at the High Noon Saloon could always be our last chance to belt along with a live rendition of “Let’s Hear It For Love.”

Boris (Oct. 18, Majestic Theatre)
Even if Tokyo’s ever-prolific doom-metal legends in Boris will be touring behind their dreamiest, poppiest, and (possibly) most un-Boris-y record yet in this year’s Attention Please, we can still pray to the drone gods below that the band’s Oct. 18 stop at the Majestic Theatre will sink to the organ-pretzeling frequencies of 1996’s Absolutego or the band’s 2005 sludge-punk epic, Pink. Besides, who knows when the next time will be for band to bring its drugged-up sonics stateside, let alone to the Isthmus.

Man Man (Oct. 18, High Noon Saloon)
Shambling musical sea vessel Man Man drops anchor in Madison this October, and Halloween couldn’t be more appropriate for the band’s haunting tales of misery and frontman Ryan “Honus Honus” Kattner’s howling-at-the-moon vocals. Even though the band’s newest, Life Fantastic, sounds more optimistic on paper (Kattner calls it an album about “carrying on”), songs like opener “Knuckle Down” pound the ground and shake ghosts out of graves with thumping drums, fast and loose guitars, keys, and horns, as well as the reckless zest for life that makes lying in the gutter not sound so bad.

Das Racist + Danny Brown (Oct. 19, High Noon Saloon)
Despite being far from the omniscient eye of the rap blognoscenti, Madison has hosted a surprising roster of Internet-hot rap talent this year. Freddie Gibbs, Smoke DZA, Big K.R.I.T., Shad, and Yelawolf, among others, have all graced Madison with performances this year, but all of them probably pale in terms of pageviews to Das “The Group Formerly Known As The Group Behind ‘Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell’” Racist, the multicultural New York gonzo rap goofballs responsible for two of 2010’s greatest mix-tape triumphs (Sit Down, Man and Shut Up, Dude) and who are hitting High Noon Saloon in October. Das Racist releases its first official album, Relax, in September, and will be in Madison with Danny Brown—who just released a great free album, XXX—making the show can’t-miss for fans of left-field, bug-eyed, reference-heavy rap. Expect a stage show that teeters between transcendent and a total disaster.

Gang Gang Dance (Oct. 19, Majestic Theatre)
When listening to Gang Gang Dance’s Eye Contact—a worldly, psychedelic mash of new age, new wave, no wave, reggaeton, and ’90s house music that’s powered heavily by synthesizers and other assorted electronics—it’s easy to wonder if the Manhattan, New York quintet’s live show is lit with glowing laptop apples. Well, it isn’t. Instead, the sound is regenerated with a dizzying mess of synthesizers, samplers, heavily affected guitars, bass, and a shitload of drums. With the slanted pulse of drummer Jesse Lee, the frantic multi-tasking of electro-guru and synth-wizard Brian Degraw, and the hypnotic stage presence of dancing vocalist-drummer Lizzie Bougatsos in full effect, GGD will surely get us moving.