Rock Picks

The second coming of Rickie Lee Jones (Photo by Lee Cantelon)

Clinic refuse to quit their day jobs. (Photo By Jason Evans)

Related Content

• Classic Rock Is a Cancer on Our Society
  January 9, 2013
• From Abe to Aliens: Your Weekly Movie To-Do List
  November 8, 2012
• Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Hollywood Bowl - 10/17/12
  October 18, 2012
• The Best Concerts To See in L.A. This Week: Oct. 15-18
  October 15, 2012
• Nakoula Basseley Nakoula Behind Innocence of Muslims? Film Had L.A. Permit, Production
  September 13, 2012

More About

• Rickie Lee Jones
• Mr. T
• Lucifer Sam
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Knitting

THURSDAY, MARCH 1 

Rickie Lee Jones at Henry Fonda Theater The story of Jesus of Nazareth has been told, retold, interpreted and misinterpreted by a legion of true believers, spiritual seekers and even fanatics who deliver salvation with a sword or a gun. Rickie Lee Jones is probably thinking of such zealots on her new album when she declares, “See all those people praying on TV and in the churches/they like to make a big parade out of what they’re doing.” She prefers having a private conversation with God on her new CD, The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard (New West), which was inspired by her producer Lee Cantelon’s book The Word, which recasts the Christ legend in an artier, more personal and less dogmatic fashion. And unlike the sometimes slick mainstream-pop settings of her early work, the best songs on Exposition churn with a raw, acoustic-based radiance, such as “Tried to Be a Man,” where her filtered, hushed vocals simmer over swampy Creedence guitars, evoking the boho vibe of her old pal Tom Waits. Jones sounds just as influenced by another oft-misunderstood Jewish prophet — Lou Reed — on quietly ecstatic tunes like “Nobody Knows My Name.” (Falling James)

Macromantics at the Echo If you think Lady Sovereign is a weak rapper with little to say besides how great she thinks she is, you might prefer Romy Hoffman, a.k.a. Macromantics. The Australian performer is much more intelligent and aware of the world around her, and she’s influenced as much by feminist riot-grrl icons like Bikini Kill, Crass’ Eve Libertine and Lydia Lunch as she is by rap forefathers like Wu Tang Clan, Big Daddy Kane and Nas. On her new Kill Rock Stars CD, Moments in Movement, Miss Macro wastes little time on braggadocio and self-affirmation, preferring instead to “axe and slash the fascist fucks.” She’s joined by guests Ground Components on “Dark Side of Dallas,” where she reveals a surreally poetic side when she chants, “I give you the swarm of apostrophes/who dream in patches of splashes as magic as black is.” She meets her match on the autobiographical statement of purpose “Locksmith,” where she exchanges robotic-voice verses with her male doppelgänger, Sage Francis. DJ Amy scratches up an intriguing brew of magnificent sound effects, although a little more melodic variety would break up Miss Macro’s singsong delivery. (Falling James)

Also playing Thursday:

JOSH RITTER, SUBMARINES at El Rey Theatre; THE KRIS SPECIAL at Mr. T’s Bowl; BAD DUDES, THE MAE SHI, BIPOLAR BEAR at the Smell ; JOSH HADEN at Tangier.

FRIDAY, MARCH 2 Snow Patrol, OK Go, Silversun Pickups at Gibson Amphitheatre

With oodles of cred already in place, Scotland’s Snow Patrol went for the commercial jugular with 2006’s gorgeously produced opus Eyes Open. Propelled by placement in prominent TV shows (sign of the times, eh?), the single “Chasing Cars” swiftly became last year’s default music in malls and dorms across America, but this doesn’t detract from Snow Patrol’s studied, melodramatic craftsmanship and Gary Lightbody’s delicately textured, I-am-singing-this-for-you-and-only-you timbre. Comparisons to Coldplay are simplistic: Snow Patrol have blunted their edges, but they’re still downright jagged next to Chris Martin’s lot. Right now OK Go are better known for their Grammy-winning (and truly inspired) “Here It Goes Again” video than their peppy, Weezeresque sonic shtick. Silversun Pickups are the current toast of Silver Lake scenesters, their shamelessly Smashing Pumpkins–y “Lazy Eye” single — all scribbles of guitar and sensitive-type vocals — both cozy and summery, intimate and escapist. (Paul Rogers) Clinic, Sea Wolf at the Troubadour

“Keep yourself hidden,” Ade Blackburn warns insistently amid the undulating waves of tremolo on “Gideon,” from Clinic’s recent psychedelic séance, Visitations (Domino). He’s not kidding about this secrecy stuff. He shrouds his ambiguous lyrics and tense-yet-spacy vocals in an impenetrable effects-laden wall of gauze, and he is, after all, accompanied by men wearing surgical masks. They could be Sky Saxon & the Seeds under those disguises on such fuzz-drenched garage-rock stompers as “Children of Kellogg” and “The New Seeker,” but Clinic also have a more expansive side, opening up a Can of space-junk echoes and drifting off into the galactic soup on “Paradise” and “Animal/Human.” Despite some retro references, Visitations is a thoroughly modern, creepily beautiful trip, especially on “If You Could Read Your Mind,” which stalks along a sinister “Lucifer Sam”–style riff. L.A.’s Sea Wolf are comparatively mellower as singer-guitarist Alex Brown Church strums gentle tunes like “Middle Distance Runner” and “Black Dirt” from their upcoming Dangerbird Records EP, You’re a Wolf. (Falling James) Sweeter Than the Day at Café Metropol

Composer/pianist/electronic musician Wayne Horvitz is a very, very special case in contemporary American music, a blessedly progressive thinker and tastefully wide-reaching player straddling a peculiarly personal range of genres. You might remember his steaming fusion-funk combo Zony Mash or the avant-prog-jazz-rocking Pigpen, or his earlier work in the N.Y. downtown scene alongside the likes of John Zorn, Carla Bley, Fred Frith, Bill Frisell and Bobby Previte; recent critically praised projects include his improvised-composition chamber ensemble Gravitas Quartet, not forgetting his work with his acclaimed composer/wife, Robin Holcomb. Formed in 1999, the improvisatory Sweeter Than the Day began as the acoustic incarnation of Zony Mash, with Horvitz caressing a gloriously airy yet — typically for him — harmonically serpentine acoustic piano; Timothy Young is the band’s cerebrally soothing guitarist, given a kind of propulsive, buttery interplay by acoustic bassist Keith Lowe and drummer Andy Roth. Also Sat. 923 E. Third St., dwntwn. (213) 613-1513, or www.cafemetropol.com. (John Payne)