In the time it took me to come up with a lede for describing Ylvis’ recent viral smash music video “The Fox,” it had gained another 3,000 views on YouTube. Since its debut on Sept. 3, “The Fox” has been passed around like a burning sensation for the ASU Sun Devils with its campy lyrics, silly video and an undeniably infectious chorus hook that actually has you quietly asking yourself: “What noise does a fox make?”

The song works because it makes the simpleton laugh while the skeptic watches in confusion, and everyone comes together in trying to impersonate the “ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding” chorus. It’s already been dubbed the next “Gangnam Style” (which should technically be taken as a negative description due to Psy’s waning popularity) and the song has reached international fame.

But what does “The Fox” say about our culture’s approach to popularity and entertainment? Why is a silly song about animal noises reaching the top of the Billboard Charts?

Even Ylvis is perplexed. The comedic Norwegian brother duo that created the song did it as a promotion for the third season of their hit talk show, “I kveld med YLVIS,” which translates to “Tonight with Ylvis.”

“To be honest I am quite surprised!” said Bård Ylvisåker (the brother that doesn’t look like Josh Groban) to Mother Jones in a Sept. 5 article. “This song is made for a TV show and is supposed to entertain a few Norwegians for three minutes — and that’s all. It was done just a few days ago and we recently had a screening in our office. About 10 people watched. Nobody laughed.”

The song came to existence through Ylvis’ partnership with the hit Norwegian songwriting team, Stargate, who have previously produced hits such as Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow,” Katy Perry’s “Firework” and Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable.” Predicting what’s going to happen next is a specialty only successful when watching “How I Met Your Mother,” but “The Fox” is showing signs of becoming the next big ridiculous jingle.

With Stargate’s pop music expertise and Ylvis’ moronic lyrics, “The Fox” has become yet another example of America’s unquenchable thirst for vacuous, cheap amusement. With every video click comes the realization that our tolerance for foolish entertainment has demised and we’ll consume just about any type of media from Honey Boo Boo to a film adaptation of the video game Need for Speed. (C’mon Jesse Pinkman!) It’s only fitting that this song has made such a ruckus during the same month Grand Theft Auto released another installment of hypercritical American cultural analysis. When even the song’s creators are dumbfounded to the why behind its success, you know something odd is happening.

But dang, “The Fox’s” chorus chatter is alluring and captures your ears while prompting you to do your best interpretation. Just don’t make a University of Oregon “What Does the Duck Say” remix. “The Fox” is only this year’s model and will soon be reserved for a Buzzfeed “Top Viral Hits of the 2010s” list, but there is something to be said about a video that was watched well over 200,000 times during the time it took me to write this article.

It’s been 24 hours since I witnessed the resurrection of Kanye West and I’m only now able to comprehend what the fuck I experienced. You wouldn’t expect anything except the unexpected from West (or Yeezus to his disciples) and his first show off his first solo tour in five years was quite the return to stage. Joined by the next king of the crop Kendrick Lamar, the show was similar to what, I presume, visiting a post-modern art gallery on some light hallucinogens while going through a religious experience would be like: it was out of this world. West is a mile ahead of anything in any game and he tends to be a force that yanks popular culture and rap forward into the next few yards, but his Seattle performance was more of an excellently awkward push to the sideways rather a blast to the beyond.

The Space Needle glowed and hovered like ET’s spaceship landing outside the Key Arena. The show was an easy two hours late to start due to one of the equipment trucks being stolen but that gave us enough time to guzzle down as much cheap vodka as possible (suck on that Key Arena vendors!) As we eased into the arena, many hundreds of Kanye fans sang along to his verse off of “Niggas in Paris” while it was being blasted by a local radio station booth and the sea of floating faces bobbed along preparing for Yeezus’ upcoming sermon.

