While Broken Social Scene and the Sea and Cake’s Friday, October 8 date at MacEwan Hall might be the marquee performance of the week, it might not be the week’s most memorable. That very night, in fact, Girls Girls Girls — the London, UK iteration, not to be confused with the New York glam-rockers or the Motley Crüe album — perform, and the band gets one thing right: Sailor caps and striped shirts make any situation ten times more entertaining. But beyond its curious couture, it also plays a brand of amped-up gyspy jazz, pairing punk rock urgency with quirky, sing-song sea-shanties — Gogol Bordello fans, take notice. Local garage troublemakers Seven Story Redhead and snotty power-pop up pogo artists The Pine Tarts join ’em at the Palomino.

Next, head to Tubby Dog on Saturday, October 9 to catch rising Edmonton songwriter Ben Disaster. A former member of Edmonton punk act The Dance Floor Disasters, his music channels the energy of his former project while showcasing a newfound sonic breadth. Indeed, the Plan-It X-styled shout-a-longs are still present, but there’s also elements of Brit-pop jangle, prairie twang and acoustic tenderness added for good measure. Alt-country treasure Dylan Thomas and Okotoks balladeer Ghost Factory join him for the ride. Or, for the more dance-party inclined, head to Broken City for the Alberta homecoming of Edmonton transplants DVAS.

But then, if banjo acrobatics are more up your alley, swing by Local 522 to see Jayme Stone, who will be releasing his latest album, Room of Wonders, also on October 9. But if you were thinking this was bluegrass, think again: Stone, who won a Juno for his 2009 effort, Africa to Appalachia, pushes the boundaries of traditional banjo music, inflecting it with jazz sensibilities and infusing global influences that start in West Africa and end in… well, they don’t end, really. The best part? It works.

While Jello Biafra might not be too happy with his former mates in the Dead Kennedys — who have since licensed the legendary hardcore act’s songs to films such as Freddy Got Fingered — that hasn’t stopped him from starting a new venture, The Guantanamo School of Medicine. As eccentric and pissed as ever, catch the former San Fran mayoral candidate and his raging new band — which, like the Kennedys, boasts frenetic surf guitar lines, over-the-top political absurdity and Jello’s signature vocal wobble — at Dickens Pub on Tuesday, October 12.

Biafra aside, the week’s most punishing aural assault might come in the form of Wake, who play Broken City on Thursday, October 14. A down ’n dirty grindcore act prone to explosive bouts of powerviolence, the band is gearing up to melt-faces and implode eardrums on the U.S. West Coast. For its Calgary date, however, it’ll be joined by local experimental metal group Truck! and vicious hardcore act The Asthma Attack, whose Myspace page really, really makes us want to dig out our old Level Plane records. Or my earplugs. Either works, really.