Rock Picks: Siouxsie Sioux, Iron Maiden, Maceo Parker

Maceo Parker at the Roxy

Maceo Parker's place in music history is secure if only because he played saxophone on the studio recordings of the hits "I Feel Good," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," "Cold Sweat" and other classics during several stints in James Brown's band. He went on to perform with Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy Collins' Rubber Band in the '70s and '80s before launching his own fertile solo career. Parker veers from melodic swoops and glides and then cuts back and switches directions with funkily precise rhythmic retorts — this man can play, and he's supertight. He's captured in full-flight on his ace new live double-CD, Roots & Grooves (Heads Up), recorded with the WDR Big Band Koln in Europe last year. On the "Back to Funk" disc, he rambles nimbly through his own compositions and a smoking 17-minute version of "Pass the Peas" that features dazzling interplay between Parker and guitarist Paul Shigihara. On the "Tribute to Ray Charles" disc, he expands upon several Charles standards, blowing up a storm on sax and convincingly mimicking Ray's vocals. Hot stuff. (Falling James)

Ines Kaiser

Maceo Parker hits the road, Jack.

Emilie Urbansky

Keren Ann: Soothing, not seething

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Wooden Shjips at McCabe's

Arthur magazine blissfully concludes its residency at McCabe's Guitar Shop. San Francisco's Wooden Shjips practice the old weird minimalism of droning organs, looping bass bobs, echo-dissolved voice and lysergic washes of prickly distortion. Their self-titled debut for Holy Mountain, released last year, runs just over a half-hour but it's a dizzy one. There is an intimacy to the quartet's approach, a communal pursuit of harmonious lock grooves, that should fit nicely with the close, cozy setup of tonight's venue. The Shjips don't skyscrape or break through. There's a stoned calm, a methodical monotony as they churn a tremulous slush with a fluid pulse powering the spiraling motion. Erik "Ripley" Johnson's vocals are slight and noncommittal, sketches of melody fed into FX boxes that transform them into dot-matrix trails. There's definitely much of Spacemen 3's basement pyro here, though without the paranoia and heartbreak. Minus the blues, I guess. All warm flares instead of white-hot bulb blasts, Wooden Shjips should make for a sublime Sunday night. (Bernardo Rondeau)

Electrocute at Spaceland

Michael Rubenstein

(Click to enlarge)

Deep in the black heart of Texas: Girl in a Coma

Since we wrote about Electrocute in these pages last summer, the electro-punk duo have expanded into a full live band with a drummer and two synthesizer players making "crazy sounds." Singer-guitarist Nicole Morier's sassy and sometimes silly songs are still augmented with her partner in crime Legs Le Brock's exuberant vocals, but the band now has more power onstage. "Bikini Bottom" is a sexy romp through new-wavey B-52's territory, while "Bad Legs" combines garage-rock guitars and pop-synth bleeps with Morier's inviting sugary-icy cooing. "If you wanna make 'em dance/You just spray on hot pants," they advise on the dance-instruction workout "On the Beat," which is inescapably catchy despite (or because of) its simple-minded lyrics. So is "Shag Ball," where Morier (who co-wrote "Heaven on Earth" on Britney Spears' Blackout CD) insinuates herself sinuously within a jumble of whooshing, zipping synths. She and Le Brock may be cute, but don't underestimate the savvy way they blend goofy lyrics and pop simplicity with mesmerizing grooves. With Har Mar Superstar. (Falling James)

Also playing Sunday:

TEENA MARIA, KEITH SWEAT at Nokia Theatre; DEKE DICKERSON, KARLING ABBEYGATE at Blue Cafe; MIKE STINSON, BABS McDONALD, DAN JANISCH at the Echo, 5 p.m.; PAUL BARRERE & FRED TACKETT at Malibu Inn; NAKED AGGRESSION at Safari Sam's; IAN WHITCOMB & FRED SOKOLOW at Cantalini's Salerno Beach, 6:30 p.m.

MONDAY, FEB. 18

Playing Monday:

SMASH FASHION at Crash Mansion; RICKIE LEE JONES at the Echoplex; CLIFF WILLIAMS, MICKEY DOLENZ at House of Blues; THE PITY PARTY, FILM SCHOOL, WHAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS at Spaceland; DENGUE FEVER, CORAL SEA, BLACK PINE at Viper Room.

TUESDAY, FEB. 19

Keren Ann, Dean & Britta, Sara Lov at El Rey Theatre

Here's an enchanting bill of sleepy, laid-back performers who are more likely to inspire the audience to sit cross-legged on El Rey's ballroom floor than stand up and pump their fists. And you can forget about dancing. Keren Ann's lyrics get a little precious and narcissistic at times on her 2007 self-titled CD (Metro Blue), but the French-Israeli chanteuse is more about creating a gentle, lulling atmosphere with such glassy-eyed ballads as "Where No Endings End" and "In Your Back" She's relatively peppy on the Velvet Underground-inspired jangle of "Lay Your Head Down," but Keren Ann generally prefers to sing in whispery shadows. Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, formerly of Luna, also draw upon the hazy pop of the Velvets on their 2007 CD, Back Numbers, as they trade off on lead vocals. She's positively glowing on ethereal idylls like "Wait for Me," although his wispy crooning and the overall bland lyrics occasionally undercut the intended dreamy mood. Devics singer Sara Lov has expanded marvelously on her own sense of dreaminess with well-crafted, carefully orchestrated pop songs such as the still-unreleased "A Thousand Bees" and languorous wallowing like "New York" from her 2007 EP, Three Songs. (Falling James)

Iron Maiden at the Forum