Sonic Pit Weekly: Courtney Barnett, Lemon Twigs, Todd Rundgren, Phoebe Bridgers, Carly Simon and more

Adrian Vandenberg, Vinnie Moore, Marco Mendoza (Jergel’s): Dutch guitarist Adrian Vandenberg revisits his 12 years with Whitesnake on the “My Whitesnake Years” tour, promising “Here I Go Again,” “Still of the Night,” “Judgment Day” and “Fool for Your Loving.” Guitar virtuoso Vinnie Moore and bassist Marco Mendoza join forces for a second set drawing from their work with UFO, Journey and Thin Lizzy, along with solo material.

Wednesday

Courtney Barnett (Roxian Theatre, McKees Rocks): The Australian indie-rocker arrives with “Creature of Habit,” her fifth album and first in five years. It finds her poring over familiar anxieties with her usual mix of deadpan humor, fuzzy hooks and sharp guitar bite. The opener is Zoh Amba, the free-jazz saxophonist who returns to her Tennessee roots on the new “Eyes Full.”

Tu-Ner (City Winery Pittsburgh, Strip): Tu-Ner finds King Crimson veterans Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto with German touch guitarist Markus Reuter of Stick Men. The experimental prog-rock trio is backing the new live album “Rendezvous Rodeo,” featuring improvisations, solo-career material and reworked Crimson pieces such as “The ConstruKction of Light,” “Level Five” and “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part 4.”

Thursday

Zac Brown Band/Old Crow Medicine Show (PPG Paints Arena, Uptown): This a solid pairing of rootsy bands on the country fringes. The ZBB is backing “Love & Fear,” an album that stretches its country-rock formula with guests Dolly Parton, Snoop Dogg and Marcus King. Naturally, “Chicken Fried,” “Toes” and “Knee Deep” remain the main course. Old Crow Medicine Show, the string band that helped turn the unfinished Bob Dylan sketch “Wagon Wheel” into a modern standard, is supporting new album, “Union Made,” released in June with a theme America at 250.

“This is a fascinating time in our short history as a nation,” Ketch Secor said in a statement. “We wanted to meet that moment by collecting a bunch of songs that speak to the joys and potentials, the rights and the wrongs of where we are today, where we’re going, and what can embolden us to have a more perfect union in the future. There are wonderful, ghostly American sounds that only bands steeped in folk music traditions know how to conjure, and it seems like an important time for those voices to be heard.”

Three Dog Night (Timber Rock Amphitheater, Farmington): Between 1969 and 1974, Three Dog Night reeled off 21 consecutive Top 40 hits, putting their own twist on songs from Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Laura Nyro and others. Danny Hutton, one of the band’s three singers, remains at the helm for a set with hits like “One,” “Shambala,” “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” and “Joy to the World.”

Friday

Todd Rundgren (Stage AE, North Shore): The rock legend has spent six decades bouncing between pop craftsman, prog-rock provocateur, soul singer, producer and electronic pioneer. On this run, dubbed the Damned If I Do tour, he gets down to fan favorites, which should include “Hello It’s Me,” “I Saw the Light” and “Can We Still Be Friends.”

“It’s always a challenge for me because my audience is so diverse I never know what they’re in the mood for,” he said in a statement. “I want to make sure we have all the musical ammunition we need to satisfy the spectrum.” Joining Rundgren will be joined by Gil Assayas (keys), Bruce McDaniel (guitar), Prairie Prince (drums), Bobby Strickland (horns), and Kasim Sulton (bass).

Goo Goo Dolls/Neon Trees (The Pavilion at Star Lake): The scruffy Buffalo club band made the leap to polished hit machine with a run that included “Name,” “Slide,” “Black Balloon” and the gargantuan “Iris.” John Rzeznik and Robby Takac are celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Let Love In,” newly expanded and reissued, while also drawing from the recent “Summer Anthem” EP. Neon Trees opens with the bright New Wave bounce of songs like “Animal” and “Everybody Talks,” the latter now a member of Spotify’s billion-stream club.