My seat was perched on top of the highest section of the arena and this obviously proved to be a setback in terms of getting lost in the woods of the show, though, these two performers have enough power and non-killable vibes to make even seat six of row 15 in section 212 come alive. The stage set up was ridiculous and over the top, a few of Kanye’s personal favorite synonyms. There was a Matterhorn-esk mountain in the back with a gigantic screen stationed above the stage that would flash an assortment of accompanying images and in the middle of the arena was a peninsula stage that was shaped like a spearhead. Beyond making for a great set up, the stage would be a wonderful addition to Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsled ride.

Kendrick Lamar has been the cool boy Q for the past two years and his set was unfortunately too short. Due the late kick off, the I-Heart-Compton enthusiast ran through nine of the best tracks off of good kid, m.A.A.d. city including “Poetic Justice,” “Backseat Freestyle” and “Bitch, Don’t Kill my Vibe.” Staged behind him were three large screens that had short videos of everyday life in Compton esthetically projected onto the screens. First-person scenes of driving around in the back of his infamous mini van and random shots of common scenes in the world’s most lavished ghetto eloquently accompanied Lamar’s set. My biggest poke at his incredible recent record was the part where he bills the album as “a short film by Kendrick Lamar” even though there is no film. But this performance warranted that description and it made his already superb songs snap and rip even harder.

Lamar commanded the stage with his attire of mostly black with a charcoal flannel vest and as he moved about the spearhead setup, he paralleled the protagonist of the Assassin’s Creed video games with his perfectly placed hood blanketed over his head. His infamous “Yack-yack-yack” section off of “Fuckin’ Problems” (“M.A.A.d. City’s”) raised the arena’s atmosphere to new levels but his set lasted roughly 30 minutes before he exited stage right into the shadows.

It was pushing 11:30 p.m. when the lights went out and Yeezus’ presence grew stronger. 12 women dressed in cult-ish white gowns ascended upon the stage and a remixed version of the “Hold My Liquor” melody began to take form in the arena. You first heard his voice, sounding loud as it blared into the microphone sending the audio technicians to frantically equalize the sound levels but then, gracefully, he walked down the stage aisle. West appeared out of the dark sporting outrageous threads and a mask (the first of four style changes for the night) and he sizzled through Yeezus opener “On Sight.” The beginning was a perfect way to begin what would end up being a most incredibly bizarre concert experience.

In terms of songs selected, West played the entire Yeezus and the set list was spliced with classics (“Heard em Say,” “Through the Wire”), the guarantees (“Power,” All of the Lights,” “Stronger”) and the obscures (“Coldest Winter,” “Street Lights”). Before jumping into “Cold,” West played a snippet of Styx’s (Foreigner’s) “Cold as Ice” and somewhere out there GOB Bluth let out a questionable “are you crazy?” During the somewhat aptly titled “I am a God” when the infamous “hurry up with my damn croissants” is yelled, West put the mic out to the audience looking as if he’s been planning that lyric’s success since the moment he wrote it.

The show was elevated from being just a concert to a visceral experience by multiple zany and ludicrous features. The 12 women from the show’s beginning would sporadically reappear in different costumes and would dance exceptionally well with West. At random moments up on the Matterhorn, an unexplained and uncommented monster would appear and hobble around as West did his thing. WTF, Kanye? WTF.

But the most outlandish event of the night came when a white-cloak wearing, beard-faced Jesus appeared on stage and West and the “Son of God” exchanged a few words. West acted like a boy on Christmas around God and the Jesus actor must have been paid in pounds of gold because he’s about to be struck by lighting. This was the craziest moment of the show and I still feel like I walked in on my parents making out. The act was definitely shocking and it added artistic flare, but I personally thought it was too much of a gimmick and West can do stronger.

The first night of the Yeezus tour felt like a requiem for a Kanye. The music was great and the offbeat and religious atmosphere was, for the most part, charming. As the thousands of bewildered fans exited the arena into a fog of occupied cabs and chocolate milk refreshments at the local market, the mood was that of confusion, but also, content. We didn’t know what we just witnessed and one thing for sure; we didn’t know how to feel about it. Spoken comments after the show ranged from “Kanye! You are the fucking shit!” to “Kanye killed my vibe.”

