Nightlife Agenda Pick of the Week

It's an embarrassment of riches on Sunday night for fans of that increasingly hard to define genre of "indie rock." There are five very worthy shows, so let's give a quick rundown of our three favorites. Full writeups can be found at the link below.

At the Rock and Roll Hotel there's a very solid if a bit sleepy triple bill. Beach House's (listen) gentle electro-folk sounds great on record but was merely very good on that March night; the same could be said for the shuffling indie-folk of Papercuts (listen). Tiny Vipers (listen), is what puts this show over the top. Tiny Vipers's Sub Pop debut, "Hands Across the Void," is one of those quiet, haunting records that draws you into its dark little world. It's not a depressing record, just very spare.

Continuing in the psych-rock vein, there will be a rare appearance by Spectrum (listen) at the Black Cat's backstage. Spectrum is the current (and longtime) project of Pete Kember, who went by the very appropriate stage name Sonic Boom when he founded drone rock pioneers Spacemen 3 in the mid-'80s. Plenty of bands have adopted Spacemen 3's approach of finding that one perfect chord to play at a ridiculously loud volume for about 11 minutes, but nobody has improved upon it.

Moving away from moody and psychedelic sounds, there's J. Roddy Walston and the Business (listen) at Iota. There's no better way to describe the band by simply calling it what it is -- rock-and-roll. It makes you want to drink and dance, which is the whole point, right?

For more Sunday options -- and a selection of weekend events that includes R&B singer Chrisette Michele, the Rock and Roll Hotel's anniversary, a tribute to beer and live rockabilly -- check out the Nightlife Agenda column.