Live Music Roundup: Wednesday, June 10
Noise for the Needy kicks off tonight. Here is the complete calendar of shows for this five-day benefit extravaganza. 
Telepathe, Nite Jewel, Joey Casio at Chop Suey, 8 p.m., $10
BFF's Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais, aka Telepathe, slip heavy narcotics into their electro pop concoctions, but take care to sip slowly, so that they don't, say, spill the ambiance all over the guitars. Their stuff goes down smooth but leaves you woozy. The Brooklyn duo's video for "So Fine," off their full-length Dance Mother, features the girls bobbing along amid a subdued sea of dancers, the perfect visual complement to a track lifted by the siren's-call vocals but grounded by machine-beat time-keeping. (Bonus: there's a Diplo remix.) There's a darkness to their buoyancy that has faint echoes of The Knife's medieval brooding. But Telepathe is definitely having a lot more fun, even if they don't show off. "Lights Go Down" has an improvisational quality, with the marching drums doing battle with the swirling voices and sound effects, as if Ganges and Livaudais couldn't determine which would dominate. Not that they need to: That's what their narcotic reverie is all about. KEVIN CAPP
Von Iva, Gliss, Sick Of Sarah, Analog Destroyer, Ladies Of The Night at Studio Seven, 7 p.m., $10, all ages
Electro-punk trio Von Iva first gained notoriety in the Bay area for their Suicide Girl pin-up model looks and explosive live performances. They pour whiskey on their fans, gyrate atop speakers, and strut in stilettos, all while playing kick ass dance music influenced by disco, electronica, and punk. The band's 2008 EP Girls on Film sounds like something The Donnas would record, except rawer and sexier. Von Iva frontwoman Jillian Iva trumps her competition when she throatily sings lyrics like, "Reveal your back seat dreams to me/Put your tight skirt on and bend for me." Admittedly, it's hard to distinguish whether Von Iva is a musical or exhibitionist act. Maybe it's both. ERIKA HOBART
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