Rock Picks: Lee ''Scratch'' Perry, The Swell Season, Maximo Park and More

Wherefore art thou, Chromeo?
(Photo by May Truong)

Maximo Park can’t believe they ate the whole thing.

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More About

• Bob Dylan
• Flosstradamus
• Refugee All Stars
• Marnie Stern
• Malibu

THURSDAY, JULY 26Chromeo, Flosstradamus at the Echo

Montreal electro-funk duo Dave 1 and P-Thugg erupted onto the retro-irony scene with their hit “Needy Girl,” a ditty about Dave’s girlfriend, who always interrupted band practice with her passive-aggressive whining. With their new 12-inch, “Fancy Footwork” (Vice), continuing to prove the pair as “the only successful Arab/Jew partnership since the dawn of human culture,” Dave (the Jew, and brother of DJ A-Trak) and P-Thugg (the Arab) come off like a slightly more suave Zapp & Roger, partly because neither has been involved in a murder-suicide. Flosstradamus, the Chicago DJ duo of Josh “J2K” Young and Curt “Autobot” Cameruci, show that they’re more than meets the eye, cross-fading through genres as quickly as a good drum break and plying their skills at crowd-moving as religiously as ass worship. (David Cotner)

Bob Dylan at Pacific Amphitheatre

“I keep recycling the same old thoughts,” Bob Dylan mutters darkly on his recent CD, Modern Times, but the truth is that he’s in the midst of a creative hitting streak, reinventing himself (again) on his last three studio albums as a blues-steeped wise man coming to terms with the sins of his flesh. It’s fascinating how perspectives change and roles get switched. In the ’60s, he famously declared that he wouldn’t work on Maggie’s farm anymore; on Modern Times he sings, under coiling swarms of vulture slide guitar, “Someday, baby, you ain’t gonna work for me anymore.” Whether he’s announcing himself as the new boss or setting a lover free, Dylan has made himself at home as a temporal soothsayer sermonizing over the sensual, sidewinding bounce of John Lee Hooker–style rhythms. His remake of the traditional song “Rollin’ & Tumblin’?” has much of the seedy eeriness of the Chicken Hawks’ earlier version, but it’s augmented with dourly apocalyptic new lyrics. Martin Scorsese and D.A. Pennebaker tried their best to squeeze Dylan into a perfectly sized ’60s-legend box, but the cantankerous old poet keeps springing back out with new surprises. (Falling James)

The Bangles, Abby Travis at House of Blues

Don’t write off the Bangles as another band in a seemingly endless chain of ’80s performers who have reunited merely for nostalgic purposes. The L.A. pop quartet have been back together for a few years now and still play such old favorites as “Hero Takes a Fall” and “Manic Monday,” but they’ve balanced recent set lists with the catchiest tunes from their underrated 2003 comeback CD, Doll Revolution. “Stealing Rosemary,” “The Rain Song” and “Here Right Now” — with beguiling, band-penned lyrics that are buoyed by those famously sumptuous harmonies — are among the standout performances on the Bangles’ new live DVD, the awkwardly titled Return to Bangleonia. Other highlights include a rocked-up “In Your Room” and “Get the Girl” (which ranks with the Jam’s “Start” and Cheap Trick’s “Taxman, Mr. Thief” among the better homages to the Beatles’ “Taxman”). Besides sitting in with the Bangles in replacement of departed bassist Michael Steele, local wonder gal Abby Travis opens with a set of songs from her 2006 solo CD, Glitter Mouth, which ranges from celestial glam-rock ballads (“Now Was”) to shimmering space-age funk and torchy Brechtian hybrids (“Hunger”). (Falling James)

Also playing Thursday:

THE RAPTURE at the Mayan; BUFFALO TOM, JULIANA HATFIELD at El Rey Theatre; BODIES OF WATER at Pershing Square, 8 p.m.; TEGAN & SARA at Malibu Performing Arts Center; NICE BOYS at Pehrspace; PATRICK PARK, TEMPORARY THING at Spaceland; PORTUGAL THE MAN at Troubadour; BIRGIT at Loggia.

FRIDAY, JULY 27The Husbandsat Alex’s Bar

Whether you’re going to fall slavishly in love with them or cruelly break their hearts, the Husbands don’t want to waste a lot of time with you. Many of the 17 songs on the San Francisco trash-rock trio’s second album, There’s Nothing I’d Like More Than to See You Dead (Swami), clock in at two minutes, except for an “epic” three-minute remake of Roy Orbison’s “Running Scared,” which is given a groovy, echo-laden girl-group makeover. Most of the Husbands’ love songs end up in heartbreak, which inevitably leads to revenge on tracks like “Get Even” and “Make It Right.” This deliciously malicious mood of possessiveness continues on “Tell Me Your Love Is Only Mine,” which struts about on primitive garage-rock riffs while guest star Russell Quan (the Mummies) wails on harmonica. Another stellar visitor, Dan Sartain (who perhaps inspired the pent-up lust of “Sha la la Daniel”), exchanges chilling verses with Husbands singer-guitarist Sarah Reed on Tarheel Slim’s “Much Too Late,” a duet that’s just as eerie as the Detroit Cobras/Greg Cartwright version of Willie Dixon’s “Insane Asylum.” Ballpark organ pumps up the cotton-candy reverie “Just Like That,” a dreamy slice of carny space pop that contrasts the rest of the CD’s cave-woman stompers. Also at the Scene, Sat. (Falling James)

Culver City Dub Collective at Malibu Inn

Exotic rhythm wranglers the Culver City Dub Collective live and die by the beat, and whether it’s a Caribbean voodoo spell, a hard Jamaican reggae spree, in-a-mellow-tone bop soliloquy or a shot of straight-up downtown urban funk, the crazy little bastards work it with everything they’ve got. Born from the at-home jams of drummer Adam Topol and guitarist Franchot Tone (verily, of the movie idol bloodline), the CCDC have blossomed into a tribe that includes such participants as Ben Harper, the mighty Money Mark, venerable Studio One reggae chanter Winston Garrett and dulcet pop groaner Jack Johnson (for whom Topol has been drumming since the turn of the century). The band’s freethinking approach, as captured on their debut disc, Dos, is an engaging roundup of mostly instrumental numbers, all marked by a shared groove-centricism that shimmies down the line in fine, syncopated style. Also at Equator Books, 1103 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice; Sat., 8 p.m. (Jonny Whiteside)