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The Black Angels will play the Annex on Thursday night. -

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Listening to some rock songs is like happily splashing along the surface of a shallow pond. Listening to the Black Angels is like being submerged in a diving bell deep under the ocean.

The Austin, Texas, band's sprawling, ambitious psychedelic rock (as heard on the new "Directions to See A Ghost") album is such an immersive experience that you feel like your toes never touch the bottom. The lyrics on "Ghost" are often despairing, paranoid and apocalyptic: It may be a trip, but it's not necessarily a good one.

The Black Angels will play at the Annex, 1206 Regent St., at 9 p.m. Thursday, June 19. Tickets are $12 at the door, and the Warlocks will open the show.

Singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan seems to believe that a little friction in the band leads to increased creativity. Why else would he bill himself with his new backing band, the Silver State, not as "Matthew Ryan and the Silver State," but "Matthew Ryan vs. the Silver State"?

See who emerges victorious when Ryan plays the High Noon Saloon, 701 E. Washington Ave., at 9:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $12 in advance through www.high-noon.com, $15 at the door, and opening will be Josh Joplin, the wry and tuneful singer-songwriter best known for that "Camera One" song a few years ago.

Nostalgia of the '90s rears its head as Chicago's the Smoking Popes play the High Noon Saloon at 8 p.m. Sunday. The band was an indie rock favorite in the Midwest during the Clinton years, called it quits when the lead singer became a born-again Christian in 1998, and is now back with new members. Tickets are $10 in advance through Mad City Music, B-Side, Exclusive Company or Strictly Discs, or $12 at the door. Opening will be the brilliant indie pop of fellow Chicagoans Frisbie.

Freedy Johnston has an ironclad Madison tie, having been a member of the Know-It-All Boyfriends, a local pickup band that includes several members of Garbage. But the city on Johnston's mind lately is Nashville, where he recorded the covers album "Favorite Waste of Time" and has pushed him to work on his own material.

Johnston will be at the Frequency, 121 W. Main St., at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, playing both a solo and a full band set. Admission is $10. Fellow KIAB member Jay Moran will open the show.

Anyone who thinks rockabilly was a man's racket must not have heard of Wanda Jackson, credited by some as the first female rock 'n' roll singer. Jackson's first big hit dates back to 1960's "Let's Have a Party," but perhaps more impressive is that she's still on the road at the age of 70. She'll be at the High Noon with her band, the Lustre Kings, at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 at the door.

Indie folk-pop group the Cotton Jones Basket Ride started out as a part-time vehicle for Page France frontman Michael Nau but has become his full-time gig. The band will bring its pillowy-soft sounds to Cafe Montmartre, 127 E. Mifflin St., at 8 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $7, and Pale Young Gentlemen will open the show.

Hey, how about that? A singer-songwriter who gets compared to Nick Drake. Don't see that more than once or twice a night on the local music scene. But Sam Amidon is apparently close to the real deal, or so Rolling Stone lead critic David Fricke says. Amidon will bring his hushed and heartfelt tunes to the UW Memorial Union Terrace, 800 Langdon St., for a free show at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19, with Icarus Himself opening.