Magnolia Electric Company, The Winter Blanket
The 7th St. Entry

Tired of waiting for the next Neil Young & Crazy Horse tour? Then do yourself a favor (save a bunch of cash) and check out the modern day indie equivalent, Jason Molina’s band Magnolia Electric Company. Molina used to marry his keening yowl to largely spare and shadowy epics under the recorded guise Songs:Ohia, but this former AC/DC cover band player has more than rediscovered his inner rocker with his new combination of supporting players, going so far as to rename his work in honor of the group and pretty much live on the road with his band for the better part of the last three years. The first properly recorded fruit of this new chapter in Molina’s career, What Comes After the Blues, hit record shelves last month. Although it’s not quite as full throttle as the band’s lightning-in-a-botttle live gigs that’s a minor complaint, particularly since the group posts free bootlegs for download on their website (MagnoliaElectricCo.com). Opening the night is local stalwarts the Winter Blanket who are celebrating the nationwide re-release of their excellent third album Prescription Perils and also gearing up to start recording their next LP in Chicago with renowned producer Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse). This will be a rare full rock band treat from WB, who frequently gig around town as an acoustic duo. If you’ve never caught them as a four-piece, do yourself a favor and get to the Entry early, the group’s creepy harmonizing and minimalist folk dirges are reborn in the fuller context. With Moonmaan. 9 p.m. $8. 21+. 701 First Ave. N., Mpls. 612-338-8388. Rob van Alstyne

Labor Poet Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
BirchBark Books

From North Carolina tobacco fields to Midwest factories—in rusty, rural trailers and on urban streets—Allison Adelle Hedge Coke creates poems of aching muscle and ancient will. This week, Twin Cities Coffee House Press presents her new book “Off-Season City Pipe.” Full of narrative poems, the work draws from Indigenous oral history, juxtaposes sweat-labor and offers resilient hope and unexpected beauty. Hedge Coke’s reading style merges the “music” of Indian chant-prayer with love and anger into anthemic power. The poet unites American working-class experience with her Cherokee heritage in a sinewy lyricism, where exhaustion co-exists with the exultant. 6:30 p.m. Free. 2115 W. 21st St., Mpls. 612-374-4023 CoffeeHouseBooks.org. Lydia Howell

Women with Vision: Amid Chaos
Walker Art Center

The 12th annual Women With Vision film festival is underway at the Walker Art Center. This year’s theme, “Amid Chaos,” examines war, economic injustice and social unrest and features an array of award-winning international features and documentaries. “Down to the Bone,” directed by American Debra Granik, is based on the true story of a young woman in a failing marriage who hides her drug addiction from her two young sons. She spends her life caring for her family and working as a supermarket checkout girl before checking herself into a rehab center. In a well-acted, compelling story, Lebanese director Danielle Arbid presents “In the Battlefields,” a story about family life set in 1983 Beirut. With civil war raging in the background, the real battle ensues inside the family, where a 12-year-old girl, deftly portrayed by Marianne Feghali, struggles with her pregnant mother and gambling addicted father. “Pin Boy,” an Argentinean film directed by Ana Poliak, is the story of a poor, uneducated young man who finds work as a pin boy at a big city bowling alley. There he is regaled by home-spun philosophy from a sage, 20-year pin boy veteran. Through May 21. Various times. $6 - $8. 1750 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls. 612-375-7600. Erica Bouza

Orkestar Bez Ime
The Cedar Cultural Center

Dust off your traditional Balkan tunics, folks, it’s time to dance! Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI), Bulgarian for “orchestra without a name,” has grown into one of the Midwest’s most sought-after international dance bands. Specializing mainly in Balkan music, OBI also presents a broad range of international folk dance interests and uses a mix of folk and modern instruments to stay close to traditional eastern Europe while utilizing their American melting-pot sensibility. Nice Driveway Volume One: Cheers From the Land of the Freeze, the new CD by OBI, which celebrates its release at this gig, is a whirlwind sweep through eastern Europe’s diverse dance music normally found in village taverns, at Balkan wedding dances and in your baba’s kitchen. Bulgarian tunes with dizzying meters nicely balanced with common 4/4s from Israel, Macedonia, Slovakia, Hungary (gypsy), Romania and Armenia nestle alongside original pieces on the album, proving folk music to be alive and well. In true old world form, those old and young can regularly be seen dancing at an OBI dance party alongside hipsters, hippies and folkdance enthusiasts. Na zdrave! With Felonious Bosch. 7:30 p.m.  $12 adv / $15 door, $10 students & seniors. All Ages. 416 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls. 612-338-2674. Aaron Neumann

