Farms in Trouble’s messy, lo-fi pop invites instant comparisons to early Guided by Voices, though the group is even more free-spirited, pasting together fuzzy song pastiches with an anything-can-be-an-instrument-if-you-turn-it-into-one mentality (they’ve been known to play bottles and bike spokes). In the studio this Milwaukee group, which features members of The Candeliers and The Trusty Knife, records straight to cassette and then adds (sometimes literally) bells and whistles on a computer. In concert, though, they take on a different form, filling the stage with their own miniature indie-pop orchestra (an orchestra that, granted, rarely plays songs that break the two-minute mark).
Farms in Trouble w/ Crappy Dracula, Fahri
Tonight @ The Cactus Club, 10 p.m.