Looking back to the performance a day later, I relate the overall experience to that strong beam of light that followed West as he danced, moved, lay idle, cried and jumped around the stage. The technician who worked the lighting would occasionally struggle to keep up with the frantic West and at moments he was left in the dark on his own stage. Sometimes not even the people working around West know what the hell he’s doing and can’t keep up with the Yeezus but, without a doubt, he is a baffling bash.

The first thing to know about pop rock group Radical Something is that these guys know how to use their music to throw a party.

The California trio is comprised of singer/guitarist Loggy (or commonly known as Alex Lagemann), singer Josh Cocktail (Josh Hallbauer) and multi-instrumentalist/DJ Big Red (Michael Constanzo) and the three blend eloquently in a harmony of upbeat, good vibin’ pop. Radical Something is entering the tail end of its national tour, and the trio sounded glad to be back in Eugene performing at the EMU amphitheater. “We drove 10,000 miles [in this current tour],” said Loggy on stage. “Y’all get to share the last leg of the tour with us!”

This stop in Eugene was in support of Radical Something’s new album “Ride it Out.” The album cover features the three musicians chilling by a blue backdrop wall, but their heads have been digitally removed. Josh Cocktail sees the image as a good symbol to describe the band.

“Let the music speak for itself,” he said. “We feel like we brand ourselves and show our faces with everything, but when it comes to the music it’s the one thing that the music should just speak for itself.”

The group’s influences are all over the place with elements of hip-hop, reggae and rock. Each member brings his own flavor to the tightly woven mix of catchy tunes. Josh Cocktail supplies the backing vocal hooks, while Big Red keeps the vibe grooving with his slick bass line and Loggy raps it all together.

But Radical Something’s performance was more than just the three dudes rallying up the crowd to dance and have fun. The two hour concert was a variety show filled with music, comedy and prizes.

Kicking off the event was DJ Big Red who threw down some DJ mixing and set up a casual lounge vibe throughout the amphitheater.

After his set, Radical Something took the stage, and what began as a feeble gathering transformed into a full-on party with fans singing and clapping along to every song preformed. Radical Something has crafted its shows in such a way that audience interaction is guaranteed and in constant flux. This night, the band entered the crowd and handed out high-fives. DJ Big Red even let a fan hold his mic as he rapped along.

The crowd was highly involved and appeared to love every moment of the show. In the front row, a young buck wearing a colorful bucket hat sang along to each lyric without missing a beat during Radical Something’s recent single, “Ride it Out.” He danced with his left arm in a sling and his right hand in the air, swaying with the music as Radical Something continued their party-funk pillage.

Midway through the performance, Loggy slid off his t-shirt revealing a bro tank and yelled, “Who wants to dance?” Simultaneously, Big Red threw on a pair of sunglasses (it was very dark outside but this act was warranted) and the trio inspired the whole crowd to bounce along to their next track, “Cheap Drink.”

Around this time, Radical Something completed a show ritual and took a photo with the entire audience. Fans huddled around the three performers, sweat and all, and raised their Oregon O’s high.

The group plays songs that would fit well for any college day rage when the sun is out and the keg is nowhere near tapped but, surprisingly enough, this isn’t the trio’s mission.

“…That’s the funny thing is, we don’t look at ourselves at all catering to college. We don’t talk about college parties, we don’t talk about beer pongs and red cups, we have nothing to do with Frats and Sororities in our lyrics … Two of our biggest markets are not college,” said Loggy about their fans. “They’re high school and people that are within the 28 [years old] to 72 [years old] range.”

“It’s definitely 16-28 though,” continues Loggy. “That’s the core fan base and stuff. And they grow with us. That’s the good thing about high school kids: They go to college and spread the music. But we feel like our music…”

“Timeless,” Josh Cocktail quickly inserts.

