The good Lyfe: Last year, rapper and slam poet Ise Lyfe raised quite a few eyebrows with “Hard In The Paint,” a song about Oscar Grant — the man shot and killed by BART officer Johannes Mehserle — that advocated civil unrest, specifically the throwing of a trash can. “I was just validating the anger people, especially young people, were feeling,” says Lyfe, who splits his time between L.A. and Oakland. “Everybody was screaming, ‘Don’t be angry, trust the system.’ People in the street chilled out, and the ‘system’ a year later said that shooting a handcuffed and unarmed black kid at close range in front of his friends and witnesses is manslaughter.” Lyfe doesn’t plan on addressing the controversial verdict — which he calls “a step towards justice, but not justice” — at his show on Thursday (July 29) at Yoshi’s in San Francisco, but attendees should still expect a hard-hitting, thought-provoking performance by one of local hip-hop’s most respected voices. It’s that outspoken nature that helped him land a spot on Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission. “Being on the commission puts me in a position to make sure that city funding is distributed fairly and considers all the folks of the town,” he says. “Hip-Hop talks about doing it for the people—this enhances my ability to.” On Thursday, Lyfe will be backed by a full band, which should add some extra oomph to the songs from his two albums, the most recent of which is 2008’s Prince Cometh. “We’ve gotten Yoshi’s to agree to allow us to run a multimedia piece on a large screen throughout the set,” says Lyfe. “There are short scenes and clips that coincide with and weave the musical set together. It should be groovy.”

Home-field advantage: John Vanderslice and Thao Nguyen have already given so much to San Francisco’s music scene, and now they’re offering a little more, playing a benefit for The Bay Bridged on Friday (July 23) at the Verdi Club. Regional Bias is the second annual fundraiser for the local nonprofit, whose responsibilities include, among other things, an online publication and curating and promoting shows. “Last year’s event was certainly a trial run for us in terms of combining food, art, and music into one event, and putting on a show at a very atypical venue,” says Christian Cunningham, The Bay Bridged’s cofounder and general manager. “Our first event turned out to be a great success for The Bay Bridged both financially as well as in bridging several local communities together.” In addition to Vanderslice (who’s on The Bay Bridged’s board of advisors) and Nguyen — whose onstage arrangements will be different than usual, with the former playing with a drummer, violinist, and additional singer and the latter being assisted by just drummer Jason Slota — Regional Bias features performances by Man/Miracle and Exray’s as well as DJ sets by Vetiver’s Andy Cabic, Joe Hayes from The Dont’s, and Or, The Whale’s Alex Robins. There’s also photography, paintings, drawings, and more from eight local artists, food presented by Morgan Maki, who runs Bi-Rite’s nonprofit 18 Reasons, and a raffle for tickets to the Treasure Island Music Festival. “Most of our current projects have their funding built into them after several years of working on them,” says Cunningham. “The money raised from this fundraiser will be focused on developing and executing new projects and events that currently have no initial capital to start up.”

California love: Admiral Radley is an indie-rock Minotaur, bringing together the talents of Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch (of the dearly departed Grandaddy) with Earlimart’s Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray. The project started casually five or six years ago, but Lytle says that Admiral Radley has quickly taken on a much more significant role in his life. “I had full intentions of this being nothing but a side project, if even that, but the outside interest of others has made it to where I am spending more time on it. At this point, though, we have no intention of making any more records, but who knows?” As its name implies, the band’s debut album, I Heart California, focuses its attention on the band members’ home state, which the quartet has been traversing over the past couple of weeks (with a few Pacific Northwest dates tossed in). The quirk-pop road show comes to Bottom Of The Hill on Friday (July 23), then heads off the next day toward Grandaddy’s former HQ of Modesto for a show in a barn in nearby Escalon. Yes, you read that right — and the $15 donation includes dinner. “The tour has been going great: lots of laughs, lots of side trips, and a little bit of sociable drinking,” says Lytle. “The barn party was a wild idea that came out of trying to find a fun way to return to the old hometown. Aaron Burtch’s other band [The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit] is going to play, and we’re going to eat barbeque in a field.” After hitting parts of the rest of the country next month, Admiral Radley will hook up with Band Of Horses, whose tour comes to the Greek Theatre on Sept. 24.

