Rock Picks: New York Dolls, Lizz Wright, Brother Ali

Also playing Friday:

KIOSK at Skirball Cultural Center, 8 p.m.; DIE! DIE! DIE! at the Echo; LESLIE & THE LYS, DEVON WILLIAMS at the Echoplex, 7 p.m.; BLOOD ON THE SADDLE at 14 Below; BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA at the Knitting Factory; THE MONOLATORS at Mr. T's Bowl; THE TRANSMISSIONS, THE HEALTH CLUB at the Scene; MICHAEL WHITMORE at Taix; FIREBALL MINISTRY, THE KNIVES, TOTIMOSHI at Viper Room; LIZ PAPPADEMAS at Redballs Rock & Roll Pizza, Canoga Park.

Bill Phelps

Beautiful dreamer Lizz Wright

Curt Doughty

The Cops go deep undercover as indie post-punk slackers.

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More About

• Dale Hawkins
• Big Jay McNeely
• Lizz Wright
• Landon Pigg
• Henry Fonda

SATURDAY, MARCH 8

Dale Hawkins, Big Jay McNeely at Safari Sam's

While Louisiana swamp-rock overlord Dale Hawkins will be eternally remembered for his feverish smasheroo "Susie Q," a song so irresistible that it made him the first white boy ever to perform at Harlem's Apollo theater, the singer-guitarist has also reached far into a kaleidoscopic musical spectrum that almost relegates his signature tune to footnote status. He made his studio bones working with Johnny Horton and Merle Kilgore at the Louisiana Hayride KWKH facilities, later worked as RCA's West Coast rock & roll A&R man, and along the way kept churning out some of the finest, funkiest rock & roll numbers known to man (hell, he even cut for Chess Records). Teamed with Los Angeles R&B sax honker Big Jay McNeely, Hawkins is going to have really deliver — at 81, McNeely still has the same supercharged wherewithal to compel audience members to leap from balconies, expose themselves and generally go so raving mad that he was banned from performing here circa 1952-'53. (Jonny Whiteside)

Also playing Saturday:

Curt Doughty

(Click to enlarge)

The Cops go deep undercover as indie post-punk slackers.

Kip Kubin

(Click to enlarge)

Landon Pigg contemplates the mysteries of E-major.

Skye Rossi

(Click to enlarge)

Brother Ali: His aim is true.

RUBBER CITY REBELS, THE CROWD at Alex's Bar; CONNIE PRICE & THE KEYSTONES at Crash Mansion; GIL MANTERA'S PARTY DREAM, MAHJONNG at the Echo; W.A.S.P. at the Key Club; I SEE HAWKS IN L.A., MOIRA SMILEY & VOCO at McCabe's; THE MAE SHI, OLD TIME RELIJUN, CLIPD BEAKS at the Smell; SACCHARINE TRUST, INSECT SURFERS at Taix.

SUNDAY, MARCH 9

Big Business, Red Fang, The Cops at Spaceland

Hard to believe the dense groove of Big Business springs from a mere duo. With Coady Willis' meaty fills and articulate cymbal washes hitched to the rumbling bass licks and King Buzzo-esque vocals of Jared Warren, the L.A.-based band work a familiar ur-metal sound on Here Come the Waterworks that is plain massive, if not a tad satiric. Only a real wet blanket wouldn't dig Red Fang's bombastic yet supremely melodic rock — just when you think it's wandering off onto some druggy tangent, it snaps back into the pocket. From a whole different place, the Cops are clearly inspired by certain British post-punks from 25 years ago, and the Seattle band's choppy, stop-&-go guitars, occasional dips into Clash-style reggae rhythms and dance-y drum beats bring a funk-punk pulse to their otherwise blinkered pop. The track "It's Epidemic" from their new release, Free Electricity, is reason enough to be here before the hipster witching hour. (Andrew Lentz)

Crystal Castles at the Roxy

"We are 1 boy and 1 girl. We are named after She-Ra's home. We play rough." Crystal Castles' MySpace manifesto is, straight up the pants, an outright admission of Nutrasweet-twee guilt. Too rad for mom and dad, fashion brats Ethan Kath and Alice Glass are a suddenly successful, heavily touring techno project picked up by Last Gang Records — and the heavily derided bane of Toronto's chattering (on message boards, anyway) classes. The garage-sale electro poppers Ethan Kath of Kill Cheerleader (read: metal juvenilia) and Alice Glass forgo substance of any kind to prove a real commitment to all style, all the time. Self-reflexive keyboard jams, blandly obtuse and falsely tough, it's a fun time if you're under 25 and don't read books. What's curious is that cheap, awkward prefab beats, the kind that inspire haphazard 15-second raps about how fucking good brunch was, haven't been newsworthy for several lifetimes of indie rock. (Kate Carraway)

Also playing Sunday:

THE BLASTERS, TONY GILKYSON at the Echo, 5 p.m.; PETER HIMMELMAN at McCabe's; GANG WIZARD, GOLIATH BIRD EATER at the Smell; TARA BUSCH, LIZ PAPPADEMAS, ALEX & SAM at Tangier.

MONDAY, MARCH 10

Lizz Wright at the Hotel Cafe

Lizz Wright created a buzz in jazz circles with her first two albums (Salt and Dreaming Wide Awake), but she's isn't your standard "jazz standards" singer. More in the tradition of genre-busting vocalists like Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln, Wright falls in with such contemporaries as Norah Jones and Cassandra Wilson (although she's more soulful than the former and less eclectic than the latter). The Georgia native draws R&B, gospel, folk, blues and even rock into her sound and her song selection. In the past, she has made such diverse songs as "A Taste of Honey" and Neil Young's "Old Man" her own with her warm, emotionally resonant vocals. On her terrific new disc, The Orchard, she adds tunes by Led Zeppelin, Ike Turner and Patsy Cline to her diverse songbook. However, it's also notable for her strong originals, from the funky "My Heart" to the spare ballad "Song for Mia." This Hotel Cafe show offers the chance to catch Wright in an intimate small-club setting. (Michael Berick)