Radical Something played on until the trio ended the show with a collective, “1-2-3 peace” with the audience, and music shifted from reggae to pop and even dabbled into some heavier dub step. The group’s energy was dancing with the good vibes. It seemed as if no matter the size of the crowd, be it 10 people or a 10,000, Radical Something will get everyone to groove with them.

Negative review by Shawn Rosenthal:

As a kid, I always felt worse when my parents were disappointed in me rather than mad. That’s because disappointment implies expectations. Expectations raise the stakes and make flaws more visible. I expected a ton from Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s new film Don Jon, yet found myself extremely disappointed in the final product.

Here’s the story: Pretty-boy Jon, the Don as his friends call him, has a good life. He has a cool car, a nice apartment, a loving family and brings home a different girl every night. What more could a guy ask for? Oh, and he’s addicted to porn. You can guess where it goes from there. He meets the girl of his dreams and couldn’t be happier with his new life, until she catches him feeding his addiction. From there, the film jumps around trying desperately to find a storyline to cling to but to no avail.

In a good film, every character has a well-developed backstory, the plot flows smoothly and in the end the viewer is left satisfied. None of these things took place in Don Jon. I am a big Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan and don’t get me wrong, there were certainly parts of this film that were well executed. But in the end, Gordon-Levitt was way out of his league in his directorial debut. He was too ambitious for his own good and the film was pretty much over before it even began. I expect great things to come from young Gordon-Levitt. Unfortunately, until then, I’m left with a sour taste in my mouth.

Positive review by Silas Valentino:

Fuck yes, Don Jon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt! Way to make a film that gives perspective to an unspoken topic. Men wank it to porn while delusional romantic films bone women and both meet in the middle of a fantasy called love. In essence, Don Jon is about the after effect of what happens when the mirage of predisposed love influenced by media is melted away by reality.

J.G.L. (who has masterfully found the balance between girls wanting to make out with him and men wanting to play FIFA with him) directed, starred and wrote the screenplay.  His directorial debut is close to flawless. The dialogue is smart, candid and mostly believable (even though the conversation toward the end with Julianne Moore’s character about “losing yourself in someone else” was caught between truthful and corny.)

Gordon-Levitt frames the story through a repetitive structure where the protagonist’s (Jon) life is systematically ordered. His structured life brilliantly signified the real-life usage of pornography. Ask anyone about their porn viewing and you’ll see that the film’s structure was spot on. You frequently watch it with a routine: brush your teeth, read an email, access Redtube, YouJizz, etc. … then go to bed. This is catalyzed by Jon’s narrative and lifestyle about the only things he cares about: his ride, his family, his pad and so on. The film’s structure is creative, avant-garde and adds visual flare to the film.

In terms of cinematography, Don Jon scores a few points but does so without saturating the story. The best usage of film science was the cut scene when Jon is about to cum and then it cuts to him later spraying Windex on his bathroom window signifying ejaculation. That cut was a killer and clever way of portraying Jon’s O-face.

Sometimes, a movie’s trailer will set up the film for a game-winning spike and Don Jon’s trailer did just that. Know up front that the movie may not be exactly what you were expecting, yet that doesn’t mean you can’t squeeze one out of Don Jon.

MGMT is one of those bands that never should have reached the level of popularity that was bestowed upon them. Not because they don’t make good music (quite the contrary actually) but they’re not a pop band that churns out a hit every couple of years. MGMT’s music is a three-course meal that is to be enjoyed in its entirety.

Their third album “MGMT” is no different. It’s roughly 45 minutes of psychedelic pop that sounds crisp and clear, and though the album can be confusing with the first listen, it rewards returning by revealing its subtle beauty.

Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser are the two men behind the keys and odd noises. They met while attending Wesleyan University in Connecticut and by 2008, their singles “Time to Pretend,” Kids” and “Electric Feel” were popping up in moms’ minivans, the stereo of the girl you buy pot from and the trailer for the not-too-bad teen flick “Sex Drive.”

