Fat Tony, Ratking at Glasslands, June 11, $10
Houston's Fat Tony is one of the smartest, savviest rappers in the underground — Bun B of UGK called him "Houston's Best Kept Secret," and he's aligned with Das Racist's Greedhead crew. Tony works almost exclusively with producer Tom Cruz, and together they craft hooky, goofy anthems that maintain an eye streetwards. His mixtape Double Dragon, released on the nascent Young One records, just dropped and it features Cruz beats comprised solely of "Mortal Kombat" samples. Opening is the on-the-rise New York group Ratking, which contains the rapper Wiki, who raps like a combination of Eminem and Buckshot and is impossibly young. -Drew Millard
Foster The People, Tokyo Police Club, Kimbra at Central Park SummerStage, June 11, $40
"Pumped Up Kicks" is still in our head as well, so you might as well go to this. But make sure to show up early for Tokyo Police Club, who have been slugging it out for a while, gamely taking on opening duties for whomever will have them, reliably turning out fuzzy power-pop that recalls the early days of The Strokes and Weezer. If these guys are miffed that they have to open for a band that was unknown before they released 2010's winning Champ, you won't be able to tell by watching. -Michael Tedder
Scott Lucas and the Married Men, Shelterbelt at Mercury Lounge, June 14 $10
Scott Lucas is the frontman of Local H, a band that never got what they deserved cred wise because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong luck, which is to say playing classic-rock inflected garage-metal at a time when a spree of lackluster Nirvanabees made such a sound unbearable, thus resulting in a few gems getting a bad reputation by association. But Lucas kept pressing on, and his new alt-countryish outfit shows he hasn't lost his knack for sharp hooks and sharper storytelling. -MT
Kool Keith at Brooklyn Bowl, June 14, $12
Mos Def is also playing at the Apollo that night, but if you're wondering if you can foot the bill for the $45 entry fee, Kool Keith is ready to swoop in and save you, because this is the type of thing that Kool Keith does regularly on wax. On the off chance that you've never heard this seemingly ageless, regional wonder (for the record, he's 44 and from New York), imagine a drunk crazy person who was also probably an avant-garde genius, and make this person a rapper. Just a warning, sometimes Kool Keith is kind of erratic, but usually in an entertaining way. This event is part of the Northside Festival, which we will discuss in further detail later. -DM
