Rock Picks: Dethklok, Billy Bragg, Erykah Badu, Mr. Gnome

Also playing Friday:

LIVING LEGENDS at Henry Fonda Theater (see Music feature); MOUNTAIN GOATS, ANNUALS at Natural History Museum; BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB, WAYNE HANCOCK, THE BLASTERS, ROSIE FLORES, JAIL WEDDINGS at the Queen Mary; SIN 34 at Anarchy Library; J.F.A., UNION 13 at House of Blues; B-SIDE PLAYERS, DESOL, CAVA at the Key Club; JONATHAN RICHMAN at the Mint; THE MONOLATORS at Mr. T’s Bowl; ATOMIC SHERPAS at Taix; BLUE HAWAIIANS at Farmers Market, 7 p.m.

Tony Joe White: Cutting deeper

David Waldman

Canadian bakin’: dd/mm/yyyy

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• Rebirth Brass Band
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SATURDAY, JUNE 7

Invincible at Grand Star Jazz Club

Few MCs of either gender straddle the line between artist and activist the way 25-year-old rapper Invincible does. The Detroit-based lyricist fuses hip-hop with social change as a way of life, not as a gimmick, and it’s a big part of why watching her perform live is so warming to the soul. Within much of hip-hop’s inner circle, she gets kudos galore, and Talib Kweli calls her one of the best MCs he’s ever heard, male or female. Her wordplay really is that good, but, more importantly, there’s substance behind it. Raised in Israel/Palestine until the age of 7, she frequently works with youth groups, performs at juvenile detention centers, and raises awareness on everything from the prison industrial complex to the public school system (and cleverly points out the similarities that exist between the two). She’s in town celebrating the release of her debut album, ShapeShifters, and if you’re hungry for true-school hip-hop with world appeal, this show isn’t to be missed. With Finale, DJ Rhettmatic, DJ Revolution and the Soul.Scienz Residents. 943 N. Broadway, Chinatown. www.myspace.com/boomboxlosangeles. (Jonathan Cunningham)

Firewater at the Roxy

David Waldman

(Click to enlarge)

Canadian bakin’: dd/mm/yyyy

(Click to enlarge)

Lipstick traces: The Detroit Cobras

In the wake of 9/11, a divorce from his wife, the apparently terminal gentrification of New York City and the re-election of on-the-job-trainee George Bush, Firewater main man Tod A couldn’t take it anymore. He hit the road, Jack, and not just any road. He put all his possessions in storage and embarked on a solo adventure through India and Pakistan. The former Cop Shoot Cop singer-bassist found himself making sounds that were worlds away from the music he’d made in the past. He recorded the tracks that would end up on Firewater’s new album, The Golden Hour (Bloodshot), with musicians he met on the road, including in Israel and Turkey. His previous recordings were already infused with a world-music expansiveness (after all, early members of Firewater have turned up in Gogol Bordello and Balkan Beat Box), but Tod A finds himself venturing into even stranger territory on The Golden Hour. Hazy horns exhale over the funky rhythms and shouted vocals of untraceably exotic tracks like “Some Kind of Kindness,” where spy-movie guitars and percussive rumbles slide into a sublime dub groove. (Falling James)

Also playing Saturday:

JUNIOR BROWN, DAVE ALVIN, MIKE STINSON, DEAD ROCK WEST, LONESOME SPURS at the Queen Mary; CECI BASTIDA at California Plaza, 3 p.m.; KANYE WEST, RIHANNA, N.E.R.D., LUPE FIASCO at Staples Center; FROG EYES, THAILAND at the Echo; THE UNTOUCHABLES, HORNY TOAD at the Good Hurt; THE DICKIES, AGENT ORANGE at Harvelle’s (Redondo Beach); JOSH FIX at the Hotel Café; JONATHAN RICHMAN at the Mint; LIZ PAPPADEMAS at Pehrspace; THE QUEERS, KEPI GHOULIE at Safari Sam’s; THE BELLRAYS at Saint Rocke; MYSTERY HANGUP, OLMECA at Self Help Graphics, 6 p.m.; SWORDS OF FATIMA at Old Towne Pub.

SUNDAY, JUNE 8

Simone White at the Hotel Café

Simone White’s debut long-player, I Am the Man (Honest Jon’s), came out in the States a couple of weeks ago. An enchanting but curious batch of darkish folk stories sung in a sort of melodiously wizened young voice, laced instrumentally with a languid melodic grace cued from ’50s-’60s dream pop, the album was recorded in Nashville with the producers and players involved in several Lambchop, Calexico, Will Oldham and Silver Jews projects. The album is loaded with surprises that blow away easy references, which owes somewhat to White’s interesting background — she was born in Hawaii and raised in a commune where she listened only to classical music and didn’t have a TV; later, she found her voice under the sway of Sonic Youth, Odetta, Cesaria Evora and Bonnie Prince Billy. For whatever reasons, White’s sardonic but sweet songs of politics (personal and otherwise), fated love, and times good and bad contain an oblique ecstasy that sounds purely musical, untarnished. (John Payne)

Also playing Sunday:

SWINGIN’ UTTERS, DEADBOLT, GHASTLY ONES at the Queen Mary; TIERNEY SUTTON, SHARON LAWRENCE, LILI HAYDN, DEBORAH GIBSON at Orpheum Theatre; THE QUEERS, KEPI GHOULIE at Alex’s Bar; I SEE HAWKS IN L.A., THE CHAPIN SISTERS at the Echo, 5 p.m.; BOSS MARTIANS, ROMAK & THE SPACE PIRATES at the Knitting Factory; JOAN OF ARC at Pehrspace; WAYNE HANCOCK at Safari Sam’s; NO AGE, MIKA MIKO, ABE VIGODA at the Smell, 11 a.m.