Rock Picks: The Kooks, Super Furry Animals, Willie Nelson and more

Also playing Sunday:

KID CONGO POWERS at the Echo; OLIVER FUTURE, ANGIE MATTSON at the Hotel Cafe; KILLSONIC, VINNY GOLIA QUINTET at Mr. T's Bowl; ELECTROCUTE, LADY TIGRA at Spaceland.

Forever and a day: Willie Nelson

William Landers

Dead Moon rising: Pierced Arrows' Fred Cole

Related Content

• The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend
  April 5, 2013
• Music Picks: Charli XCX, Polica, Esperanza Spalding and More
  August 16, 2012
• The Best Concerts to See In L.A. This Week
  April 1, 2013
• The Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend
  January 18, 2013
• Can Holy Fuck Become a Stand-Up Comedy Empire? It's Starting With a Punk-Inspired Album
  January 21, 2013

More About

• Evenings McCabe
• Jennifer O'Connor
• George Clinton
• Aretha Franklin
• Nokia Theatre

MONDAY, FEB. 11

Playing Monday:

MIKA at the Wiltern; SMASH FASHION at Crash Mansion; HENRY CLAY PEOPLE, RADARS TO THE SKY, THE MONOLATORS at the Echo; METAL SKOOL at Key Club; RHETT MILLER, WATSON TWINS at Largo; COLIN GILMORE at the Mint; PITY PARTY, KARIN TATOYAN at Spaceland.

TUESDAY, FEB. 12

A Slow, Sad Dance Party at La Cita

Love. Puh. Only leads to misery, the proof being the tightly wound faces of the so-called "lovebirds" who inhabit restaurants this week. They sit in pairs donning their finest threads and spend way too much money on flowers, dinner and wine, and when it's all over, they return home to have guilt sex. Lovers: Fuck 'em. For the past four years, the remarkable Dublab crew has been throwing their Give Up party as a remedy to all the googly-eyed and bonered citizens of L.A., dropping teary-eyed weepers and slow-dance classics for the unlovable, ornery and pathetic. For this installment, they team up with the estimable Part Time Punks posse and their Sad, Slow Dance Party to present a special Valentine's Day tag team. Expect some Nina Simone weepers, Horace Andy's heartbreaking falsetto, maybe some Cat Power or Brigitte Fontaine spun by a mix of Dublabbers and Punkers, including Ale, BennyShambles, Frosty, J. Mendez, Michael Stock and Jimmy Tamborello. Give Up meets a Sad, Slow Dance Party, 336 S. Hill St., dwntwn.; 9 p.m.; no cover. (Randall Roberts)

Also playing Tuesday:

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT at the Wiltern; DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS, FELICE BROTHERS at Avalon; COMMON at House of Blues; MOISTBOYZ at the Troubadour.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 13

Willie Nelson at Nokia Theatre

Maybe it's the ongoing result of Willie Nelson having to pay the IRS for back taxes, but the Austin singer-guitarist has been seemingly more prolific than ever, releasing at least eight full-length albums since 2004. His new CD, Moment of Forever (Lost Highway), is an assortment of country and folk tunes largely written by other people, including Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody." He duets with Kenny Chesney on the amiable drinking tune "Worry B Gone" and turns somber and contemplative on Kris Kristofferson's title track. Nelson confronts his mortality with the chilling rock song "Gravedigger," crooning with that warm, weather-beaten voice, "Gravedigger, when you dig my grave/Could you make it shallow/So I can feel the rain?" He was just as appealing on 2006's You Don't Know Me, where he covered songs by the late Cindy Walker, and the appropriately titled Last of the Breed, a double-CD set where he duetted with Merle Haggard and Ray Price. His 2005 album Countryman was a surprisingly successful experiment with reggae, and the legendary songwriter showed that he still knows how to write an affecting ballad with "Back to Earth," from Songbird,his 2006 collaboration with Ryan Adams. (Falling James)

Also playing Wednesday:

UMPHREY'S McGEE, DUB TRIO at Crash Mansion; FINLAND STATION at 14 Below; STYX at House of Blues; THE DUHKS at Knitting Factory; ANDRE WILLIAMS & THE FLASH EXPRESS at Spaceland.

THURSDAY, FEB. 14

The Black Lips, Pierced Arrows at El Rey Theatre

Atlanta's stage-shredding terrors the Black Lips have perfected an imperfectly raw, shambling garage-rock sound that's often just as primally driving as their '60s influences the Seeds and the 13th Floor Elevators. "O Katrina," from their 2007 CD, Good Bad Not Evil (Vice), is certainly the crudest, hardest-rocking and least-contemplative song yet about the disaster in New Orleans, and it's pretty damn catchy too. Another cool thing about the Lips is the way they've championed the Oregon trio Pierced Arrows, gazing worshipfully by the side of the stage when the latter made their local debut last October. Pierced Arrows have a direct connection to the '60s: Fred Cole, who howled the garage-rock nugget "You Must Be a Witch" in 1968 with the Lollipop Shoppe and later fronted the beloved '80s underground band Dead Moon with his bassist-wife, Toody Cole. The Coles' new project, Pierced Arrows, has much of Dead Moon's snarling savagery on their debut 7-inch single, contrasting the scabrous wailing and dirty AC/DC riffs of Fred's "In My Brain" with the fuzz-pop charms of "Caroline," which burns with a "Jolene"-style restlessness under Fred's jangle-mangling guitar as Toody sings about a long-lost mystic teenage muse. Classic stuff. (Falling James)

Aretha Franklin at Nokia Theatre

There are divas, and then there's Aretha Franklin. The Queen of Soul rarely performs in Los Angeles these days, making this little gig in the barnlike Nokia Theatre a virtual command performance. The Detroit singer-pianist has been lying low for much of this decade, issuing a collection of mostly previously released duets, Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets With the Queen, in 2007. Her most recent album of new material, So Damn Happy, came out in 2003, although she plans to release A Woman Falling Out of Love sometime this year. In an era with so many R&B singers indulging in gratuitous vocal acrobatics, Franklin still stands supreme, belting it out with full force and plenty of fiery charisma. Raised by her late, legendary Baptist-minister father Rev. C.L. Franklin, she draws upon the power and spirit of gospel music while incorporating elements of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco and even opera throughout her 50-year career. She's also a mighty pianist, anchoring her most dazzling vocal flights on such vintage hits as "Respect" and "Chain of Fools" with emphatically earthy and percussively bluesy keyboard accents. All hail the queen. (Falling James)