Their massive hit “Time to Pretend” mocks the flashy rock star lifestyle but the irony is that after that song was released, MGMT entered the very world they once lampooned. Instead of a career fated to pretend, MGMT released “Congratulations” in 2010 and, similar to many artists who went for creativity over popularity, they were met with critical disregard. But the music was good and it pushed the band into a direction of digestible psychedelia.

“MGMT” are the sounds of MGMT burrowing deeper down the rabbit hole but they haven’t lost their knack for adding just enough pop elements to keep it listenable. Beginning the album is the lead single “Alien Days,” an acoustic-based track that is layered with synths, a hammering drumbeat and vocals from a young child. Since psychedelic music is always associated with drugs, “Alien Days” is the sound of a trip’s humble beginnings.

It dissolves into “Cool Song No. 2,” a curious song that can flip between creepy and calming at the change of minor key. Set to be the next single, the song’s music video will feature actor Michael K. Williams who masterfully played Omar Little in “The Wire.” (A man’s gotta have a code …)

MGMT mix in a vibrant cover of the long lost Faine Jade’s song, “Introspection,” and it plays like two music nerds paying their respect to an old bottom-of-the-music-crate hero.

Midway through the record is the instantly enjoyable “Your Life is a Lie.” Clocking in at just over the two-minute mark, “Your Life is a Lie” is the closest thing to a recognizable hit on the album. It crashes around like a tsunami of bass drum, guitars and synthesizers but the perfectly placed cowbell snaps in between the lyric bars are what makes the track a standout. (MGMT recently played on Letterman and VanWyngarden’s oversized cowbell is a spectacle.)

The second half of “MGMT” is what requires the most attention to detail, but once you hear the understated melodies, you’ll unlock the door to musical perception.

There’s an incredibly great Youtube video of MGMT in their early days performing a cover of the Talking Head’s “This Must be the Place” on their university’s campus. It shows them as just two dudes with an electric guitar, a few keyboards and a replaying rhythm sample sharing laughs as they try to hit the song’s final note. VanWyngarden and Goldwasser entered the music scene as kids and though they were not met with instant success, they’ve never stopped exploring.

“MGMT” was released today, Sept. 17, and it can be streamed for free with subscription on RDIO.com

WOW Hall was transformed last night from a classic wooden venue to a colorful paracosm filled with flowers, fake grass and layers of sound waves that drenched the crowd. The culprits of this transformation were the chillwave commanders Washed Out, who just kicked off their fall tour in support of their new album, “Paracosm.”

The audience was subdued by a wall of sound that left them stunned in their stance and movement was reserved only for swaying shoulders and the occasional closing of eyes. This tour stop was just a warm-up for Washed Out’s upcoming show tonight in Portland for MusicFest NW but that didn’t limit the hypnotic grooves from putting on a delightful thrill.

The show opener was the New Yorker dream pop project Haerts whose set was a fitting oven preheat for Washed Out. Their buzzy single “Wings” features a funky staccato guitar riff and singer Nini Fabi’s voice sores when she sings, “I’ll melt away in your afterglow.” With their debut album slated for release sometime before the end of the year and an EP out later this month, Haerts are a newly welcomed member of the chillwave scene.

Washed Out’s stage setup looked like a gleaming gazebo nestled in a forest of fake flowers and grass. The not-for-Christmas lights drooping around the stage added another sense of fantasy to Washed Out’s already glowing aural fantasia.

Instead of opting for only playing off their new record, Washed Out incorporated gems of their past with the best of their present. And though their style has changed since the beginning, newer material like “All I Know” bedded well with classics like “Get Up.”

In between songs, singer and chief songwriter Ernest Greene would casually speak to the crowd in a nasally manor, similar to a carnival barker but without the carnie or annoyance.

“This is our first time in Eugene and we’re excited to be here! I don’t know why it’s taken so long,” he said before building into the blissful “New Theory.”

