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Don’t forget the Ettes, Friday. (Photo by Jewely Bennett)

Ratatat demonstrate the proper technique for crotch-grabbing while standing on one foot.

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More About

• Jill Cunniff
• Henry Fonda
• Mr. T
• Knitting
• Arts and Crafts

THURSDAY, MARCH 29Jill Cunniff at the Hotel Café

Even hardcore fans of Luscious Jackson, the mid-’90s all-lady Beastie Boys spinoff group, had to be surprised by the appearance last month of a major-label L.J. greatest-hits disc: Though they made a respectable contribution to funky-fresh post-Odelay pop, singer Jill Cunniff and her bandmates never really broke out of the big-city hipster ghetto and connected with the kind of listeners for whom greatest-hits discs were invented. As it happens, the best-of isn’t the only L.J. product in stores right now; Cunniff also just released her solo debut, City Beach, whose mellow folk-hop grooves she brings to the Hotel Café tonight. Brooklyn-based Cunniff says she made the album “to bring the beach to caged-up city dwellers,” and though that’s not a trick in huge demand around these parts, she’s retained enough of her appealing tunecraft to charm even a career surf bum. (Mikael Wood)

Also playing Thursday:

VAGABOND OPERA, FUXEDOS at the Echo (see Hoopla); JJ GREY & MOFRO, CHUCK PROPHET, EVIL BEAVER, THE BINGES at Knitting Factory; WATKINS FAMILY HOUR at Largo; MON COUSIN BELGE, WHITE, BIANCA OBLIVION at Mr. T’s Bowl; MONSTERS ARE WAITING, BROECK, 8mm at Safari Sam’s; BRAZZAVILLE at Temple Bar; YELLOWCARD at the Troubadour.

FRIDAY, MARCH 30TV on the Radio, The Noisettes at Henry Fonda Theater

There’s ample reason why tickets for TV on the Radio’s obscenely sold-out shows are the hottest this city has seen in eons. While the stunning headphone opus Return to Cookie Mountain ruled the Pitchfork Nation (and beyond) in 2006, there are still legions of freshly minted fans who have yet to experience the band live, especially here in L.A., where their only local appearance was a simmering campfire of a show at the Hollywood Bowl opening for Massive Attack (a fruitful match, as TVOTR’s production mastermind David Sitek is producing M.A.’s upcoming album). Their reputation as an incendiary powder keg live precedes them, and rightfully so. The world needs a band like TVOTR — who are equal parts art and heart — now more than ever. U.K. thrash-bashers the Noisettes open, getting down like a multiracial Yeah Yeah Yeahs, with singer Shingai Shoniwa as the black Karen O. Also Sat. (Scott T. Sterling)

The Ettes, Buck, Miss Derringer at Spaceland

Long Gone John, we hardly knew ye — unless you count the past two decades the surly, shaggy Sympathy for the Record Industry anti-mogul spent holed up in his Long Beach cave baiting his enemies and issuing a nonstop hailstorm of lovingly/tastelessly designed records by Roky Erickson, the Gun Club, the Come Ons, Lazy Cowgirls, the Detroit Cobras, Wanda Jackson, the White Stripes and Turbonegro. The subject of a recent documentary (The Treasures of Long Gone John), he’s moving to Olympia and taking his toys with him, saying goodbye tonight with several of his favorite bands, including a reunion of the punk-pop trio Buck, whose leader, Lisa Marr, has stretched out in a more countryish direction in recent years (one of her ballads was recorded by Neko Case). Former Tongue howler Liz McGrath also comes from a punk rock background, but her new group, Miss Derringer, is more subtle than garish, with a stylish rootsy-noir vibe. The Ettes are in many ways the quintessential Sympathy band, with superfuzzy riffs and primal beats contrasted by kittenishly charming vocals. Swoon over ’em while you can — they’re apparently also thinking of relocating. (Falling James)

Jewmongous at the Knitting Factory

Sean Altman is one outrageous schnook. With unhinged songs like “They Tried to Kill Us (We Survived, Let’s Eat)” and “Reuben, the Hook-Nosed Reindeer,” Altman is clearly not averse to taking risks. He also makes some big talk about how his brand of Semitic yocks are part of a new and different breed of Jewish comics like Sarah Silverman and Jon Stewart. But, on closer examination, it seems as if Altman may himself be in a bit of sociocultural denial; he first became enamored with life as a musical performer while working as a busboy in a Catskills resort, the classic locale for Jewish-American humor, and while his punk-rough approach and vividly iconoclastic lyrics place him in an up-to-date arena, he echoes such forebears as Eddie Cantor and Lenny Bruce and upholds the tradition with biting, bitchen acuity. (Jonny Whiteside)

Also playing Friday:

VUSI MAHLASELA at Skirball Cultural Center; JOEY ALTRUDA, SAL CRACHIOLO at the Bordello; THE UNTOUCHABLES at Good Hurt; CARINA ROUND, THE OOHLAS at the Hotel Café; LYRICS BORN, RHETTMATIC at Knitting Factory; JON BRIONat Largo; ASYLUM STREET SPANKERS at Molly Malone’s; DOUBLE NAUGHT SPY CAR, PUTTANESCA at Mr. T’s Bowl; SILVER DAGGERS, DOS at the Smell; ADEM, BEDROOM WALLS at Tangier.

SATURDAY, MARCH 31 Richie Hass benefit with The BellRays, Mike Watt, Adz, Backbiter, Saccharine Trust, Amadans at Safari Sam’s

If you’ve been meaning to check out L.A.’s wild-&-crazy underground music scene for the past few decades but have been too busy to actually get around to it, here’s the perfect chance to catch up in one night, with bite-size, easily digestible 20-minute sets from the most out-there anti-garde bands of the recent future. Never mind that the concert raises funds for myeloma research and honors cancer-stricken multi-instrumentalist Richie Hass (Zoogz Rift, Saccharine Trust, Richie Hass & the Beatniks), playing tonight with Freehead. Forget about it when Mike Watt says that Hass is “probably the top vibraphonist in Southern California” (not to mention the composer of wicked tunes like “Battle Hymn of the Repugnant”). This show is really about you. Without half trying, you’ll encounter two of L.A.’s best punk-instigated hard-rock bands (Backbiter, Adz), free-spazz and outer-spatial specialists (Marc Mylar, Vinny Golia, Freehead), word-besotted jazz-punk sharpshooters (Saccharine Trust, the Amadans), free-ranging desert-landscape impressionists (Fatso Jetson), disparate veteran insurrectionists (Freda Renté, Weba Garretson, Carey Fosse), relentless souljazz funkateers (the Atomic Sherpas), wailing soul-punk avengers (the BellRays) and one of Iggy’s real cool friends (Mike Watt). Crazy, no? (Falling James)