Rock Picks: Seun Kuti, Thievery Corporation, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Bobby Digital & Stone Mecca at Henry Fonda Theater

Wu Tang Clan’s untouchable master producer/sound wiz RZA is one buzy MF. He’s doing his Wu Tang duties and scoring for films, acting in ’em, too, and now he’s celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his Bobby Digital persona with the new Digi Snax disc, coming out in July on Koch. Who’s Bobby Digital? He’s a character who plays a big part in RZA’s eternal pursuit of sex & sci-fi, and Digi Snax is, just maybe, the supreme zenith of the RZA art, where the producer, MC and composer whips out another highly unusual electro-pop hip-hop opus, mashing a sci-fi blaxploitation Ennio Morricone in a pachinko parlor on Uranus, or something. This beautifully skewed music is assisted by RZA’s bizarre guest players, such as the Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante, Dhani Harrison, the Black Knights, Dexter Wiggles, Shavo Odadjian of System of a Down, Reverend William Burke and primo West Coast soul/funk band Stone Mecca; the latter will accompany Bobby onstage tonight. Dig this Hollywood scene! (John Payne)

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss go 'round the roses.

Ingrid Michaelson: Tongue tied

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• Sam Phillips
• Mr. T
• Janiva Magness
• Bluegrass
• Hip-Hop and Rap

Also playing Friday:

(Click to enlarge)

Ingrid Michaelson: Tongue tied

(Click to enlarge)

Sam Phillips waits for a signal.

INDIGO GIRLS at Long Beach Terrace Theater; B.B. KING, DUANE EDDY, LIZA MINNELLI at the Hollywood Bowl; MARTHA WAINWRIGHT at Amoeba Music, 6 p.m.; RAEKWON, CAPPADONNA at Blue Cafe; NOUS NON PLUS, TOUR DE FRANCE, CASXIO at the Bordello; FISHBONE at Harvelle’s (Redondo Beach Pier); HELMET at Malibu Inn; WOLF EYES, JOHN WIESE, DAMION ROMERO at Spaceland; 50 CENT HAIRCUT, JAMES WILSEY at Taix; CIVET at the Viper Room.

 SATURDAY, JUNE 21

Long Beach Bayou Festival at Rainbow Lagoon

With its seaside setting, scads of exquisite Creole vittles and some of the finest names in Louisiana Cajun and zydeco, the annual Long Beach Bayou Festival rates as downright irresistible. The esteemed Savoy Doucet Band, a clan of folklorists with an intimate, encyclopedic knowledge of the Cajun idiom, are not stuffy academics but fiery tradition bearers loaded with innate skill and dynamism. On the zydeco side, Terrence Simien & the Mallet Playboys and Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie offer prime examples of that exotic R&B-tinged regional sound. And there are also rousing doses of blues from the capable disciple Bernie Pearl (check his fine new double-CD release, Old School Blues) and the incomparable, jazz-informed veteran singer Barbara Morrison, two local stylists who should represent Los Angeles with admirable impact. Satisfying, soul-stirring stuff. Also Sun. (Jonny Whiteside)

Chip Taylor at McCabe’s

Don’t go see Chip Taylor because he wrote such rock and pop standards as “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning” or because he happens to be Angelina Jolie’s uncle and Jon Voight’s brother. Go see Taylor because he is one feisty cuss of a singer-songwriter. Imagine Steve Earle 15 years down the road. On his new release, New Songs of Freedom, Taylor rails against injustice and hypocrisy. The title track timely name-checks the oil crisis, global warming and China-Tibet conflicts, while other politically charged tunes address war vets, religion and “red, white & black & blue America.” Besides his outraged reportage numbers, he also spins tales of love and life with bar-stool poignancy and sly humor. Taylor, who is in the midst of a major prolific period (releasing 11 albums in the last 12 years), sings it like he sees it, and there’s something to be said for that. There’s also something to be said for the thrill of hearing him perform “Wild Thing” live. (Michael Berick)

Seun Kuti & Fela’s Egypt 80 at El Rey Theatre

Oh, the burden of greatness that befalls the progeny of genius. Take Seun Kuti, son of Fela Anikulapo and younger half-brother to Femi. We’ve seen it before with Marleys, Lennons, Dylans and the like, but in Seun’s case he inherited a crucial non-genetic piece of Dad’s legacy — the band Egypt 80. The power and the glory of that funky, trance-notic, ginormous swirl of West African big-band sound — with its boisterously in-your-face brass, relentless guitar groove-web and renewably energetic percussive foundation — hasn’t dimmed. The gene pool factors into Seun’s blossoming talent too. He’s heir to a fair dollop of his pop’s hip-swaggering, antiauthoritarian attitude — part rebel rabble-rouser, part lithe-wire dancer, part libidinal funkateer. Seun’s new self-titled debut album doesn’t mess much with the Afrobeat formula, but damn if it doesn’t swing, with Fela’s Egypt 80 in full effect and the young un’s talk-sung rants keeping the finger-pointing flame at a white-hot burn. This shit is real — accept no imitation. Also at California Plaza, Fri. (Tom Cheyney)

Also playing Saturday:

KINKY, RAVEONETTES, AUTOLUX, DENGUE FEVER, BOSTICH + FUSSIBLE, JESCA HOOP, AFROBEAT DOWN, AM at Make Music Pasadena festival, 11 a.m.; SHE WANTS REVENGE at the Wiltern; VERY BE CAREFUL at Alex’s Bar; JOHN OLSON, NATE YOUNG, MIKE CONNELLY at Beyond Baroque, 7:30 p.m.