Rock Picks: HorrorPops, Steve Earle, Ace Frehley
And other March 20-27 music shows
Also playing Tuesday:
BOB MOULD at El Rey Theatre; JOSE GONZALEZ, MIA DOI TODD at the Wiltern; EVANGELISTA at Amoeba Music, 7 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26
Kaki King at the Roxy
Wunderkind guitarist Kaki King first came to attention as a busker in the subways of New York City, but she wasn’t strumming the usual sensitive folkie fare. Instead, she crafted engrossingly arty instrumentals and exotically strange soundscapes with a variety of unusual chords hammered out (sometimes literally) with her magician-quick hands. She experimented more fully with vocals on her 2006 CD, ... Until We Felt Red, where her breathy, childlike vocals were generally charming if a bit wispy. Sean Penn used her aptly eerie and spacy tunes on the soundtrack for Into the Wild, and she sang with Dave Grohl on a recent Foo Fighters album (but try not to hold that against her). Her new CD, Dreaming of Revenge (Velour), alternates between freaky instrumentals and relatively simple indie-rock tunes. The songs with vocals, such as the fragile acoustic idyll “Life Being What It Is” and the airy, gauzy “Pull Me Out Alive,” are enjoyable, but the instrumentals are still the most interesting tracks. “Montreal” bobs along on a sea of Cure-like chords before echoing loops of ghostly lapsteel guitar swirl around and the drums kick in. Magical. (Falling James)
Also playing Wednesday:
SOPHIE B. HAWKINS, JANIS IAN at Cerritos Center; THE SIXTH CHAMBER at the Buccaneer Lounge.
THURSDAY, MARCH 27
Russian Circles, Red Sparowes at the Echo
Chicago’s Russian Circles purvey a kind of nü arena rock that takes all that “tasty” ’70s twin-lead-guitar huffapuffa (clean in one channel, riffarama-mama woolly mammoth in the other) and then stretches stuff out, way out, into long-ass tales from the creepy crypt that go through innumerable changes in direction and tone, telling a kind of story, you know. well, they do some wicked jams, bro (seriously), as their upcoming full-length, Station (on Suicide Squeeze), will no doubt tell you; along with super-drummer Dave Turncrantz and guitarist Mike Sullivan, bassist Brian Cook of These Arms Are Snakes and the massive Botch helped out. Meanwhile, L.A.’s own Red Sparowes, featuring that interesting ax man from Isis named Cliff Myer, make an ambient-metallic haze/horsewhipping; their superb Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun (Neurot) was produced by Fucking Champ Tim Green, a trademark of high quality. (John Payne)
Also playing Thursday:
COLD WAR KIDS at Samueli Theater, Costa Mesa; DANIEL LANOIS at the Vista (see Music feature); CHAPIN SISTERS at Amoeba Music, 7 p.m.; WATKINS FAMILY HOUR at Largo; FREE MORAL AGENTS at Silverlake Lounge; THE DATSUNS, THE BINGES at Spaceland.
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