Thursday, November 17th
Robert Randolph & The Family Band @ World Cafe Live
The virtuosic pedal steel guitarist torchbearer Robert Randolph announced a new album planned for February, this after a detour from his bandleader duties to participate in a supergroup project called The Word in 2015. So far Randolph and The Family Band, stalwarts of gritty down-home funk and blues, have shared a pair of singles from the upcoming “Got Soul” record, and they deliver entirely on the title’s promise.
Doors 7 p.m. / Show 8 p.m. | With You Do You | $30 | All ages
Friday, November 18th
Balance and Composure @ Union Transfer
Doylestown alt-rockers Balance and Composure rebounded cleanly earlier this year. In 2013, the last year the band released new music, Balance and Composure suffered a cruel twist of fate in the form of a pair of jarring car accidents that took place about a week apart on tour. The incidents sidelined the band for almost two years, but they didn’t speak up about it until the release of their new album.
“Light We Made” is more than a welcome back, it’s a welcome update: the emo and pop-punk tendencies are still floating around, but it’s all filtered through noticeably slicker production and even some restrained electronica.
Doors 7:30 p.m. / Show 8:30 p.m. | With Foxing and Mercury Girls | $18-20 | All ages
Jim James @ The Fillmore
“I love playing music with people, but I also just love the art and meditation of being alone and working on stuff,” Jim James, the violinist, guitarist, and principal lyricist behind the Louisville band My Morning Jacket said recently. James’ second album as a soloist benefits from the lack of expectations that might bog down the band, and “Eternally Even” finds him poking around into weirder, more psychedelic spaces than ever before.
Doors 7 p.m. / Show 8 p.m. | With Twin Limb | $31 | All ages
Saturday, November 19th
Uniform @ PhilaMOCA
Ben Greenberg and Michael Berdan are serial bandmembers who happened to live on the same block in Brooklyn. After forming up as the duo Uniform in 2013, the industrial post-punk leaning project released “Perfect World” on the label 12XU. The album is tormentingly distorted and admirably low-budget, made with equipment like “a cheap ‘80s preamp marketed to metal kids.”
Doors 7:30 p.m. / Show 8:30 p.m. | With Void Vision and Westov Temple | $10 | All ages
Matthew Law @ Kung Fu Necktie
Fresh off a tour that brought him to Asia and Australia on behalf of the Korean rapper Keith Ape, one of Philly’s busiest DJs returns home for his monthly dance party duties at Kung Fu Necktie this weekend. The local showcase is rounded out by stalwart emcee The Bul Bey and visiting guest DJ G33k.
Show 10 p.m. | With DJ G33k and The Bul Bey | $5 | 21 and over
Sunday, November 20th
PartyNextDoor & Jeremih @ The Fillmore
Both PartyNextDoor and Jeremih are mainstream R&B outcasts. For their own reasons, they’ve each suffered second fiddle status. After churning out hits for Rihanna and Drake, PND has struggled to turn his songwriting prowess inward for his own stardom.
For his part, Jeremih remains misunderstood and underfunded. Def Jam barely whispered about the release of his masterful 2015 album “Late Nights,” but the label coaxed a rightful hit out of “Oui” nonetheless.
Doors 7 p.m. / Show 8 p.m. | $44 | All ages