Thursday, June 12

MadiSalsa @ Jazz in the Park, 6:30 p.m.
Although their appearance will do little to satisfy the jazz purists who grumble about the lack of pure, traditional jazz at Jazz in the Park, Madison’s logically named 10-piece ensemble MadiSalsa will certainly please the masses who just want to rumba (or mambo, or merengue, as the case may be). A staple at Latin-themed festivities, especially of the outdoor, summer variety, the group specializes in traditionals from Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, but they also whip up their own Latin-jazz compositions.

Friday, June 13

Heidi Spencer w/ Chris Dorman @ Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 10 p.m.
Rootsy songstress Heidi Spencer’s voice may be one of Riverwest’s most precious resources. Sweet in all the right spots, but counterbalanced by a quivering intensity, Spencer’s vocals hint at Dolly Parton’s, only they seethe with anger, betrayal, sadness and other feel-bad emotions that Parton is reluctant to tap these days. Paired against a hard-strummed acoustic guitar and a sparse, acoustic bass accompaniment, Spencer’s voice sounds especially dreamy.

Dark Side of the Oz @ Times Cinema, 11:50 p.m.
As just about everyone involved with the recording has made clear time and time again, Dark Side of the Moon was never intended to sync up with the 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz—and 1973 studio technology would have made it nearly impossible to pull off even if Pink Floyd had wanted to. Dark Side of the Moon is filled with so many open-ended lyrics and fleeting sounds that it’s easy to see why fans have volunteered the album as the film’s unofficial second soundtrack, but the truth is you can run the album during just about any film—or TV show, sports game, political debate; anything, really—and it’s bound to seemingly sync up at some point. The Times Cinema screens the film with its stoner-approved soundtrack at midnight showings tonight and tomorrow night.

Aimee Mann @ Pabst Theater, 8 p.m.
Still best known for her moody contributions to the Magnolia soundtrack, Aimee Mann is a singer-songwriter in the dignified spirit of late-period Elvis Costello, writing deeply considered songs that never pander with overblown hooks or gimmicks.

The refined nature of her albums accounts for much of her critical acclaim, but it can also make it a bit difficult for them to reach audiences outside of the coffee-shop scene, so for her lively, latest album, @#%&*! Smilers, Mann tossed casual listeners a bone, playing up the easygoing, ’70s- FM poppiness inherent in her songs and fleshing them out with bright, borderline-vaudevillian arrangements that show she picked up a couple of tricks working with producer Jon Brion all those years ago.

Saturday, June 14
Type O Negative w/ Hatebreed, 3 Inches Of Blood and Dirge @ The Rave, 7:30 p.m.
Type O Negative all but invented their own sub-genre of metal—goth metal—by fusing the charcoaled riffs of Black Sabbath with the graveyard grumble of Sisters of Mercy. The band was never above cheap shocks or blatant publicity efforts—they named their second album The Origin of Feces, and initially placed a photograph of an anus on its cover; and in the mid-’90s frontman Peter Steele posed naked for Playgirl magazine—but they were always more fascinating than many of their peers, in part because their obsession with death and mortality felt grounded more in real human insecurities than overplayed genre conventions. Last year’s Dead Again, which reflected longtime atheist Steele’s unlikely conversion to Catholicism, was the band’s highestcharting album yet.

Juniper Tar w/ Sleep Tight Co. and The Broken Letters @ Cactus Club, 10 p.m.
Without the superfluous twang that bogs down so many alt-country bands, Juniper Tar writes mellowed-out, lived-in Americana songs in the spirit of Neil Young’s most cherished records. On their winning new album, To The Trees, reassuring melodies and lovely multi-part vocal harmonies give way to winding, indie-rock left turns and heated exchanges between dueling guitars. Milwaukee’s heavenly indie-pop ensemble Sleep Tight Co. and Birmingham, Ala.’s, Southern-rock duo The Broken Letters open for their show tonight.