Rock Picks: Slick Rick, Tapes 'n Tapes, Kate Nash

Also playing Saturday:

PITBULL, SNOOP DOGG, MILEY CYRUS, JONAS BROTHERS at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 2 p.m.; DENGUE FEVER at Clover Park, Santa Monica, 5 p.m.; THE BINGES at the Key Club; CHUPACOBRA, BLACK WIDOWS, WILD WEEKEND, THE BLESSINGS at Mr. T’s Bowl; SLICK RICK at the Roxy; JUNKYARD, LITTLE CAESAR at Safari Sam’s.

HOZWE

Mystery Hangup: Don’t they have Caller ID?

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More About

• DISASTER Alex
• Slick Rick
• Kate Nash
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Heavy Metal

SUNDAY, MAY 11

Playing Sunday:

PHIL LESH, GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS at the Greek Theatre, 5:30 p.m.; RUSH at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater; THE WARLOCKS at Alex’s Bar; SYD STRAW & THE PEOPLE at McCabe’s; BAD DUDES, POLAR GOLDIE CATS at the Smell.

MONDAY, MAY 12

Playing Monday:

HARVEY SID FISHER at Pehrspace; MEZZANINE OWLS, WE BARBARIANS, EAGLE & TALON at Spaceland; POI DOG PONDERING at the Troubadour; THE MICHAEL BRUCE GROUP at the Whisky.

TUESDAY, MAY 13

Playing Tuesday:

JOE JACKSON at the Orpheum Theatre; TOKIO HOTEL at Avalon; SOMEONE STILL LOVES YOU BORIS YELTSIN, PORT O’BRIEN, THE BLACK WATCH at the Echo.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14

Cloud Cult at the Knitting Factory

Cloud Cult’s main man, Craig Minowa, and his intrepid, ever-expanding Minneapolis crew have released a new album, their eighth, called Feel Good Ghosts(Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes), a wonderfully chameleonic and generally uplifting thing despite its core themes of death and dashed hopes. Minowa sings, “I’ve had enough of hiding underneath my covers/I’m sick of all this poop that brings me down, down, down,” as he reels back and forth between his finely crafted classical rock–cum–epic-soundtrack stylings, glitchy beat-strewn oddness and intimate chamber pop. A deceptively charming album that frames its soul-searing lyrics in lovely musical counterpoint to resonate in the deepest way possible, Feel Good is about loving and losing something (someone) precious, and how to deal with your own survival in the aftermath. The live act is apparently quite an extravaganza, featuring two artists who paint during the performance. (John Payne)

Kate Nash at the Henry Fonda Theater

Like fellow British popster Lily Allen, Kate Nash gets a lot of mileage out of dissing her ex-boyfriends, which is quite liberating for her, if not always for her audience. Occasionally Nash’s declarations of romantic independence come off as cathartic statements we can all relate to and cheer along with, but at other times her catty comments about dodgy, doggy boyfriends — such as when she gets “bitter” about a boy who should be “fitter” — might make you feel as if you’re caught in the crossfire of someone else’s embarrassing breakup argument. Nash’s piano-pop songs aren’t as peppy and buoyantly ska-based as Allen’s, but she has the potential for more musical range and emotional heft. “I can be alone, yeah/I can watch a sunset on my own,” she sings ruefully on “Merry Happy” (from her 2007 debut CD, Made of Bricks), bravely trying to convince herself that she’s happy. It’s sort of a poignantly endearing feminist flip side to the Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset.” Lest you think she’s merely fragile and fluffy, Nash punks out quite convincingly à la Poly Styrene on the recent single “Model Behaviour,” where she cheekily advises some anorexic models, “You don’t have to suck dick to succeed ... you’re just a bitch who forgot to eat!” (Falling James)

Also playing Wednesday:

THE LAURA LOVE DUO at Cerritos Center; YOSHIDA BROTHERS at El Rey Theatre; MASON JENNINGS, BRETT DENNEN, MISSY HIGGINS at Barnum Hall, Santa Monica High School; LOVE PSYCHEDELICO at the Bordello; KÁRIN TATOYAN at Spaceland; LANGHORNE SLIM, FERRABY LIONHEART at the Troubadour.

THURSDAY, MAY 15

Blowfly, Antiseen at the Knitting Factory

Pop music succeeds best when taken to the extreme, and this mad coupling reaches two very bizarre points on the musical spectrum. With a deliciously vile brand of spew that’s made him a kingpin in the underworld, the redoubtable Blowfly stands at Olympian heights in the realm of yech. Touted as the original dirty rapper (a handle that scarcely skims the top layer of scum off his deep well of outrageous oratory), he never fails to implode the brain with his spontaneous ejaculations of satirical venery. Antiseen, the self-proclaimed bad-will ambassadors of destructo rock have been wreaking havoc since their filth-infused days with GG Allin, and their frantic mixture of aural agony, Southern-gothic fury and sheer FTW disregard for all laws of god and man is a reliable recipe for disaster. Gloriously devolved contrarians all, almost noble in their perversity, and certain to elevate squirming to a preferred recreational activity. (Jonny Whiteside)

Mystery Hangup at Safari Sam’s

Like their namesake, Mystery Hangup are creepy and unsettling, inspiring a certain amount of ominous foreboding and jealousy. The Orange County trio of sisters twine Cat’s feverishly overwrought wraithlike keening with Bisou’s angular guitar and keyboard parts and drummer Lux’s shifting post-punk rhythms. Even as Cat scratches out heavy-metal guitar solos, Bisou counters with artier, inventively exhilarating chord progressions, such as the Sonic Youth–influenced wall of noise towering over “Sun.” Perhaps as the result of too many anonymous late-night phone calls, Cat wails her restlessly insomniac lyrics with a heavy dose of doom-ridden goth romanticism on such tracks as “Morning Glare” and “My Heart Sleeps Awaken,” from Mystery Hangup’s 2007 debut CD, Three Moons and the Crashing Sun. The group’s production with the estimable Paul Roessler and Geza X captures both of Mystery Hangup’s extremes, from the gracefully melodic intro of “Je Ne Fume Pas” to Cat’s anguished cries and Bisou’s sideways-slanting sheets of raining guitar on “Vista de un Ladron.” (Falling James)