Our Picks Recommended

Whatever Brains, PC Worship, Manipulation, Logic Problem 

You'll find few better showcases of weirdo loud rock than this midweek blowout. In the last couple years, Raleigh's Whatever Brains have become one of the best loud bands in the Southeast, if not the nation. On their outstanding 2011 self-titled debut, they pair the abrasive distortion and breakneck pace of hardcore with a sneering, dystopian sense of pop, reinforcing their colorful assaults with disjointed synths and pulse-pounding electronic drums. Live, they've become even more slick, speeding through off-the-cuff sets that barely allow a breath.

New York's PC Worship spaces out hard-hitting, psychedelic scuzz into compositions that near 15 minutes. Tones contort and scrape, wresting mind-bending combinations from what should be utter cacophony. Chicago's Manipulation roars through lithe but monstrous hardcore, lashing out with huge, punishing riffs and burly hooks that land body blow after body blow. There's sludge in their distortion, but it never slows their unstoppable momentum. The Charlotte-and-Raleigh-based Logic Problem represents for N.C. punk, stomping through an attack that hinges on riffs as fetching as they are fierce. —Jordan Lawrence