Rock Picks: Winifred E. Eye, Stagecoach, Marianne Dissard, Thao

Also playing Tuesday:

Ximena Sariñana

EMI TELEVISA MUSIC

ZOé

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More About

• DITTY BOPS McCabe
• Winifred Eye
• Ximena Sarinana
• Marianne Dissard
• Thao Nguyen

THE PINKER TONES, GEORGE SARAH AND THE STRING TRIO at the Knitting Factory; BOB LOG III, WILLEM MAKER, STEPHEN BROWER & THE SILENT MAJORITY at Spaceland; CASTLEDOOR, PARSON RED HEADS, PRINCETON at the Echo; RAILROAD EARTH at the Roxy; POMPOIR, STAMINA MANTIS, BLESSED GRAVE, BIRTH! at the Smell; ALPHA BLONDY at the Key Club.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29

Franz Nicolay, Moneybrother at Spaceland

The Hold Steady’s got a secret weapon in keyboardist Franz Nicolay, whose retro whorehouse piano rollin’ and way-overenthusiastic background singing (and hair-flinging) give that eclectic nuevo bar band a lot of its fresh artistic chutzpah. The chameleonic, boldly mustachioed Nicolay — also currently coloring World/Inferno Friendship Society and Anti-Social Music — has his own new solo thingie out called Major General (Fistolo Records), a charisma-dripping identity crisis in which the multi-instrumentalist (and very suave individual) makes the best of his time with a cinematically scaled opera of open-heartedly big ballads, wayward Gypsy troubadour tales and hilariously scabrous sermons about the importance of living large in these crampingly caution-strewn times. Nicolay will perform, in a tad less wide-screen mode, the album’s thrilling hodgepodge of howlers; he’s invited Grammy-winning Swedes Moneybrother along, since he could relate to their weird new Scandinavian stew of reggae, disco and roots-rocking thrash. (John Payne)

Thao Nguyen at the Hotel Cafe

Her most recent album came out on Kill Rock Stars, but San Francisco–based Thao Nguyen doesn’t sound like one of the venerable Seattle indie’s noisy love-punk bands: On last year’s We Brave Bee Stings and All, Nguyen convincingly refreshes the sort of strummy, acoustic singer-songwriter music that lately has seemed like the exclusive province of earnest Grey’s Anatomy types, outfitting her tunes with a rhythmic complexity and a textural fleet-footedness that keep you guessing as to what’s coming next. Here she’ll perform with her curiously named backing band, the Get Down Stay Down, whose members Nguyen hooked up with during her days in Virginia. Opener Samantha Crain, from Oklahoma, plays a whimsical brand of melancholy folk-rock distinguished mostly by Crain’s handsomely husky vocals. (Mikael Wood)

Also playing Wednesday:

SO MANY WIZARDS, FURCAST, INTRICATE MACHINES at the Bordello; THE ANSWER at the Troubadour.

THURSDAY, APRIL 30

Sweet at House of Blues

While scoring hits in the ’70s with classic rock staples “Ballroom Blitz,” “Little Willy” and “Fox on the Run,” Sweet never garnered the hip cachet of its British rock brethren. T.Rex and Mott the Hoople were cooler; Queen and ELO were more extravagant, and Bowie was Bowie. Sweet’s glam-pop sound came off, well, a little too sweet — and the name undoubtedly fed bubblegum comparisons. However, listening to Sweet’s new Shout! Factory anthology, Action, isn’t an empty-calorie experience. Besides their well-known singles, the fun-packed double-disc set revives big riff rockers like “Action,” “Teenage Rampage” and “The Lies in Your Eyes,” along with curios like “Alexander Graham Bell” and the Caribbean-flavored “Poppa Joe.” With bassist Steve Priest (immortalized in the “Are you ready, Steve?” line from “Ballroom Blitz”) the only remaining original member, there’s always the question of how, exactly, this incarnation will recreate the Sweet sound (and whether they’ll wear those silly knickers), but, still, it should make for a jolly night of “Wig-Wam Bam” rock & roll. (Michael Berick)

Also playing Thursday:

IAN MCLAGEN & THE BUMP BAND at the Mint; BEN LEE, LOW VS. DIAMOND at the Troubadour; XU XU FANG, DOWNTOWN UNION, THE VOYEURS, VOICES VOICES at the Echo; THE FINCHES, CHEN SANTA MARIA, DAN FRIEL, SOME DARK HOLLER, LUCKY DRAGONS at the Smell; WYE OAK, POMEGRANATES, BUDDY at the Silverlake Lounge; THE BLOOD ARM; SWEATERS, KNOMI at the Bordello.