Daily Agenda: July 15

“Cougar den” is a term used by young, Axe-spraying man-sharks to describe a bar full of overeager, alluringly desperate older women. Milwaukee screamo outfit Cougar Den probably wasn’t going for that connotation when it started playing basement shows around town in 2005. Rather, the unruly trio must have intended to equate itself with a roomful of wild cougars, and that description definitely applies. Last year Cougar Den released its debut full-length, Keepondrifter, which was recorded at Howl Street Recordings with Shane Hochstetler. Tonight it plays The Borg Ward with Dallas band Trifle Tower.

Today we’re also recommending … a ska band? Really? Unless you’re a member of The Specials, you probably deserve to have that porkpie hat slapped off your head. But Left Alone—playing tonight at Miramar Theatre—deserves a little slack: For more than 10 years, the California band has taken the predictable Hellcat Records formula of street-punk and ska and, well, made it just as predictable. But the lack of novelty is the band’s strength. 2006’s Dead American Radio, is a shout-along scorcher that’s as raw as Rancid used to be, and leader Elvis Cortez launches some indelibly catchy and even clever songwriting into the disc’s screaming punk vortex. The band is touring behind this year’s Left Alone.