Most song structures had the same formula of starting with a simple sample loop and then exploding with layers of melody and sound. Some played-out as a fitting soundtrack to melting into a beanbag while others had the kind of magic that made you look around the venue at every cute indie girl thinking “what if?”

The crowd was excited and responded to Washed Out’s vibe with matching energy. “Thanks for coming here!” yelled a crowd member before Washed Out continued their sound pillage.

Before the end of show, Greene took the microphone to show gratitude to the audience. “Thanks for watching us,” he said. “We heard school was in session and we weren’t expecting much but you guys really shelled out!”

Though the encore felt a little too planned and expected, it didn’t reduce the power of “Eyes be Closed” and the ballistic light show that flickered insanely during the song’s cathartic build.

When Greene began releasing music under the moniker Washed Out back in 2009, his live shows were limited by his heavy use of sampling.

“My first couple EPs, they were pretty much entirely sample-based. Touring for two year afterwards, it wasn’t so fun because there was much sampling there, that it wasn’t very fun to perform it and it wasn’t very entertaining. And so that was one of the big motivations working on this new record for using more live instrumentation and using more varied instruments,” he said during an interview with The Creators Project.

Inspired by change, Washed Out achieved its goal for revamping their performances. The show dazzled and hummed and the light drizzle of rain outside was a cooling relief that only added to the joyful atmospheric haze.

Currently on the UK’s official single’s chart, Fountains of Wayne’s 2003 ode to the mothers “Stacey’s Mom” is perched at the 88 spot. And in the last week, R. Kelly’s “Ignition Remix” and Yeezus’ “Gold Digger” have reentered the Top 100 chart.

America’s older sibling’s iTunes is a decade behind in some spots, but the culture that gave us The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Boy George is beginning to churn out another comet.

Bastille has been marking up England’s charts for the past year and their success is beginning to seep across the pond. Their debut album “Bad Blood” was released this week armed with the catchy single “Pompeii,” and it sounds as though Bastille is brewing a little storm.

The band’s brainchild is singer and keyboardist Dan Smith who began writing and recording songs while attending university in Leeds, England. Named after the French Independence Day, which is also Smith’s birthday, Bastille came to formation in 2010 after one of Smith’s college roommates persuaded him to enter his music in a contest that eventually won him studio time and his first live gig.

His songs began attracting attention on the Internet and Bastille was signed to Virgin Records who released their debut single “Overjoyed” in 2012. The single was met with little success but Bastille trudged forward and soon found redemption in a little song about the famed Roman city that was destroyed by the Gods, or Mount Vesuvius.

The juicy ear kernels that make “Pompeii” stick like ash are the “Eh-Oh Eh-Oh” chants that line the song. Sounding like a mix between something left on the cutting room floor of The Lion King soundtrack and Florence + the Machine’s anxious younger brother, “Pompeii” is a hit just asking to be placed on an end-of-the-summer 2013 mix.

Swirling around like a plastic bag caught in the wind of an electronic renaissance is the mellow “Flaws.” Aimed to prove that Bastille can show range, “Flaws” gives insight to Smith’s introverted music style and persona. “You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve/ And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground.”

“Pompeii” and “Flaws” shine, but a majority of “Bad Blood” lacks other notable hooks and reasons to return. The record flows as though the highs are short and the doldrums are a little long.

Bastille is the band for the introvert who dreams of mustering the courage to sing into the microphone. The music swoons with emotional release but never amounts to sounding too heavy. The drums pound and the synths jingle while Smith’s lyrics are succumbed by their own tragedy.

While speaking with Rooms Magazine, Smith discussed his way of songwriting. “I don’t really like to make stuff that personal, probably it sounds a lot more personal than it really is. I often use characters from popular culture or history or whatever, as a kind of way to deflect from myself a bit.”

The music ranges from personal to distant while using clever deflective devices, though in the end, Bastille is only singing in the shadows.

Indie kids gotta dance too.

