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After 15 years of pursuing other projects, David Bazan returned to his Pedro the Lion moniker to launch a planned five-album autobiographical cycle with 2019’s Phoenix. This year’s third installment, Santa Cruz, chronicles Bazan’s uprooted teenage years, with all the angsts and excitements of youth unfolding in discovering music and himself. Bazan’s songwriting has always teetered precariously over a crippling chasm of doubt with raw and unflinching indie-rock introspection, and Santa Cruz plumbs through growing up with visceral vitality. Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner brings her solo Flock of Dimes to open. – Doug Freeman

Returning from their official album release at the Mother Church of Country Music, Silverada offers a hometown showcase at Waterloo Records for their eponymous debut LP under their new name. The recent Chronicle cover boys’ reputation as one of country’s best live bands somewhat belies their studio accomplishments, though, and the band’s 10th album continues to diversify their sound with more reflective moments pushing their hard backbeat bursts and provocative guitar riffs cutting through classic honky-tonk turns. Still, frontman Mike Harmeier’s songwriting runs heavy across restless roads and wild nights, with big hooks and crowd-howling anthems. – Doug Freeman