Also playing Saturday:
TODD RUNDGREN at the Canyon; REVEREND HORTON HEAT, NASHVILLE PUSSY, SUPERSUCKERS at House of Blues; CHUMP CHANGE GANG, CARNAGE ASADA, SWORDS OF FATIMA at Mr. T’s Bowl; SIMON STOKES at Taix; MERLE JAGGER, DAFNI at Farmers Market, 8 p.m.
Zak Fleming
The incredible Levell Crump, a.k.a. David Banner
Darren Clark
Naïm Amor: Stop in the Naïm of love.
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SUNDAY, JULY 6
Joseph Berardi, Boor Baar at Eagle Rock Center for the Arts
A night of drums, drums, drums — which is all you really need, isn’t it? Ex-Fibonacci Joe Berardi is a local hero for having provided his ace rhythm chops with a wildly wide-ranging bunch of artists, from Stan Ridgway, Ann Magnuson, James White & the Blacks, Rufus Wainwright, Lydia Lunch, Double Naught Spy Car and his own duo Non Credo to avantish stalwarts of the jazz/new music/improv scene, such as Nels Cline, G.E. Stinson, the Obliteration Quartet and Steuart Liebig’s Mentones. Berardi’s style is a unique amalgamation of techniques and attitudes culled from the progressive jazz, rock and contemporary classical worlds — like all of the above, and none of it — and here we get to hear him in a brand-new context, that of the percussion soloist. He’ll be performing new pieces for various percussive instruments and electronics, and our heads will turn in novel positions. Also appearing is a young trio of drummers called Boor Baar: Cory Beers, John Wash IV and Mike Robbins. Starts at 7 p.m.; don’t be late. 2225 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock. (626) 795-4989. Berardi also at Safar Sam’s, Mon. (John Payne)
Also playing Sunday:
Darren Clark
(Click to enlarge)
Naïm Amor: Stop in the Naïm of love.
MIKE STINSON, THE CHEATIN’ KIND, BETTY DYLAN at the Echoplex, 4:30 p.m.; RED MAIDS, CORREATOWN, MONSTER, ONE TRICK PONY at Mr. T’s Bowl; LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS at Spaceland.
MONDAY, JULY 7
David Banner at House of Blues
Like his namesake from the Hulk movies, you might not like rapper David Banner when he gets angry. Dude is likely to vent his rage on the administration, the music biz, race relations and, especially, audience members who look bored or distracted. On The Greatest Story Ever Told, Banner is as much a producer/actor/grad student/philanthropist as he is an efficient maker of club anthems and trunk rattlers. Yet there is no denying that this syrup-sipping crunk superstar’s black conscience is increasingly getting the better of him. Interestingly, “Cadillac on 22s, Part 2,” is no ode to vintage whips but a valentine to the South as the cradle of African-American culture (plus a dis of post-diaspora blacks who turn their noses up at their countrified counterparts), and throughout the disc he’s alternately paranoid and pissed about his Mississippian image. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of collar poppin’ with the MC all-star “9mm” and the way-hotter “Get Like Me,” sporting the most wicked bass line ever. (Andrew Lentz)
Retribution Gospel Choir at the Troubadour
Alan Sparhawk of the infamously minimal Low has been playing music at thoughtfully sludgy speeds and repressed volumes for so long now that he can perhaps be excused for wanting to blow off a little steam, crank it up, bash it out and in general tear the roof off the sucka. His new side project, the Retribution Gospel Choir — which is really the latest incarnation of Low minus Sparhawk’s vocalist-wife, Mimi Parker — makes with the garage-y caterwaul and back-to-basics rock Neanderthalisms. It’s a far more stoner-like approach than the serious and staid Sparhawk would seem to be into, though maybe not so surprising, given his occasional guitar-god flashes in the past, most recently in his Solo Guitar persona. Retribution Gospel Choir make their brief but epic anthems lash with the passion of supremely intense focus; like Low, they seek to capture some kind of elusive spirit before it vanishes into thin air — and there’s something cathartic about that, for us and for the band. (John Payne)
Also playing Monday:
STEVIE WONDER at the Hollywood Bowl; DAVID ARCHULETA, DAVID COOK, BROOKE WHITE, CARLY SMITHSON at Staples Center; AMILIA K. SPICER, RIVER ROGUE, KILLING CASANOVA at the Bordello; WOUNDED LION, JAIL WEDDINGS at the Echo; NAÏM AMOR, NOVI SPLIT at Echo Curio; A STATIC LULLABY at the Knitting Factory; CAPTAIN AHAB, KEVIN SHIELDS at Pehrspace; JOE BERARDI at Safari Sam’s.
TUESDAY, JULY 8
Playing Tuesday:
YAZ at the Orpheum Theatre (see Music feature); VON IVA, ASTRA HEIGHTS at the Echo; BIC RUNGA at Largo at the Coronet; MONDO GENERATOR, YEAR LONG DISASTER at the Viper Room; EARLIMART at Amoeba Music, 7 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9
Naïm Amor at Tangier
More than 10 years ago, Naïm Amor made what some desperate Americans might consider an insane decision by moving from his home in Paris to Tucson. But nothing Amor has done has made sense by conventional standards, and that’s what makes him an artist. While crooning gorgeous self-penned French love songs, he’s been known to play a toy drum machine into his guitar’s pickups, layering it over hot-shit jazz licks he’s fed through a loop, creating sheets of sound. His latest album is called Sanguine — a word that evokes blood — and while he still strolls through a moody landscape, he’s currently not as concerned with sonic experimentation. The title reveals that this is a more inner-directed effort that focuses on beats of the heart rather than machinery. Amor performs solo tonight for those whose hearts have been won or broken, and he can win or break a heart with his Parisian soul music. That’s what makes him a great artist. Also at the Echo Curio, Mon. (Michael Simmons)
