Rock Picks: Pacha Massive, Calexico, Juliana Hatfield

 
Also playing Monday:

JAMIE LIDDELL at Avalon; DEATH TO ANDERS, FOL CHEN, DIE ROCKERS DIE, RADEMACHER at the Echo; LACOSTE at Pehrspace; MIKE STINSON at Redwood Bar & Grill; DIO MALOS, DEVON WILLIAMS at Spaceland; LIZ PAPPADEMAS at Tangier.

Mad Juana loves guns and roses.

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• Henry Fonda
• Rancid (Musical Group)
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• Punk Rock
• Hip-Hop and Rap

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30

 
Mr. Gnome at Silverlake Lounge

The Cleveland duo Mr. Gnome trade in fanciful lyrical imagery about pirates and rabbits and crickets, but they’re not a cute or childlike band. There are plenty of pretty moments scattered throughout their recent CD, Deliver This Creature, such as the hazy soundscape that sprawls over “Silhouette,” with Nicole Barille’s whispery vocals carried along the wind by shimmering keyboards, or the flickering echoes from her guitar that illuminate the spacy intro to “Rabbit.” But there are just as many moments where drummer-pianist Sam Meister crashes the party with jagged symphonies of sound, such as the fearsome collisions midway through the title track and the mountain-size art-noise explosions detonated throughout “The Machine.” Barille ties it all together with dark, enigmatic poetry and charismatic vocals that segue from icy Portishead/Cat Power–style dreaminess into feral howling with serrated juxtapositions that recall PJ Harvey. This uniquely twisted combination of sound and fury makes Mr. Gnome one of the most stunning discoveries of the year. (Falling James)

 
Temple Bar Farewell Party at Temple Bar

After a great decadelong run making Temple Bar one of L.A.’s crucial live-music venues, owners Louie and Netty Ryan have, as Louie says, decided it’s “time to let something beautiful go.” Since the couple put the club up for sale (it’s in escrow now), the native Dubliner has waxed nostalgic, remembering the palpable “magic of the room” and “what a great thing it was to be a part of,” but admits that he and Netty feel “liberated to move on.” For those who love the joint, Temple Bar’s transition (don’t call it a closure — the Wilshire location has been a music spot since its At My Place days) marks the end of what tonight’s host, Carlos Niño, calls a “community flow . . . something pure” and quite rare on the scene. What made Temple Bar special? Its welcoming vibe and respect for the musicians, regardless of their fame and caliber. Its broadened definition of what “world music” means to include hip-hop, jazz, R&B, electronica, folk and alt-rock, as well as the obvious Latin, African, Asian and Caribbean flavors. This farewell bash won’t be about performances (although there will be some special moments, no doubt) but offers the lovely losers and sexy cruisers, the lizard-eyed players and boogie-child movers a chance to pay their final respects to the Buddha behind the bar. (Tom Cheyney)

 
Also playing Tuesday:

JOURNEY, HEART, CHEAP TRICK at Greek Theatre; RANCID, ADOLESCENTS, LEFT ALONE at Henry Fonda Theater; MURS at Amoeba Music, 6 p.m.; AUTOMATIC MUSIC EXPLOSION at Canter’s; DAN LE SAC VS. SCROOBIUS PIP at the Echo; VIENNA TENG, MIKAL BLUE at Hotel Café; TALIB KWELI, DAVID BANNER at House of Blues; THENEWNO2 at Key Club; SOULFEGE at the Roxy.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1

 
My Bloody Valentine at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

In case you’re tired of weak leads or the satanic majesty of Neil Diamond at the Hollywood Bowl over these same two nights, come have your powers of hearing phoenicized by My Bloody Valentine’s 130 decibels of distortion and eternal reverb. In this, their first U.S. tour in 16 years, they make up for the massive “sike!” of this year’s Coachella rumors with an action echoing through the cavernous hall of the Civic, playing tracks from an unfinished 1996 album, Isn’t Anything, and Loveless, the album that reportedly nearly bankrupt Creation Records and certainly annihilated many minds in its wake. The ’90s were plagued by navel-gazing, apathy and cynicism, and yet despite the obvious “shoegazing” tag, My Bloody Valentine have always promised an expansive world of lush sonic imagination and flat-out good dreams. Bread and circuses still cost the same as last year, but My Bloody Valentine offer a view of the spectacle from the skies far above it, soaring in the sunshine, in love with this world and the next. Also Thurs. (David Cotner)

 
Also playing Wednesday:

RANCID, T.S.O.L. at Henry Fonda Theater; STARS at Avalon; NEIL DIAMOND at Hollywood Bowl; SPINDRIFT at the Echo; OVERKILL at Key Club; LOVED ONES, JACKSON UNITED at Knitting Factory; JOE FRANK at Largo; NEVA DINOVA at Silverlake Lounge; SLOAN at the Troubadour.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2

 
Mad Juana at the Viper Room

“You take the world for granted as you float up on your cake,” Karmen Guy purrs with a deceptive sugariness on Mad Juana’s new album, Bruja on the Corner (Acetate Records), before digging in the knife. “You think you’re some kind of a dignitary, but you’re nothing more than a fake,” she declares while accordionist Marni Rice, saxist Danny Ray and trumpeter Nico Camargo serenade her with merrily bittersweet, soused and swanky rejoinders straight out of old-time New Orleans. So many musicians invoke witchcraft and voodoo without ever sounding magical, but the New York group are indeed bewitching, with a timelessly exotic blur of Gypsy-punk influences akin to Manu Chao and Gogol Bordello that’s taken to another level of enchantment altogether by Guy’s sultry chanteuse persona. Her songwriting partner in crime, guitarist-bassist Sami Yaffa, lays down some considerable groovy grooves that go far beyond his previous contributions to Hanoi Rocks and the reconstituted New York Dolls, such as the dreamy dub interlude in the otherwise madcap “Strangers in Paradise” and the stormy acoustic guitars and haunting melodica-flecked sadness of “Circus Downtown.” It all culminates most impressively in the sinuously mesmerizing “Revolution Avenue,” whose dueling horns, loping dub bass, psychedelic sound effects and Guy’s border-dissolving imagery echo the febrile moods of Tijuana No’s classic album Contra-Revolucion Avenue. (Falling James)