Rhythm has a way of pounding a brain into submission. The intellect wants to think and examine and analyze, but it can be subdued, at times, by rhythm. The repetition of rhythm allows us to stop anticipating the future. The future becomes the next beat and because it's predictable, we relax a bit, knowing (or believing that we know) at least a small piece of the future.

The rhythms of Minneapolis-based Daughters of the Sun create that illusion of knowing what's about to happen, making exhalation possible.

The band's "4am Astral Projector" begins with plucked acoustic guitar circling you and helping you to predict and understand the future of the song. You're quickly, painlessly lulled into its soft, warm neo-psychedelia; guitar patterns float in and out of a drone punctuated by occasional cracks of drum and softly sung onomatopoeia about drifting away. 

Check out the band's MySpace page to hear the tune and three other thrumming bits of breathing out. 

Daughters of the Sun plays at 9 p.m. tonight (Thursday) at the Uptown Bar & Café, 3018 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. Admission is free.

The band also plays at 9 p.m. Friday at the Turf Club, 1601 University Ave., St. Paul. Noise Queen Ant, Red Life, I and Collosus also play.

Will play for instruments
New-timey Twin Cities band Pert Near Sandstone teams up with God Johnson, Down Lo and Pistol Whippin' Party Penguins at 8 p.m. Friday, at First Avenue, 701 First Ave., Minneapolis, for "A Night for Lyndale Elementary."

The show will help nonprofit Vega Productions purchase musical instruments for students at the Minneapolis school.

Check out Pert Near Sandstone's version of the traditional "Crow Black Chicken." It is, for a moment, a slow, hot chug of guitar, fiddle and bass, just before exploding into fast, ferocious bluegrass.

You'll get some more twang from Penguins; their "City Cat" is a pretty funny little lamentation about going to New York City. Listen to it here:

This is a band not taking itself terribly seriously, as their self-deprecating self-description makes plain: "The Pistol Whippin Party Penguins, or PWPP, combine folk, rock, blues, bluegrass, and lackluster comedy to create something so thick you can't scoop it with a shovel."

Advance tickets for the show are $8; $10 at the door.

Upcoming pick
Jonathan Richman is something like a musical version of children's books author Lucy Cousins. When you first come across them, you're likely to ask, "What the hell is this crap?"

In both cases, it's deceptively simple art often made with childlike broad strokes.

Richman's out touring with drummer Tommy Larkin in support of their new album, "Because Her Beauty is Raw and Wild," on Vapor Records. The label's website doesn't offer any samples or insights into what the pair might be up to these days, unfortunately. It does note, however, that Richman "does not participate in the Internet on any level."

Take that.

On the bill with Richman is singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt, who does participate in the Internet. Here's a slew of YouTube videos featuring Chesnutt.

The show is at 8 p.m. Friday at The Cedar, 416 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis. Tickets are $14 in advance, $16 at the door.