LCD Soundsystem’s retirement leaves the indie dance rock throne unoccupied and both !!! and Ra Ra Riot are two suitable contenders for the spot. Both groups keep the party going and the neighbors awake with driving dance beats, synthesizers and alternative rock melodies. If you want to express yourself in the form of dance and Cowfish’s top 40 radio playlist isn’t cutting it for you, sweat it all out at the WOW Hall on Wednesday night.

!!! have the most versatile and creative ways to pronounce their band name. Pretty much any onomatopoeia phrase of threes work, though “Chk Chk Chk” is the most common. The New York City via Sacramento sextet has been putting out the vibes since the mid 1990s but it wasn’t until their 2003 single, “Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard,” when they began to emerge in the dance scene.

The nine minute epic is a combination of !!!’s humor with a politically-charged agenda: “Here’s a message to you, Rudy and you, Sir Mr. Bloomberg/ And the rest of you ties-too-tight dudes/ Y’all could learn a lesson, by losing inhibitions/ Yeah, losing yourself in the music.” The track is steered by a galvanizing bass groove and it could have easily landed its way on LCD’s now classic album, “Sound of Silver“ and no one could protest.

Formed in 2006, the members of Ra Ra Riot met while attending Syracuse University. The group mixes dance pop with baroque-style string arrangements and singer Wes Miles can flow from a Morrissey croon to an Afro pop jingle a la The Dirty Projectors. When they began, Ra Ra Riot sounded like what would happen if Vampire Weekend’s drummer was allowed to let loose and lead the charge.

Their earlier albums were accompanied by cellist Alexandra Lawn’s sweet compositions but she departed the group in early 2012. Instead of replacing her, Ra Ra Riot moved on and traded baroque for a more heavy electronic pop sound. Their most recent record “Beta Love,” which came out last January, is commandeered by edgier synthesizers and was heavily influenced by science fiction mastermind William Gibson.

Beyond their style of music, !!! and Ra Ra Riot share much more in common. They’re musical refuges living in the city that never sleeps, they owe James Murphy a pony for his colossal influence and both groups have suffered the loss of a member due to a freak accident (!!!’s original drummer Mikel Gius was struck by a vehicle in 2005 and Ra Ra Riot’s founding drummer John Ryan Pike drowned after a show in 2007). Even though both groups experienced tragedy, their love for the marriage between dance and music prevails. With summer’s sun dwindling down, a night out on the dance floor would serve as a crowning cathartic cap for the season.

!!! and Ra Ra Riot play WOW Hall 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4; $15 adv., $18 door.

20 minutes into his set at a Miami club last December, DJ Shadow was asked to stop spinning because his music was “too future” for the crowd and was replaced with a DJ who mixed more popular music. The Trip-Hop king left the stage and tweeted, “I don’t care if I get kicked out of every rich club on the planet. I will never sacrifice my integrity as a DJ … never.”

Since dropping his mesmerizing debut album “Endtroducing …” in 1996, DJ Shadow has been at the forefront of mixing and spinning records. He is regarded as a mash up innovator and his instrumental records have influenced everyone from Radiohead to composer David Axelrod. DJ Shadow is one of the most pure DJs around and his manual way of spinning is both revered and idolized.

Born Josh Davis, DJ Shadow grew up in the cow town of Davis, California where he would sometimes make music with members of Blackalicious and Lyrics Born. He began to release mix tapes through his own label, Soulside, and his recordings started attracting buzz through the digital underground in the early 1990s. “Endtroducing …” was released in the fall of 1996 and it was an immediate benchmark in the DJ atmosphere. His entrancing use of digitally altered drums and smooth samplings of forgotten songs were innovative and fresh. DJ Shadow took listeners through another dimension into a musical fantasia.

