Neon Reverb’s dozens of acts at various venues requires plan of attack

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It has everything: bands, burgers and a dude from Limp Bizkit.

The latest installment of the twice-a-year Neon Reverb music festival kicks off on Tuesday and runs through Sept. 16.

Once again, there will be dozens of acts, cookouts, a pool party and lots of bounding from one venue to the next.

You don’t want to miss any of it, but you have to: Some shows run simultaneously.

So, you need to come up with a plan of attack.

To this end, here are five shows, of the many, that you don’t want to miss (full schedule at www.neonreverb.com):

■ Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Tuesday, Bunkhouse: His tunes are caveman primitive and fittingly so, as Ty Segall traces rock ‘n’ roll’s origins back to the days when its brow was thick and its teeth were sharp.

Prolific and impulsive, the singer/guitarist/drummer uses garage rock as a broad umbrella under which roaring psychedelia, fuzzed-out pop and the occasional space rock excursion get sheltered from the shifting winds of modernity.

Just as musically uninhibited as Ty Segall is John Dwyer, singer/guitarist for Thee Oh Seas, who has also performed in a variety of other contexts, ranging from garage rock subverts the Coachwhips to noise fetishizing masochists Burmese to faux German techno troupe Zeigenbock Kopf.

The guy follows his creative muse unquestioningly, even if it leads him off a cliff.

In Thee Oh Sees, Dwyer grounds his artistic fitfulness into scruffed up, dirt-beneath-the-fingernails rock ‘n’ roll nuggets infectious enough to necessitate inoculation afterward.

■ Jjamz, Thursday, Beauty Bar: Z Berg possess a voice so sweet, playful and inviting, it’s as if it was made of gumdrops, kittens, angel tears and crap like that. She’s one of the singers of Jjamz, a group whose collective resume could obscure their tunes if they weren’t careful (the band consists of current and former members of Maroon 5, Phantom Planet, Rilo Kiley and The Like).

Together, they cultivate bright-eyed power pop, breathy electro and lots of swooning from audience members of both sexes.

■ Those Darlins, Friday, Bunkhouse: They’re from Nashville, a city now synonymous with mainstream country lacquered in more polish than a teen girl’s fingernails.

But Those Darlins are the inverse of most current Music City exports, favoring raucousness over refinement.

The all-female trio’s pop informed, slightly rootsy rock ‘n’ roll is purposely frayed around the edges, insistent as the boys forever chasing them around the block.

■ Moonface, Foxygen, Saturday, Beauty Bar: At once melodramatic and clinical, Moonface’s chilly electronics contrast sharply with the warmth of Spencer Krug’s voice.

Ricocheting, new wave-era digital drums and equally anachronistic synth lines form a terse backdrop for Krug’s affected yearning.

(Moonface is the project of Krug, perhaps best known as the singer/keyboardist for Montreal indie rockers Wolf Parade, who are on hiatus.)

Moonface’s Jagjaguwar label mates Foxygen, a pair of 20-somethings who live on opposite coasts, one in New York City and one in Olympia, Wash., come with a decidedly more lived in, visceral howl.

Fond of frenzied horns, hand claps, lo-fi garage rock and ’60s psych folk freakouts, the duo packs their songs to bursting then enthusiastically parade around in the ensuing mess.

Basically, their tunes are like a teen’s messy room: It seems ruled by chaos from afar, but the kid knows where everything’s at, meaning there is an organizing principle buried somewhere beneath it all.

■ Hunx & His Punx, Sunday, Bunkhouse: Think of the Ramones collectively squeezed into a leopard-print thong.

Think of an even more oversexed John Waters armed with a guitar and songs about the Bay City Rollers.

Think of what sounds like a girl group, but fronted by a guy.

OK, enough thinking – when it comes to this bunch, such behavior can only get in the way of the fun.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.