St. Lucia (Mr. Smalls Theatre, Millvale): The glossy Brooklyn synth-pop project – built around South African-born singer and producer Jean-Philip Grobler and his wife, Patti Beranek – filters ’80s pop through modern indie rock on such bright, danceable songs as “Elevate,” “Dancing on Glass” and “Closer Than This.”

Women in Jazz (South Park Amphitheater): The Women in Jazz Festival brings three distinct voices to the Allegheny County Concert Series. Saxophonist and composer Su Terry leads Jazz de Barro through a mix of Latin rhythms and modern jazz; Pittsburgh native Deanna Witkowski brings her piano trio and the influence of fellow Pittsburgh great Mary Lou Williams; and saxophonist-vocalist Camille Thurman joins drummer Darrell Green’s quartet. The concert is free.

Fruition/Donora (Allegheny RiverTrail Park, Aspinwall): Portland, Ore.’s Fruition started as a busking string band and developed into a full-bodied blend of Americana, soul, folk and rock, powered by three songwriters. The band comes to Aspinwall two weeks ahead of “Something More,” its first album for Bloodshot Records. Pittsburgh indie-pop favorites Donora — siblings Jake and Casey Hanner with bassist Jake Churton — open the free riverfront show.

Saturday

Save Ferris (Crafthouse, Whitehall): Frontwoman Monique Powell will lead the current lineup of this Orange County ska-pop outfit through the 1997 debut “It Means Everything,” which delivered “The World Is New,” “Goodbye” and a horn-charged cover of Dexys Midnight Runners’ “Come on Eileen.” Pittsburgh bands The Sages and Find Ethel open this third-wave ska revival.

Sunday

The Lemon Twigs (Hartwood Acres, Hampton): Brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario were born several decades late, which has worked out beautifully for The Lemon Twigs. The Long Island band filters ’60s and ’70s pop through the Beatles, Beach Boys, Todd Rundgren and Big Star, complete with elaborate harmonies and melodic twists. The new “Look for Your Mind!” continues that mission without sounding like a museum piece.

The Mountain Goats (Mr. Smalls Theatre, Millvale): Few songwriters can turn professional wrestling, heavy metal, ancient history, addiction and crumbling marriages into indie-rock singalongs quite like John Darnielle. The prolific frontman returns with “Days,” a new album about memory and time, launched by the provocatively titled “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds.”

NEW MUSIC FRIDAY

Phoebe Bridgers, “Lost Weekend”: Six years after “Punisher” — and three years after boygenius’ Grammy-winning breakthrough — Phoebe Bridgers returns to solo work with a sprawling third album dedicated to her late father. Co-produced with Ethan Gruska, Tony Berg and Jack Antonoff, “Lost Weekend” places banjo, ambient noise and electronic distortion around songs dealing with grief, dislocation and a broken engagement.

Carly Simon, “Comes in Waves”: At 83, and recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Carly Simon returns with her first album of original songs since 2008. Much of the 12-song collection was written and recorded at her Martha’s Vineyard home with producer David Spencer. Her children Ben and Sally Taylor contribute, along with the late John Forté.

Ann Wilson and Tripsitter, “Consecrated Ground”: The Heart singer follows 2023’s “Another Door” with a second album featuring Tripsitter, the band that supported her recent solo tours. Wilson, who returned to the stage after undergoing cancer treatment, roars through nine songs, including the ominous opener “I Will Not Be Coming Back.”

Pat McAfee, “The Diary of a Polarizing Figure”: The Plum native and ESPN lightning rod adds country singer-songwriter to his crowded résumé. McAfee says the 12-song debut draws on material he has been writing for 20 years as a response to the people who have judged him since childhood. He took those words to Nashville, where country singer ERNEST and a cast of session musicians helped turn them into songs, including the previously released country-rock novelty “Dookie.”

Girl Talk, Michael Christmas and Chris Crack, “Don’t Come to My House Sharing Your Location” EP: Pittsburgh mashup king Gregg Gillis returns to hip-hop production with Boston rapper Michael Christmas and Chicago eccentric Chris Crack. Largely recorded together in Pittsburgh, the six-track EP is as playfully absurd as such titles as “Vending Machine Charcuterie Board,” “Wouldn’t Go to Chili’s With Michael B. Jordan” and “Garfield Hated Mondays but Didn’t Have a Job.” It is Girl Talk’s first full project since the 2022 collaborative album “Full Court Press.”

