Rock Picks: R.E.M., Von Bondies, Ladytron

SATURDAY, MAY 24

 
Mindless Self Indulgence at the Wiltern

Andrzej Tyszko

The Marcin Wasilewski Trio: Jazz of the near future

Crackerfarm

The sweet-&-sour rearrangers: Mates of State

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More About

• Marcin Wasilewski
• Chris Montez
• Hollywood Bowl
• The Von Bondies
• Mates of State

With song titles that sound like Tourette’s tics — “Faggot,” “Royally Fucked,” “Bitches,” “Hail Satan,” “Pussy All Night” — Mindless Self Indulgence dwarfs your casual debauchers out there (Scissor Sisters, Amy Winehouse) by pointing the moral compass dead south and riding a fat rail of coke straight to the bottom. That the New York–based electro-metal band has been around a decade without somebody dying is miraculous. That MSI has fostered a ridiculously large fan base by performing songs about recreational vaginal spelunking isn’t miraculous at all, but it does open up an interesting phenomenon — they’ll either stoke your whore fires (what’s in your pants?) or bring on existential vertigo (what’s behind infinity?). To be fair, it’s not like the band is penning songs like the etched-in-stone KMFDM-ish classic “Dicks Are for My Friends” anymore; today’s Mindless Self Indulgence is all about the dance floor, baby, as evidenced by the synth-driven yet ribald-as-ever single “Never Wanted to Dance” from the new album If. (Chuck Mindenhall)

Also playing Saturday:

WAR, TIERRA, THEE MIDNITERS, SALAS BROTHERS at the Greek Theatre; JIM LAUDERDALE, JAMES BURTON & AL PERKINS, THE LIVING SISTERS at Topanga Community House; MARGOT & THE NUCLEAR SO & SO’s at the Echo; JAPANTHER, BAD DUDES, BIPOLAR BEAR at the Smell.

Crackerfarm

(Click to enlarge)

The sweet-&-sour rearrangers: Mates of State

(Click to enlarge)

Ladytron: Send in the clouds.

SUNDAY, MAY 25

Chris Montez at the Greek Theatre

Chris Montez, one of the key spearheads of the febrile early-’60s Chicano rock movement, has been missing in action for way too long. He, of course, was the tense shouter on the tightly wound classic “Let’s Dance” (which the Ramones frequently performed), a Farfisa-fueled rave-up that reached No. 4 on the pop charts in 1962. Preceded only by hermanos Richie Valens and Chan “Hippy Hippy Shake” Romero, the teenage singer was pulled deep into the big-beat vortex, and, after “Let’s Dance” hit No. 2 in the U.K. charts, he toured Britain — with the Beatles as his opening act (he further distinguished himself by kicking John Lennon’s ass after the boorish Liverpudlian doused Montez with beer). Montez fizzled, then bounced back as a pop crooner with 1966’s “Call Me,” which was covered by Frank Sinatra. It’s a significant development to have this homeboy back in town. With the penetrating E.L.A. vocalist Ersi Arvizu (riding high with her phenomenable new Friend for Life CD) rejoining El Chicano tonight, expect sharp jolts of soul and sizzle. (Jonny Whiteside)

The Marcin Wasilewski Trio at the Jazz Bakery

This Polish trio got their first notices when they formed as a backing group for the legendary avant-jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, who’d brought them on when they were still teenagers to record his crucial 2001 set The Soul of Things (ECM). Pianist Marcin Wasilewski is a hugely gifted young player with an originality of harmonic/melodic conception that recalls Bill Evans, and a favored tone color and simple touch not unlike that of Keith Jarrett. His trio, which includes double bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz, have just released a new disc called January, one of those sort of bracingly peaceful excursions trademarked by the ECM roster. The album is a brilliant showcase for the Wasilewski generation’s well-absorbed intelligence about concision of form and style, and there is also in abundance that very modern — daring, even — sweetness that hits on the nostalgic as it lays down touchstones for a non-clichéd jazz of the near future. (John Payne)

The Brothers Unconnected at the Echoplex

As tripped out as Curt and Cris Kirkwood were in the early ’80s, when the Meat Puppets were still a crazed psychedelic thrash-spazz band, there was another pair of brothers in Phoenix who were even weirder and ultimately more musically multidimensional. Sun City Girls’ Alan Bishop (singer-bassist) and Richard Bishop (guitar) were incredibly prolific, releasing dozens of mostly cassette-only albums, such as God Is My Solar System (1987), Bleach Has Feelings Too! (1987), Exotica on Five Dollars a Day (1987) and Graverobbing in the Future (1989), where their skewed and satirically skewered takes on punk, jazz, folk, surf, world music and space rock were juxtaposed with crass jokes and performance-art goofiness. The trio was anchored by Charles Gocher, who once credited Houdini for inspiring his drumming style, which looked “like I was breaking out of manacles and a straitjacket.” Gocher died of cancer last year, so tonight the Bishop brothers will strum unplugged renditions of Sun City Girls’ anti-hits in tribute, following a screening of The Handsome Stranger, a collection of his video works. The Bishops’ new CD as the Brothers Unconnected traipses across a typically broad landscape, from sea chanteys, raw blues and a loping country song (about smothering noisy infants and blaming it on crib death!) to dreamier interludes where the acoustic guitars and even vocals drone like sitars. (Falling James)