THURSDAY, FEB. 28
Jade
Jade
Birdbrains of a feather: Blitzen Trapper
Pretend she’s back from the dead: Donita Sparks
Related Content
More About
(Click to enlarge)
Birdbrains of a feather: Blitzen Trapper
(Click to enlarge)
Pretend she’s back from the dead: Donita Sparks
Wild Don Lewis
(Click to enlarge)
400 Blows, 400 decibels
Taken by Trees at the Roxy
Much has been made of the stylishly somnolent way that Cat Power reinvented the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" as a glacial, funereal ballad, but Swedish band the Concretes were just as clever in slowing down the Stones' "Miss You" in 2005 and dragging it out until it was an achingly haunting ode to loneliness. Former Concretes chanteuse Victoria Bergsman is now flying solo with her new project, Taken by Trees, but she's up to her old tricks with a version of Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine," which she's transformed into a pretty piano-pop ditty. The title track of Taken by Trees' 2007 Rough Trade debut, Open Field, sallies forth with a soothing string-section instrumental, setting the stage for the gently shimmering pop of "Lost and Found," where she coos with a childlike innocence over candy-cane chimes. She's contrastingly haunting on the spare, chilling piano ballad "Julia." Bergsman was just as engaging when she sang with Peter, Bjorn & John on "Young Folks," from their 2007 CD, Writers Block. She doesn't need to belt it out loudly to make a deep impact. (Falling James)
Phill Niblock, Tom Recchion, Thomas Ankersmit at Beyond Baroque
Here we have a rare opportunity to hear high-quality "experimental" music by three veteran exponents of its varied gripping strands. Phill Niblock is a New York-based "forgotten" minimalist composer and multimedia musician, a hugely influential figure (on Glenn Branca, for one) whose recent work has involved 24-track digitally processed microtonal drones, often via sampled voice, resulting in glacially slow-moving monoliths of sound without easily perceptible melody or rhythm. Niblock was a founder of Experimental Intermedia in 1968 and has been its director since 1985; a heavy presence in the N.Y. downtown new-music scene, Niblock has also put on more than 1,000 concerts in his loft space by the likes of Ryoji Ikeda, Zbigniew Karkowski and Jim O'Rourke. Dutch-born Thomas Ankersmit is an improvising saxophone and electronics maestro working from a distinctly non-free-jazz sphere, preferring postminimal electro-acoustic explorations in microscopic density and detail. The invaluable Tom Recchion is a Los Angeles Free Music Society founder whose recent work offers exquisitely sampled and orchestrated exotica via laptop. 681 Venice Blvd., Venice; 7:30 p.m. (310) 822-3006. (John Payne)
Funland at the Knitting Factory
While Jello Biafra has been busy further marginalizing himself through a series of asinine statements about his former bandmates, Dead Kennedys co-founders East Bay Ray and Klaus Fluoride have been quietly doing what they always have: exhibiting impeccable musicianship and exploring new avenues of creative expression. Ray, of course, possesses one of the most distinctive and intoxicating guitar styles in rock & roll history, and Klaus has his hands full trying to keep pace as bassist for the Legendary Stardust Cowboy (no easy task, that). While maintaining their much-assailed dignity in the face of Biafra's illimitable hysterics, they've also formed Funland, a new band that Ray guardedly describe as "a work in progress." They're fronted by ex-Wynona Riders vocalist Skip, with former Translator drummer Dave Scheff on the riser. The deliberate air of mystery ups the intrigue ante, but, truth to tell, anywhere that East Bay Ray breaks out that action-packed ax is the place to be. (Jonny Whiteside)
Also playing Thursday:
MISSY HIGGINS at El Rey Theatre; DIPLO, BLAQSTARR at Crash Mansion; SON DE LA FRONTERA at the Echoplex; WHAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS at Silverlake Lounge; RUN RUN RUN, THE VACATION at the Viper Room.
FRIDAY, FEB. 29
Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues at the Wiltern
Cat Powers kicks off her new CD, Jukebox (Matador), with her remake of John Kander & Fred Ebb's standard "Theme from New York, New York," but given the track's sultry, Stax-y R&B makeover and coolly rumbling keyboards, perhaps she should call her version "Memphis, Memphis." She recorded her previous album, 2006's The Greatest, in the River City, where she collaborated with former Al Green guitarist Teenie Hodges and the Memphis Rhythm Band. This time around, she's backed by Dirty Delta Blues — which includes Dirty Three drummer Jim White and Blues Explosion guitarist Judah Bauer — although Hodges makes a guest appearance, along with Muscle Shoals session man Spooner Oldham. Apart from the new "Song to Bobby" (by Power, Bauer and Matt Sweeney) and a grandly chilling remake of her own "Metal Heart," Jukebox is her second covers collection and once again demonstrates the wonderfully enchanting way she slows down and reworks classic tunes. Her take on Oldham's "Woman Left Lonely" is more intimate than Janis Joplin's version, and she gives an even more solemn spin to Joni Mitchell's "Blue" after bringing James Brown's "Lost Someone" all the way back to Memphis. (Falling James)
Blitzen Trapper, Grand Archives at the Troubadour
Blitzen Trapper kick out some of the trippiest country-rock jams in Indieville: On the Portland sextet's most recent album, last year's action-packed Wild Mountain Nation, they use twangy guitars, ramshackle percussion, broken-computer noises and the occasional prog-jazz bass solo to create an aural equivalent of the dreams you'd have after falling asleep in a bathtub full of moonshine at David Crosby's house. The band just signed to Sub Pop; hopefully their next one doesn't sound like the Shins. Fellow Sub Pop signees Grand Archives are headed up by Mat Brooke, who until 2006 played guitar in Band of Horses, the buzzed-about psych-folk outfit from South Carolina. (Before that, Brooke and BoH front man Ben Bridwell collaborated in Carissa's Wierd.) The Archives' new self-titled debut is less dreamy and drifty than the Horses' stuff; it might suggest what the Zombies would've become if they'd moved to Seattle. (Mikael Wood)
