Dan DeLuca's Picks: Noel Gallagher, Destroyer, and more

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. These days, always-amusing Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher is more reliable at giving good quotes than at writing great new songs. He recently criticized Jay Z and other owners of the Tidal music-streaming service for their superhero complex ("Do these people think they're the [expletive] Avengers?"). He's got a bunch of good old Beatle-y tunes in his back catalog, though. Wednesday at the Merriam Theater.

Major Lazer and DJ Snake (featuring MØ), "Lean On." Song of the summer contender from the cartoon dance-floor project of former Philadelphia producer Diplo, who dons a Nehru jacket in the faux-Bollywood and surprisingly twerk-free video featuring Danish singer MØ.

Michael Franti & Spearhead/Soul Rebels. Rapper and socially conscious hip-hop jam-band leader (and long-ago front man of the fondly remembered Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy) tops a double bill with one of New Orleans' best and most adventurous young brass bands. Friday at Electric Factory.

Destroyer, "Dream Lover."The first single from Poison Season, the ninth album from Destroyer leader and New Pornographers contributor Dan Bejar shows the Vancouver indie-rocker going off on a surprising mid-'70s Springsteen jag.

"Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock's Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear)," by Jon Fine. A band memoir about Bitch Magnet, a band that never made it big, Your Band is written by a guitarist who can't help letting the bitterness out. OK, he hates Smashing Pumpkins, but also the Pixies? Really? But Fine also captures the thrills of making music that connects with people, the feeling that being in a band "entered you into a conspiracy against the rest of the world." An editor at Inc. Magazine, Fine can really write, too, and that's a big help. (Viking, $27.95).