Grinderman, Daft Punk, Sila & the Afrofunk Experience -- ASD’s Live Music Picks for Friday, July 27

Grinderman, 9 at Slim’s. $26.
“The debut LP from these four Bad Seeds erases all fears about the dreaded “side project”. A raw and blasted, punkily brief and thrillingly abrasive beast, it reveals a very different side to Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos. Gone is the emphasis on formal narrative structure and heightened theatrics, replaced with texture, noise, physicality, atmospherics and dashes of mordant humour. Echoes of Suicide and The Stooges abound, but this is not a bunch of old blokes looking to recapture their youth; rather, Grinderman sounds like a freshly hewn and rudely vigorous chunk of leftfield rock.” -- BBC

Daft Punk, 8 at the Greek Theatre. $48.50.
“Not that the robots have altogether been sent for scrap. 'Robot Rock' is the sound of the Borg laying waste to the dancefloor, a relentless loop of squelchy analog synth and marching cyber girth. 'Steam Machine' is a surging hard house-infused gasp and a bundle of mechanical menace. But elsewhere it's like Daft Punk are trying to tell us something, attempting to send a message via the mainframe to remind us, and themselves, that they're real people. It's a record that continues Daft Punk's probing of the inner workings of 21st-century dance music - a celebration of their pioneering brilliance.” -- NME

Sila & the Afrofunk Experience, 9 at the Independent. $17.
“Funkiest Man in Africa is rooted in the main principles of funk - thick bass lines, one or two guitar riffs (often muted) and syncopated rhythms (think Sly & the Family Stone). By adding Sila's part James Brown/part Swahili vocals, Africanized beats, impeccable horns and indigenous talking drums (thank you percussionist Samba Guisse), Sila & the AFE has created a unque sound: AfroFunk.” -- The Owl