Encore presentation

Swervedriver
Metro; Jun 14 9pm, $20
These perennial shoulda-beens had the misfortune of releasing incredible records under the shadow of similar genre-defining classics. Their shoegazing 1991 debut, Raise, arrived as My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless and Ride’s Nowhere tore minds open; their epic Ejector Seat Reservation hit stores a few months after Radiohead’s The Bends, and their greatest album, Mezcal Head, came in the fresh wake of Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream. D’oh.

Like the Pumpkins, Swervedriver layered massive squalls of jet-engine guitars over dreamy vocals and pummeling drumming. At times the rhythms break into motorik grooves heading for the horizon, as on the (wonderfully) eternal “Never Lose That Feeling.” The only thing that can hold it back now is if My Bloody Valentine reunites…oh, wait, it will, on September 27.

Go or no? Go. This Oxford act always sounded best with a chip on its shoulder. Besides, the Metro promises better blistering acoustics than the sold-out My Bloody Valentine gig at Aragon.

Polvo
Subterranean; Jul 25 9:30pm, $15
These note-benders grew from the same Chapel Hill scene as Superchunk and Archers of Loaf, and with oddly tuned guitars and an addiction to hammering the whammy bar, took critical hits for mimicking Sonic Youth. When singer Ash Bowie and gang hit the studio with Steve Albini disciple Bob Weston for 1996’s Exploded Drawing, their songs got raw, weird and heavy. At times beautiful and beguiling, the band’s unique brand of snake-charming, fencing guitars sadly vanished from indie ax-playing when laptops and Daft Punk stole hearts at the turn of the millennium.

Go or no? Go. The quirky, bending chords of the relatively unknown Polvo sound revolutionary to virgin ears.