Music Picks

The 88, Gram Rabbit at the Troubadour

Mmmm . . . gangrenous gloom! (Photo by Brad Miller)

The Neville Brothers and their incredible screaming shirts. Wednesday (Photo by Jay Blakesberg)

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More About

• Bob Marley
• Salif Keita
• Jonny Whiteside
• Hollywood Bowl
• Bunny Wailer

Los Angeles pop chieftains The 88 specialize in tight, brash romps and, as their current CD, Over and Over, demonstrates, they’ve recognized the near-illimitable capacity a fast-spinning, rocked-up ditty can accommodate. The 88’s knack for injecting emotion and nuance into the standard formula has been parlayed, with more and more of their songs turning up on television shows and radio playlists, into a near-full-blown mainstream embrace. Not quite so easily absorbed, yet equally as effective, is the free-thinking, unpredictable sound of rock renegades Gram Rabbit. Fronted by bunny-ear-topped bombshell Jessika Von Rabbit, the Rabbits combine desert-rapture psychedelia with quasi-cosmological philosophy, and, with their second release, Cultivation, the band make clear that there’s quite a bit going inside their kandy-kolored warren. An encouragingly adventurous proposition. (Jonny Whiteside)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17

Silversun Pickups at the Troubadour

On the final date of a nationwide tour celebrating the release of the Carnavas LP, the quartet of vocalist Brian Aubert (also guitars), drummer Christopher Guanlao, keyboardist Joe Lester and bassist Nikki Monninger return with a faintly grittier soundtrack to their meditations on things lost: love, anger, friendship and innocence. While these are well-worn landmarks in the landscape of pop, Silversun Pickups infuse them with a mixture of the tentative and the confident — like an Olympic diver remembering yesterday’s lover’s quarrel before the semifinals, or Robin Hood wondering in battle if the arrow cries as it enters the skin. Between the new album and their 2005 EP, Pikul, the band transcend failure, servitude and prostitution and deliver pop’s rarest jackalope: a chill down the spine that is cool but not cold. (David Cotner)

Bad Dudes at the Smell

Probably named after the best Nintendo game not called Contra, Bad Dudes are literally two-fifths (guitarists Brady Miller and Dan Gerchik) of the defunct Miracle Chosuke. Fans of the band’s predecessor will not be disappointed: Bad Dudes carry on with the same frantic sound Miller and Gerchik played in Chosuke, a sound that’s refreshingly hard to pin down but has roots in the keyboard-loaded styles of Dub Housing–era Pere Ubu, the Screamers, prog rock and the band’s possible penchant for playing regular LPs at 78 rpm. Make sure to pick up the Dudes’ recently released single on Project Infinity records, which features a cover of the Kinks’ “King Kong” arranged in a way Ray Davies never dreamed of. Also on the bill is the primal, idiosyncratic-sounding Veer Right Young Pastor, Hour of the Shipwreck, Flying and Knit Witch. (Ryan Leach)

Thought You’d Wanna Know

Other notable shows this week: FRI., 8/11: BEN HARPER, DAMIAN MARLEY at the Greek . . . SAT., 8/12: FANTASTIC DIAMOND at the Canyon; FIERCE PERM, CAR CLUTCH, WIRE WEREWOLVES at the Smell; FINAL FANTASY, CURTAINS at Little Pedro’s; HARVEY DANGER, LET’S GO SAILING, OOHLAS at Spaceland; L.A. GUNS at Vine St. Lounge . . . SUN., 8/13: GARY JULES at the Troubadour; PRETTY VICIOUS at Little Radio (2 p.m.); THE PANDAS, THE SOFT EXPLOSIONS, PSYCHIC DRIVE, JUNE IN JULY at Spaceland; SECRET SOCIETY OF THE SONIC SIX, I AM LEGION at the Echo (late show); SKEETER TRUCK, KINGSIZEMAYBE at the Echo (early show) . . . MON., 8/14: BJORNTUROQUE at the Key Club; KIND HEARTS & CORONETS, MINUTES ’TIL MIDNIGHT, BROTHERS & SISTERS, MOLECULES at the Echo; THE LITTLE ONES, THE BIRD & THE BEE at Spaceland; THE PANDAS at Safari Sam’s . . . TUES., 8/15: COMETS ON FIRE, INDIAN JEWELRY at the Echo; ALICE COOPER at Grove of Anaheim . . . WED., 8/16: COBRA STARSHIP at the Key Club; DON BOLLES, DJ BRYCE MICHAELS, HARRY MERRY at Little Pedro’s . . . THURS., 8/17: AUGUSTANA at HoB; BAD DUDES at the Smell; GARRISON STARR at the Mint; LUCA at Silverlake Lounge; PAUL KELLY at Largo; NELS CLINE SINGERS at UCLA Hammer Museum.