Icona Pop, “Ritual”: Swedish duo Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt return to the dance floor for an album inspired by friendship, motherhood, divorce and the need to find release in communal celebration. Produced with Sebastian Furrer, “Ritual” includes the emotional club-pop single “Dance to This,” along with collaborations with Tove Lo and Daya. It is the duo’s first album since 2023’s “Club Romantech” and arrives 14 years after “I Love It” became its calling card.

Jon Batiste, “Black Mozart (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 2)”: Jon Batiste continues the piano series he launched with “Beethoven Blues,” this time pulling Mozart into the Black American traditions of jazz, blues, ragtime, stride and stomps. The 10 instrumental improvisations include “Facile-Batiste,” “Alla Blues,” “Alla Turc Movement,” “Twinkle” and “Country Zart.” Rather than treating Mozart as a museum piece, Batiste uses the familiar melodies as starting points for his own rhythmic and melodic excursions.

Jon Batiste, “Monk Meditations (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 3)” and “Monk Movements (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 4)”: “Monk Meditations” explores the space, dissonance and unexpected turns in Monk’s compositions through solo piano, lingering over ideas instead of simply playing the familiar themes straight. It is released alongside “Monk Movements,” which emphasizes the physical, percussive side of Monk’s music.

Judah & The Lion, “I Am a Prism”: The Nashville folk-pop duo stretches beyond banjo-driven stompers on a 12-song album about transformation and accepting the different versions of yourself. “Maybe the Best Is Now” goes for arena-sized alt-pop, while “Miracle” and “Win or Go Home” draw on glossy ’80s rock and “As the Crow” takes a more soulful turn. The title song deliberately connects the album with “Open Your Eyes,” the opening track on 2022’s “Revival.”

KATSEYE, “WILD” EP: The HYBE-Geffen global girl group follows last year’s Grammy-nominated “Beautiful Chaos” with five more tightly packed pop songs. The hyperactive “Pinky Up” leads into “Animal,” co-written by Ed Sheeran and accompanied by a video featuring Demi Moore. “Hootie Frutti,” “Bel Air” and “That Way” complete the standard edition, while the Lara co-written “Unloveu” appears as a physical-edition bonus track.

Laura Veirs, “Temple Songs”: Laura Veirs goes it alone on the most self-contained album of her three-decade career, writing, recording, arranging, producing and playing nearly everything herself. Built around nylon-string guitar, hushed vocals and occasional electric disruption, the 11-song set ranges from the determined hope of “Arc Still Bends” to the sparse punk declaration “No Masters.” A mystery saxophonist breaks the solitude on the experimental “Pulse.”

Maggie Rose, “Half Moon”: Fresh from a Grammy nomination for “No One Gets Out Alive,” Maggie Rose continues her movement from mainstream country toward a warmer mix of Southern soul, Americana and rock. Co-produced by Lawrence Rothman, “Half Moon” opens its next chapter with “Red Shoes,” a Friday-night release valve about getting dressed up, going out and momentarily putting real life aside. Other songs include “Used to It,” “Weekend Lover,” “The Mission” and “The Other Woman.”

Sparks, “Sparks Live on the Moon”: The world’s most straight-faced art-pop pranksters use the moon premise for the first full concert album of their 54-year career, recorded on Earth during the 2025 tour. Its 20 songs run from “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us” and “Beat the Clock” to “When Do I Get to Sing ‘My Way,’” “The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte” and material from “MAD!”

Various Artists, “Sending Hearts to All My Dearies: A Tribute to The Smashing Pumpkins”: Billy Corgan personally approved the title, lifted from “Mayonaise,” although no one actually covers that song. Tame Impala leads the 15-track collection with a dreamy psychedelic spin on “Hummer,” joined by The Midnight doing “Tonight, Tonight,” Alice Glass tackling “Drown” and Between the Buried and Me attacking “Jellybelly.” Oddly, four songs appear twice: “1979,” “Tonight, Tonight,” “Cherub Rock” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.” The digital edition arrives now, with double vinyl following in October