Sunday Runners
The Fine Line Music Café

Holy Seth Cohen! Yet another “O.C.”-certified pop pleasure (thanks to the slinky beat driven single “Memories Left At Sea”), Sunday Runners are guaranteed to tickle the ears of teen trash TV fans and discerning indie-pop enthusiasts alike. Sunday Runners (essentially Chicagoan Randy Diderrich and whoever feels like playing with him on a given day) make dramatic vocal heavy power-pop that any Alva Star fans in attendance will fall in love with instantly. Equal parts swirly studio pensiveness (“Into Your Head”) and more hard-charging rockitude (“Lip Biter”), Sunday Runners could easily find a comfortable niche on the local scene should Diderrich ever tire of the Windy City. With The Olympic Hopefuls, Leroy Smokes, Kalgren. 8 p.m. $7. 21+. 318 First Ave. N., Mpls. 612-338-8100. van Alstyne

Monade, The Zincs
The 7th St. Entry

Any Stereolab fans in the house (and there must be plenty of you if the definitive indie-lounge-band has enough fans willing to shell out dough for the recently released mini-box set Oscillations From the Sun) will surely jump for joy at the prospect of catching Monade in the intimate confines of the 7th St. Entry. And just who are Monade, you ask? How dare thee, alleged Stereolab fan! Monade is none other than the side-project-cum-suspiciously-pro-sounding-band fronted by Stereolab main mama Laetitia Sadler. They’ve just unleashed their first proper record, appropriately entitled A Few Steps More, as it’s certainly at least a few footfalls further along in terms of ambition and scope than the group’s debut, Socialisme ou Barbarie: The Bedroom Recordings. In the end, however, the Monade apple doesn’t fall too far from the Stereolab tree, sounding like a streamlined version of its parent band. Opening the night are Chicago group the Zincs, a chilled-out anglo rockin’ band fronted by a British ex-pat (James Elkington) who doesn’t try to hide his accent in the least and whatever hot shit players Chi-town has to offer (as it turns out there’s quite a few). Bowie fans take note, your new favorite band is here. 9 p.m. $12. 21+. 701 First Ave. N., Mpls. 612-338-8388. van Alstyne

Willie Wisely
The Nomad World Pub

Willie Wisely may have split town a few years back for the warmer climes and glitzy glamour of Los Angeles, but he’ll always be a hometown boy in the hearts and minds of those who fondly remember the two albums of sly and stately pop he put out here during the ’90s (She and Turbosherbert). Although he’s been kept plenty busy in California working on a slew of assorted projects (plenty of TV and film scoring work, and occasional acting jobs), Wisely still hasn’t turned his back on his pop performance career. Last year saw the release of a semi-greatest hits compilation entitled Go, compiling the best of his two out-of-print albums, and a new album is now in the can and awaiting release. Judging by the three-track sampler his management hooked up for me this boy has still got the goods in spades, a mellow sweetness tucked away at the core of his immaculate popcraft. With Vicious Vicious, Foundry Field Recordings. 9 p.m. $5. 21+. 501 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls. 612-338-6424. van Alstyne

VocalEssense
Orchestra Hall

For the past three years, VocalEssense composer-in-residence Cary John Franklin has worked with high school students from St. Paul Como Park, Minnetonka and Red Wing to create new choral music. “Tomorrow’s Voices” showcases their efforts in a concert that features 150 young singers along with the 120-voice VocalEssense choir. This concert will premier Franklin’s work “Gloria” and showcase Leonard Bernstein’s piece “Chichester Psalms.” 4 p.m. $20 – $35. 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls. 612-371-5656. Nancy Sartor

HIJACK: 3 Short Plays (Dance)
Bryant Lake Bowl

If you missed the new collaboration by choreographers Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder at the Walker Art Center’s grand opening, don’t despair. Bryant Lake Bowl is featuring HIJACK for the next two Mondays in May. Van Loon and Wilder kick off this edgy trio of abstract and political dance pieces, portraying Joey and Dee Dee Ramone in “Eulogy for John Kerry.” Part choreography, part improvisation, the works also include “Natural Dye Natural Death” with Hannah Kramer, Chris Schlichting and Janet Skidmore, and “Try to sit in a non-evocative pose” featuring Sally Rousse and Jessica Cressey. HIJACK is a unique show that delivers a bevy of talent from the Twin Cities dance community, along with live music and special guest performers. 7 p.m. $10 – $12. 810 W. Lake St., Mpls. 612-825-3737. Sartor