Concert Previews

World Cafe Live celebrates its fifth anniversary today with free music throughout the day and night. But here's the tricky part: The merrymaking starts at 10 a.m. in Wilmington at a groundbreaking ceremony at the Queen Theater, which, in a testament to the success of the original in West Philadelphia, will become the next World Cafe Live.

The Delaware soiree will feature WXPN mainstay Jonatha Brooke, New Orleans funkateer Trombone Shorty, and Ben LeRoy. Then, back up I-95 two hours later, Langhorne Slim and Will Hoge team up for an XPN Free at Noon show. After that, there's more freeness with many local luminaries, including Carsie Blanton, Bob Beach, and Mutlu. Philadelphia Latin dance ensemble Alô Brasil performs at 6. And Trombone Shorty, who's a dynamo on stage, closes out the evening with his band Orleans Avenue.

- Dan DeLuca

Their very name broadcasting a lack of mainstream ambition, New York's Anti-Pop Consortium turned hip-hop on its head a decade ago, collaborating with jazz outsiders and recording for the British electronic label Warp. Perhaps best known for the brilliant 2002 swan song,

Arrhythmia

, and the subsequent solo career of member Beans, the quartet has reunited and released

Fluorescent Black

, a 17-track comeback that's willfully all over the place. Earl Blaize's expansive yet uncluttered production remains, and rappers M. Sayyid and High Priest certainly hold their own alongside Beans. In light of so much out-there content, the album's biggest surprises turn out to be flirtations with noisy rock and glossy pop.

- Doug Wallen

It's not easy to categorize Brandi Carlile's genre-straddling music, but it's not hard to zero in on what makes her such a standout talent: that electrifying voice. Last month, the 28-year-old Seattle-area native - whose vocals can rise, fall, and reach the edge of a full-on yodel with disarming intensity - ended up at the top of Paste magazine's "Best Voices in Indie Rock" list. Some purists debate the "indie-rock" label - Carlile has also been categorized as alt-country, folk, and pop, after all - but the honor seems well-earned, especially with her straighter-on rock of the last few years. Her third studio album, the much-anticipated Rick Rubin-produced

Give Up the Ghost

, comes out the day of her Keswick appearance. She and her band (which includes twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth, her longtime musical sidekicks, along with cellist Josh Neumann) are doing a 27-city U.S. trek to showcase songs from the sonically diverse disc. It features a who's who of guest artists, including Indigo Girl Amy Ray, Heartbreaker Benmont Tench, and Carlile's childhood idol, Elton John.

- Nicole Pensiero

Everything about Gossip seems to pop out and fly in the face of all that's calm and orderly. Their bright newest album,

Music for Men

, was mixed so loudly by über producer Rick Rubin that roaring rousers such as "Heavy Cross" and "Pop Goes the World" all but burst your buds. Since their 1999 inception, the post-punk soul trio provide drama and danceability, with albums such as

Movement

and

Standing in the Way of Control

out-howling their well-noted influence Birthday Party with the might of the gods. Even Gossip's ballads seem to careen. A lot of this out-of-control ka-pow comes from singer Beth Ditto. She's a big woman from Arkansas with a big, effortless wail that could blow holes in the ozone layer. And

Music for Men

does all that better and even more brazenly than anything they've done before.

- A.D. Amorosi