Shake a leg: It’s easy to get festive when you’re in North Beach, and this Sunday (July 25) SF Weekly is bumping that feeling up with the inaugural All Shook Down Music Festival. With tons of bands spread out over multiple venues, and a $14 wristband that gets you into all of them, it should be easy to keep the whole family entertained all day, regardless of musical preferences. Headliners on the main stage are out-of-towners Neon Indian and Janelle Monáe, but there are plenty of local offerings to choose from, including the Rondo Brothers at Mojito, Brass Mafia at Grant & Green Saloon, and Birds & Batteries at Maggie McGarry’s. Another homegrown notable is Ty Segall, who will be headlining Columbus Café following sets by Bare Wires, Personal & The Pizzas, and Citay. Segall just released his third big slice of psych-pop, Melted, in as many years. “I think the main difference with this record was taking a lot more time to experiment and record,” says Segall. “We didn’t have a deadline, and we could take as much time as we wanted in the studio because it was in my friend Eric Bauer’s house. It let us get a little more weird than in the past.” For more information about the festival, which includes food, drinks, and other distractions, visit www.sfallshookdown.com.

Five Twitter Picks:

1. In SF Weekly music: The first album for iPad Sammy Hagar is a joke, and thoughts on the All Shook Down music festival. http://bit.ly/bT6C0L about 1 hour ago

2. What to do? Tonight's pick: The Night Marchers and Obits -- wild rock outfits from the members of Drive Like Jehu. http://bit.ly/bLCxVq about 3 hours ago

3. CD review: M.I.A.'s Maya http://bit.ly/b5kh2A about 21 hours ago

4. Say goodbye to SF Oddball and gifted bluesman Jimmy Sweetwater Thursday at "Last Schmaltz" http://bit.ly/cpt6rF 8:38 AM Jul 20th

5. Mission may get New Orleans-style jazz venue/restaurant. http://bit.ly/9XVcwG 2:01 PM Jul 19th

1. Sonny & The Sunsets get the Daytrotter treatment: Read more >

2. A guide to avoiding live suckage: Read more >

3. Clothes don’t make the man, but coffee and cigarettes can make a picture of Tom Waits: Read more >

4. Andy Hummel follows Alex Chilton to the big power-pop reunion in the sky: Read more >

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> THIS WEEKEND

Admiral Radley, Sea of Bees, Built Like Alaska
Fri., July 23, 10:00pm Admiral Radley is an indie-rock Minotaur, bringing together the talents of Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch (of the dearly departed ... Read more >

"Loose Joints"
Every week Friday, 10:00pm For more than two years, the DJ trio of Tom Thump, Damon Bell, and DJ Centipede has offered up Loose Joints, ... Read more >

Off with Their Heads, Static Thought, In Defence
Sat., July 24, 9:00pm Touring in support of their new In Desolation album, melodic Minneapolis punkers Off with Their Heads are ready to surge to ... Read more >

Robyn, Kelis, Dan Black, Far East Movement
Sat., July 24, 7:00pm How long can Robyn remain a secret? Has anyone on the outer limits of pop ever worked so hard to stay ... Read more >

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> PLAN AHEAD

Bear in Heaven, Twin Sister, Beach Fossils
Mon., July 26, 8:00pm The bear has replaced the wolf as indie rock's preferred animal, so it's appropriate that Bear in Heaven is one of ... Read more >

Sly & Robbie and the Taxi Gang, DJ Funklor
Daily from Mon., July 26 until Tue., July 27, 8:00pm Read more >

The Night Marchers, Obits, Moonhearts
Tue., July 27, 9:00pm For once the cliche isn't true: they're NOT getting the band back together. Or, to be more accurate, in the case of ... Read more >

Morcheeba
Wed., July 28, 8:00pm Read more >

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> THIS JUST IN

1. Bob Dylan And His Band and The Dough Rollers at the Fox Theater. Tuesday, Aug. 24, 8 p.m., $67.50, all ages.

2. Mike Posner at The Fillmore. Thursday, Sept. 16, 8 p.m., $30, all ages.

3. Guided By Voices and Times New Viking at the Warfield. Tuesday, Oct. 5, 8 p.m., $32/$34, all ages.

4. Legendary Pink Dots at Café Du Nord. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 19-20, 9:30 p.m., $17/$20, 21+/

More Concert Listings >