The record is almost completely sample-based and each snippet of a song, dialogue or noise creates a colorful mosaic of music. After awing the music community with “Endtroducing…,” DJ Shadow continued to uphold his place as a commander for record mixing. His most recent record, The Less You Know, the Better, released in 2011, had DJ Shadow adding new elements such as loud guitars and record scratching into his stellar mix. His collaboration with Little Dragon, “Scale it Back,” is a piano ballad showered in waves of reverb and electronic programming.

One of the qualities that makes DJ Shadow stand out from other mixing artists are the records he finds, or digs up, to use in his recordings. He’s known for spending full days in the basements of record stores scanning heaps of record stacks looking for that one gem to use in one of his mixes. Cut Chemist, of Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli, refers to DJ Shadow as “the king of digging” in the 2001 documentary Scratch. In 1985, hip-hop producers Steinski and Double Dee released the mash up track “Lesson 3 (History of Hip-Hop).”

Drawing from all over the sound spectrum with Led Zeppelin classic rock, old funk from the Incredible Bongo Band and a John F. Kennedy speech, “Lesson 3” became a milestone in hip-hop production and served as an inspiration for generations to come. DJ Shadow picked up where they left off and furthered the sonic sphere of mixing records. Dedicated to the art and determined to continue exploring the combinations of sounds, DJ Shadow’s Saturday set at Kaleidoscope will be a musical mecca for fans of instrumental hip-hop.

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Even though they’re hollow and vacuous, commercial jingles are a form of art. Their creators approach them with meticulous preparation and there’s something marvelous about the way they can pop into your head throughout the day. Rising stars Capital Cities’ bread and butter are the short melodies that you can’t resist.

Before they were Capital Cities, Sebu Simonian and Ryan Merchant were the masterminds behind Lazy Hooks, an LA-based music production company that made jingles for advertisements. Their experience in perfecting catchy hooks is heard throughout the pair’s debut album, “In a Tidal Wave of Mystery.” Its electro-pop music that is strategically laced with hooks and is a guaranteed earworm that will take up residence inside your head.

Simonian and Merchant met in 2008 through everyone’s favorite virtual place to dump your couch: Craigslist. They began composing and producing jingles through Lazy Hooks and in 2010, they ventured out as Capital Cities. Their 2011 EP featured the song “Safe and Sound” and with that three minute nugget, Capital Cities exploded. The pair was signed to Capitol Records and “In a Tidal Wave of Mystery” was released this past June.

Since radio DJs discovered “Safe and Sound” it has been instigating countless Shazam identifications and has been resting in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 for the past 15 weeks, which certifies it as a 2013 summer jam. What makes “Safe and Sound” an unstoppable hit is their use of horns. Similar to how the hook of “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis rested in the pipes of a Miles Davis love machine, the trumpet is the backbone of “Safe and Sound.” It’s short, sweet and undeniably catchy and it’s no wonder these guys used to write jingles for living.

Besides the contagious hooks, Capital Cities’ music is a mesh of groove-able rhythms and electronic programming. Most of their songs feature upbeat drumming that taps along like a metronome from the disco inferno. Determined not to fall into the one hit wonder black hole, Capital Cities have been pushing their track “Kangaroo Court.” The addictively-catchy chorus hook of “Shut up, shut up, shut up / Sit up, sit up, sit up / It’s a kangaroo court” will leave its mark and come echoing back.

But the better song for continuing Capital Cities’ success is “Farrah Fawcett Hair.” Featuring Frank Tavares (the voice on NPR that says, “Support for NPR comes from …”) and Andre 3000, “Farrah Fawcett Hair” is both goofy and admirable. On January 30, 2013, the band took to its Facebook page to ask fans to send in voice-recorded messages of what they like. The result is a kooky collection of fan-made contributions and it makes for a memorable bridge.

Backed by the massive heat of “Safe and Sound,” Capital Cities’ Friday set at Kaleidoscope will be something of a spectacle. Equipped with heaps of hooks and electro-pop, the show will satisfy anyone who enjoyed the Passion Pit /Matt & Kim show last spring. Capital Cities make the songs that get stuck in your head and sound good.