Rock Picks: DJ Quik, Alejandro Escovedo, Ratatat

 
Also playing Monday:

Death to Anders at the Echo.

Mick Rock

Alejandro Escovedo: A Nun, a True Believer

E*vax

Bearded instrumentalists Ratatat

Janet Weiss

Two girls, one Coomes: Quasi, of Portland

Related Content

• The Best Concerts to See in Los Angeles This Weekend
  May 3, 2013
• Bludso's Review: A Compton Classic Comes to Hollywood
  May 2, 2013
• This Week's Review, The Condensed Version: Bludso's Bar and Que in Hollywood
  May 2, 2013
• Compton City Hall Corruption? Tune In Tonight
  March 27, 2013
• Music Picks: Charli XCX, Polica, Esperanza Spalding and More
  August 16, 2012

More About

• Randall Roberts
• John Payne
• Henry Fonda
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Electronic Music

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9

 
Jennifer O’Connor at Spaceland

Whether or not Jennifer O’Connor achieves her acclaim today or two decades hence must be left to history, but one way or another her songs will get their due. O’Connor, originally from Atlanta but now in NYC, makes them as sturdy and utilitarian as a coffee table. Her Over the Mountain, Across the Valley ... from 2006 was an overlooked gem that contained at least one timeless classic, “Today,” and many surprising others. Her new Here With Me (Matador) is equally efficient; the singer/songwriter crafts love songs that recall the softer tracks on Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville, or Lucinda Williams minus the Louisiana twang, or, perhaps most instructive, the Shins. No, these songs will never land on radio (too honest), but they’re tailor-made for a winning slot on a movie or TV soundtrack. Cut to a woman giving the stink-eye to a friend at a holiday mixer, as O’Connor’s “Xmas Party” fades in: “And not everyone was pretty/not everyone was thin/I think you’re pretty ugly/For turning into one of them.” Opening for Damien Jurado. (Randall Roberts)

 
Alejandro Escovedo at the Troubadour

Tonight’s show is a makeup date after Alejandro Escovedo had to postpone a gig at this club back in late July because of health issues. Following a serious bout with Hepatitis-C a few years ago, he’s nonetheless risen triumphantly and phoenix-like with his latest album, Real Animal, where he takes on the tragedy of his former Chelsea Hotel neighbors Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungeon through an urgently frantic and sordidly surreal eyewitness account. It’s never clear if Sid really killed Nancy, but the song lingers as a disturbing and compulsively fascinating piece of street journalism long after the CD ends. Escovedo contrasts that slice of darkness with the overtly pretty ballad “Swallows of San Juan,” where Susan Voelz’s violins rush in dreamily like the namesake birds. He also takes a look back at his gloriously misspent punk rock youth in songs that reference his early bands the Nuns and Rank & File, but these tracks aren’t sentimentally nostalgic as much as they are launching points for strange new ways of defying expectations. (Falling James)

 
Also playing Tuesday:

Ratatat at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theatre; Balkan Beat Box and DeLeon at the El Rey; Mogwai, Fuck Buttons at the Wiltern.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10

 
Ratatat at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theatre

The mighty and thunderous Ratatat machine has shifted gears slightly, and the duo’s past electric warrior-style blast of monster guitars and heavy, synthesized rhythms has taken a back seat to a more sophisticated and intricate sound. What this means is: less roar, more curl-up-to-you-like-a-pussycat, which, when listening to their three albums on shuffle, becomes the perfect soundtrack for your interstellar overdrive journey into exotic worlds and future dimensions. It’s music for both a hipster, rooftop pool party or dinner with mom. Expect to see a sparse live setup, but hear a richly layered sound sprinkled with world flare, an arsenal of strings and pianos, and a bunch of other nifty instrumental doodads that might or might not have real names. There’s a real delicacy to all those angular sounds, sinuous lines, beefed-up loops and brainiac electronics. Laptops make pretty sounds. Guitars brightly sing. Beats make feet move. Ratatat makes heart go pitter-patter. Also Tues. (Kat Jetson)

 
Also playing Wednesday:

Squeeze at the Orpheum; Built to Spill, Quasiat the Troubadour; Nels Cline, Jon Brion at Largo at the Coronet.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

 
Built to Spill, Quasi at the Troubadour

Hey, Built to Spill will be doing their 1997 Perfect From Now On album in its entirety in these special nights at the Troub. We must report that these L.A. shows are sold out, though. For those of you thinking about trying to get tix or maybe sneak in, keep in mind that Boise, Montana’s best have never made a better album, not nothing that ever topped the guitaristically glorious epicness of those eight Perfect tracks, which to this day still beam a righteous radiance that makes us feel pure and beautiful, and increasingly brings a tiny tear to the eye (nostalgia, don’t you know). Reportedly the band is just now peaking as a live proposition, too, so this should be an entirely awesome spectacle to witness — heartwarming, at very least. Then Quasi (former BTS man Sam Coomes and Sleater-Kinney’s Janet Weiss, now joined by bassist Joanna Bolme), is not just still around, but currently doing some of their strongest work, as evidenced by the turbulent and somewhat indefinable charms of their last one, When the Going Gets Dark (Touch and Go) Also Wed. (John Payne)

 
Also playing Thursday:

Toadies at The Roxy; Tim Finn at the El Rey.