FRIDAY

Ex-Galaxie 500 singer-guitarist Dean Wareham continues to create songs that are loose and lazy, infinitely hummable, and full of gorgeous vibrato guitar textures—psych-tinged wanderings that echo this New Zealander’s odyssey in America. Following 1997’s hard-to-dig Pup Tent, Luna has resurfaced with the excellent The Days of Our Nights, on Smiths producer John Porter’s new imprint, Jericho. “Dear Diary,” “Seven Steps to Satan,” and “Math Wiz” are all top-notch, brimming with the stylish hooks that are Luna’s trademark, but were too often missing from Pup Tent. One minute, Wareham is mumbling something inconsequential in his distinctive quaver, the next, he’s leading the band into a soaring chorus or a VU-style headtrip. Sharing tonight’s bill are Welsh folk-rockers Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. These myth weavers might have peaked four years ago with Bwyd Time, an album that was sometimes gorgeous, sometimes full of silly theatrics, but almost always great fun. Their new record, Spanish Dance Troupe, contains both Soft Machine and Pink Floyd-esque folk-prog-rock explorations and a few wacky rock numbers. Sometimes the band’s usual formula for instrumental mirth and mayhem—fiddle combined with folky guitar strumming—doesn’t cast a spell as potent as that of Euros Childs’ evocative vocals, but if you simply loosen your cloak of impenetrability, you’ll surely feel some of the band’s magic. At 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10, at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $12. (202) 393-0930. (John Dugan)