Rock Picks: Spoon, HorrorPops, Wolf Parade

Glen Hansard of The Frames

69 comeback: Stereo Total (Photo by Simgil)

Joan as Police Woman gets ready to pop.

Lingering ghosts: Spoon (Photo by Autumn DeWilde)

Down the rabbit hole with A Fine Frenzy (Photo by Peter Berberian)

Wolf Parade: Is that a bong in your hand, or are you just happy to see me? (Courtesy Sub Pop)

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More About

• Eleni Mandell
• The Frames (Musical Group)
• Henry Fonda
• Glen Hansard
• Wolf Parade

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6

Eleni Mandell, The Frames at the Henry Fonda Theater Eleni Mandell has sung a little bit of everything, showing her down-home cowgirl persona on 2003’s Country for True Lovers and revealing her inner late-night chanteuse on her jazz-inflected 2004 EP, Maybe, Yes. Her new CD, Miracle of Five, contains such trademark idyllic ballads as the delicately rendered “Salt Truck” and more rocking tunes like the intriguing and exotically mesmerizing tale of her missing better half, “My Twin.” Regardless of the genre she dabbles in, all of Mandell’s recordings are distinguished by breathily beguiling vocals and a faintly bohemian attitude that separates her from most mainstream pop singers. She’s an ideal mood-setter for Irish headliners the Frames, whose best songs support Glen Hansard’s soft vocal mumblings (which sound perhaps a bit too much like Cat Stevens) with austere washes of piano and violin. The title track of the Frames’ latest CD, The Cost, swims slowly with restlessly turning guitar chords, while “Falling Slowly” lives up to its title with gentle piano accents. While much of this morose wallowing isn’t always as captivating as Hansard’s recent side project, the Swell Season, there are some moments of quiet grandeur. (Falling James) Also playing Thursday: COMMON at the Wiltern; LUCINDA WILLIAMS at El Rey Theatre; GOO GOO DOLLS at Greek Theatre; SECRETARY BIRD, BEN KWELLER at the Echo, 6:30 p.m.; KATHRYN WILLIAMS at Hotel CafĂ©; SOULIVE at House of Blues; PUNK BUNNY, HAWNAY TROOF at Knitting Factory; BANGKOK FIVE, THE BINGES at Malibu Inn; DOLLYROTS, KILLOLA at Safari Sam’s; JOHN VANDERSLICE, BODIES OF WATER at Troubadour.

Wolf Parade, Montreal’s other white meat, premieres songs from a forthcoming Sub Pop album, their first since 2005’s Apologies to the Queen Mary. They’re miles away from their days opening for fellow citizens Arcade Fire. What took them so long? Devotion — in art, as in anything else — is not a commodity produced on demand or regurgitated by assembly line, despite Internet-fueled lust for the Now and the Wow leaving an impression of never-ending creativity for only pennies a month. Their signature song, “I’ll Believe in Anything,” with its lyric “Give me your eyes/I need sunshine,” is emblematic of their trail-blazing passion plays, a communal-rock sensibility that makes floors of concert halls ripple with the impact of stamped feet and a missing sense traveling like a laser from guitar straight to the goose-bumps they ably and repeatedly summon. (David Cotner)

The Transmissions, Death to Anders, One Trick Pony at Spaceland

You know how once in a while a band starts to play and the song is so enticingly trippy, you just stand there transfixed, forgetting that you have a $5 beer in your hand? That’s what the Transmissions’ “I’ll Run It” can do to you. Delicate, floating guitar notes weaved into a heavy groove make for music you’ll want to spend some quality alone time with. Yeah, it’s all been done before, but lead singer Christian Biel has a urgency and sadness to his voice that will make you want to rub his tortured brow with a cool cloth. Also on the bill: like-minded air-gazers Death to Anders, who kick it with a shot of country, and One Trick Pony, who named themselves after a clichĂ©. The Transmissions also at the Echo, Mon. (Libby Molyneaux)

Also playing Thursday:

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA at Grove of Anaheim; BUILT TO SPILL, CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN at Henry Fonda Theater; MONDO GENERATOR at Alex’s Bar; SARABETH TUCEK, AM at Hotel CafĂ©; WATKINS FAMILY HOUR at Largo; THE BRUNETTES, FERRABY LIONHEART, MEZZANINE OWLS at the Troubadour (see Music feature).