Tales From the Dark Side

Berkeley's Devil in the Woods Records owes its name to an early Gun Club song, according to label founder Michael Cloward, but there are just the faintest echoes of Jeffrey Lee Pierce's booze-soaked bluesy punk in the Devil's catalog, which isn't so much high-octane L.A. as lo-fi Central Valley. Cloward, the former drummer of mid-'80s pop band 28th Day, has overseen 23 releases in the 15 years since he started the label; five of his bands will give us an earful of NorCal at the Devil in the Woods Showcase.

Snowmen, led by Cloward's former 28th Day bandmate Cole Marquis on guitar, have actually drawn Gun Club comparisons, due perhaps to Marquis' taste for subtle distortion and open-tuned guitar work, which swoops and slides through songs, leaving listeners feeling deliciously wobbly. Otherwise, the resemblance is slight: Rather than attack, Snowmen insinuate with the psychedelia-kissed brooding of Last Days of the Central Freeway, which feeds Farfisa into the standard rock mix. Modesto natives Grandaddy extend the road metaphor with Under the Western Freeway, trying to outrun the Pavement comparisons and stopping briefly to remember a bad meal in "Poisoned at Hartsy Thai Food." Fellow Modestans and Noise Pop veterans Fiver, meanwhile, tweak sci-fi B-movie soundtrack elements in their debut Eventually Something Cool Will Happen. Half Film and Seth Tiven open the show at 8 p.m. at the Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell (at Polk), S.F. Admission is $8; call 885-0750. (