Rock Picks: Siouxsie Sioux, Iron Maiden, Maceo Parker

Nikki Corvette, The Dazes, Wild Weekend at Mr. T's Bowl

Longtime Angeleno Nikki Corvette's relocation to her Detroit hometown last year was a major blow to this city's underground pop-punk scene, but at least she left us with some nice consolation prizes. Her exodus inspired the catchy title track of her Back to Detroit CD (Dollar Record Records), where she declares, "Hollywood dreams are making me sad," against Travis Ramin's joltin' Chuck Berry–style lead guitar and Miss Georgia Peach's soulfully groovy call-&-response backing vocals. Corvette — who got her start in the late '70s as an early rival to the Go-Go's and Blondie — juices up her classic girl-group hooks with more Ramones-y power than ever on Back to Detroit with such rocking tunes as "Tokyo Boy" and the orally fixated "Lipstick Letters" and "So Kiss Me." She'll helps us deal with our separation anxiety during this quick visit, headlining a bill of garage-pop acolytes including Osaka, Japan's Dazes, whose Just Dreamy CD (Popball) pairs Corvette's melodic charm with a Joan Jett drive. Coed San Diegans Wild Weekend — an endearing homage to the Zeros — are one of those rare tribute bands with their own style and have recently started writing original songs. (Falling James)

Beat your heart out: Wild Weekend.

Megan Dooley

The A-Bones: Lo-fi kicks

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St. Vincent at the Echoplex

Megan Dooley

(Click to enlarge)

The A-Bones: Lo-fi kicks

Ines Kaiser

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Maceo Parker hits the road, Jack.

Emilie Urbansky

(Click to enlarge)

Keren Ann: Soothing, not seething

St. Vincent, a.k.a. Annie Clark, comes straight out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a new brand of torch song that daggers the heart while it tickles the brain. Her madly eclectic debut album, Marry Me (Beggars Banquet), is an oddly affecting mishmash of Clark's warmly inviting voice bursting out of piano-pumping torch tunes, strewn with glitchy electronics, nicely nimble acoustic-guitar plucking and some rather wicked electric-ax screamo. It's all about the deep, dark side of unrequited love, isn't it, how one shrieks the sentiment without soaking in saccharine? St. Vincent does that with her well-constructed songs, chock-full of complex and sophisticated ideas about arrangement and presentation. Onstage, she'll reproduce that sound with the aid of a full live band. (John Payne)

Also playing Friday:

DJ SHADOW, CUT CHEMIST, KID KOALA at the Wiltern (see Music feature); ARETHA FRANKLIN at Nokia Theatre; BRETT DENNEN at Skirball Cultural Center; 2 MEX, HUMAN BEINGS at the Airliner; SOUL OF JOHN BLACK at Cafe Boogaloo; FATLIP, BOOM BIP, STYLES OF BEYOND at Crash Mansion; CARINA ROUND at the Hotel Cafe; ANGRY SAMOANS, J.F.A. at the Knitting Factory; GEORGE CLINTON & P-FUNK at Malibu Inn; CHUCK PROPHET at the Mint; THE BINGES at Spaceland; VAN HUNT at Temple Bar; GENE LOVES JEZEBEL at Viper Room.

SATURDAY, FEB. 16

Zooey Deschanel at Largo

Chanteuse Deschanel plays this benefit for 826LA, the local arm of author Dave Eggers' nonprofit tutoring centers that help children develop their talents as creative writers. Today's lesson is "When Wallets Eat Words," in which students write stories printed on the inside of specially designed wallets — after which one empties said wallet and thereby enjoys Deschanel's grandiloquence while reading the story. Much as Karen Carpenter was a drummer who sang, Zooey Deschanel is a singer who acts, and it is her soulfully throaty lilt that does everything from show you the color of the sky in the world to make you forget the imperfect world in which we're currently living. Next month, her collaboration with musician M. Ward (under the name She and Him) is released on Merge, on which she plays piano and banjo and he strums while she lets the truth flow free from those golden pipes in excelsis. (David Cotner)

Drag the River at the Scene

Drag the River is either in the midst of a reunion tour or a farewell jaunt. The Colorado-based alt-country act, led by All singer Chad Price and Armchair Martian singer-guitarist Jon Snodgrass, formed more than a decade ago when Price's All bandmates reunited with vocalist Milo Aukerman for a Descendents reunion album and tour. Drag the River maintained a whiskey-soaked heavy regimen that included upward of 200 performances a year, but they split abruptly last summer while on tour with Rocky Votolato. But there was a problem: The band had an album (You Can't Live This Way, released in January) destined to hit shelves whether the group was active or not. This predicament led to a handful of Colorado shows to promote the disc, which snowballed into a string of dates on the East and West coasts. Whether they're saying hello or goodbye, it's country music — someone's crying in their beer. (Ryan Ritchie)

Also playing Saturday:

SIOUXSIE SIOUX, RASPUTINA at Henry Fonda Theater; JOEY ALTRUDA & CRUCIAL RIDDIMS at the Bordello; LOS SUPER ELEGANTES at the Echoplex; DEKE DICKERSON & HIS ALL-STAR FRAT BAND, SOUTH BAY SURFERS, JINXES at Mr. T's Bowl; YEAR LONG DISASTER at the Roxy; LIAM FINN at Spaceland; KINGSIZEMAYBE at Taix; PEACHES & HERB, BRENTON WOOD, TIERRA at Vault 350.

SUNDAY, FEB. 17

The A-Bones, Roy Loney at Mr. T's Bowl

New York's deep-inside hepsters Billy Miller and Miriam Linna have for decades gone to Olympian lengths to preserve and uphold the surviving vestiges of our big-beat underground. With their Kicks zine and frighteningly prolific indie Norton Records, the gruesome twosome's crusade has produced dazzling results, not only via a slew of choice reissues but also waxing new discs from bizarro thrillers like Hasil Adkins, the Mighty Hannibal and Andre Williams. The pair have curated some mind-bendingly great live shows, often featuring the durable services of their own band, the A-Bones. The 'Bones resolutely purvey low-down, primitivo garage trash, and, since they're working tonight with an assist from the Flamin' Groovies' Roy Loney, expect a cerebellum-shredding display of vernacular American stomp. The Groovies, after all, were one of a very few early-'70s voice-in-the-wilderness rock & roll faithful, and when Loney, Miller and Linna bring it full circle tonight, the results should be spectacular. (Jonny Whiteside)