Thommy

Putnam Den, Friday

If name-dropping is an art, whoever wrote the bio for Portland, Maine, rapper Thommy is Michaelangelo. But if you could shout out 50 Cent, Tyrese Gibson and the Pussycat Dolls in your promotional blurb, you would. Thommy “Poverty” Abate has quite the life story, having gone from a childhood on the move (and sometimes on the streets) with a drug-addicted mother to a stint as a Hollywood songwriter and actor in the mid-’00s, and eventually returning to Portland, where he again found himself homeless. But his struggles have led to some decent hip-hop: Check out the video for “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” at his website (imthommy.com), which is both a requiem for his lost youth and an excuse for him to have a slo-mo pillow fight with a hot girl. He’ll be joined onstage at Putnam Den by members of Paranoid Social Club. (Nov. 12, 10 PM, $10, 63A Putnam St., Saratoga Springs, 584-8066)

Red Baraat

GE Theater at Proctors, Saturday

It’s all about the rhythm this Saturday night when the GE Theatre at Proctors kicks off its Party Horns NYC series. That’s not a contradiction—the three shows feature New York-based multicultural ensembles known for mixing world rhythms and brash brass. The kickoff party stars Red Baraat, who say they are the “first and only dhol ‘n’ brass band in the USA.” The dhol is a shoulder-slung, North Indian drum; Red Baraat mixes that with a percussionist and a drummer and a whole bunch of horns—even a sousaphone!—to celebrate Indian music in the style of the brass bands of the Punjab region. Their music has been heard on NPR and in The Yes Men Fix the World, and it comes to the Capital Region Saturday night. (Nov. 13, 7:30 PM, $15, 432 State St., Schenectady, 346-6204)

The Abrams Brothers

Mass MoCA, Saturday

Blue on Brown, the third release from Canadian teen folk sensations the Abrams Brothers, is touted as being “one-half Bob Dylan, one-half Arlo Guthrie and one hundred percent the Abrams Brothers.” To which we ask: Did these poor lads get a proper education? If they’ve produced and toured behind three albums, and the oldest member is 18, study must have suffered. Certainly their math skills are weak: Two halves plus one-hundred percent clearly equals two-hundred percent. But you, like us, will give them a pass when you hear these fourth-generation musicians do their thing. Also, it is possible that two halves and one whole might equal one under the metric system. (Nov. 13, 8 PM, $12, 87 Marshall St., North Adams, Mass., 413-662-2111)

The Spampinato Brothers

The Ale House, Sunday

It takes a bold personality to assume a fictitious stage name, but it takes an even bolder one to keep a family name like Spampinato and then tour under it. Joey and Johnny Spampinato wear their name like they wear their Hawaiian shirts though: eccentrically. The project is a good-times offshoot of NRBQ, the classic band Joey co-founded and Johnny joined for latter-day incarnations. Pie in the Sky is their first proper record together, but we’re betting there were plenty of demos recorded back in Ma Spampinato’s basement. (Nov. 14, 8 PM, $20, 680 River St., Troy, 272-9740)

Lotus

Lotus

Northern Lights, Wednesday

The world of livelectronic dance music hasn’t been the same since Lotus first fired up their jet engines once upon a time in Indiana. Refracted through the same prism as the Disco Biscuits and Sound Tribe Sector 9, Lotus have remained committed to live instrumentation (no knob-tweaking), so much so that the band currently sound as much like post-rockers Air, Tortoise and Ratatat as anything you’d file under “jam band.” Oh, and they’ve taken to carting around one of the largest light rigs you’re likely going to find in a club of this size. Brooklyn beatsmith Mux Mool and Great Barrington’s ELECTRONICAnonymous open. (Nov. 17, 9 PM, $20, 1208 Route 146, Clifton Park, 371-0012)

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