Rock Picks: Part Time Punks Festival, The Breeders, Rodney Crowell

James Intveld at Joe’s Great American Bar & Grill

Few musicians burdened by the rockabilly yolk manage to transcend its implicit limitations, yet local veteran James Intveld has done precisely that. With an extensive track record marked by impressive highs (just get a load of his ace current CD, Have Faith) and punishing doses of tragedy (the 1985 death of his brother, who went down in then-boss Ricky Nelson’s defective DC-3), Intveld is on a ceaseless quest, marked by a striking mixture of raw talent and quiet dignity, which has allowed the singer-guitarist to attain a level where genuine contemporary expression and honor for country-music tradition coexist as a complementary, natural whole. That’s a hell of a balancing act, but Intveld, with his coolly alluring image, low-key presentation and high-voltage technical mastery, always makes it look easy. Ultimately, he’s driven more by demanding honky-tonk sacrament than his own ambition, and it’s that unusual surrender of self that allows him to so thoroughly inhabit his chosen musical realm. Long story short: The guy kicks ass. (Jonny Whiteside)

The Wild Stares live up to their name.

Chris Glass

The Breeders search desperately for that rare Tony Orlando LP.

Related Content

• Marnie Stern, Qui
  April 25, 2013
• The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend
  December 14, 2012
• Music Picks: The Weeknd, That '70s Soul, Power of the Riff
  December 13, 2012
• Music Picks: Shuggie Otis, The Rolling Stones, Juvenile
  April 25, 2013
• The Best Concerts to See in Los Angeles This Week
  April 29, 2013

More About

• CAESAR Sam
• Robyn Hitchcock
• Henry Fonda
• Marnie Stern
• Punk Rock

Also playing Saturday:

AMERICA at the Canyon; Q-TIP, THE COOL KIDS at House of Blues; KOTTONMOUTH KINGS at the Key Club; PINE BOX BOYS, GROOVY REDNECKS at Redwood Bar & Grill; JUNKYARD, JET BOY, LITTLE CAESAR at Sam’s at the Regent; ANNABELLA LWIN at the Viper Room.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16

 
Part Time Punks Festival at the Echoplex

The good folks behind the Part Time Punks series have assembled a mighty lineup for their annual festival, which takes place today at the Echoplex and its adjoining upstairs neighbor, the Echo. The bill ranges wildly from straightforward punk rock bands like Mika Miko to stranger and noisier art combos, with a healthy shot of post-punk pioneers to provide some historic context/contrast. The reunited Manchester outfit A Certain Ratio (with three early members) headline with their influential late-’70s neo-dance grooves, which combine slippery funk with dour, emotion-free vocals, albeit without the exhilarating crunch of more adventurous early rivals like Gang of Four. Whether it’s a good thing or not, they’re responsible for much of the softer ersatz disco and new-romantic styles that followed in punk rock’s purifying wake in Britain. Then we skip across the pond for a rare return by the original lineup of Pylon, the coolly indefinable early-’80s band that launched the vaunted Athens, Georgia, music scene with Michael Lachowski’s serpentine bass lines and Vanessa Hay’s probing caterwauling. Just as exciting are flashbacks from such early L.A. art rockers as the abrasively confrontational synth mob Nervous Gender, the minimalist pop-punk-fuzz reductions of the Urinals (whose songs have influenced Sonic Youth and been covered by Yo La Tengo and the Gun Club) and the current version of the grandly percussive Savage Republic. Keep an ear out for a onetime reunion of the Wild Stares, the cryptically poetic and sonically bent Boston electric-rock precursors to the local chamber-folk collective W.A.C.O. The festival starts at 2 p.m. (Falling James)

Also playing Sunday:

THE B-52’s, THE 88 at Club Nokia; KIOSK at El Rey Theatre; MINUS THE BEAR, ANNUALS at Henry Fonda Theater; ROBBY KRIEGER at the Canyon; PURE COUNTRY GOLD, GUILTY HEARTS at Redwood Bar & Grill; MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND, VOLUMEN CERO at the Roxy; CHARLIE WADHAMS at Tangier.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17

 
The Breeders at the Wiltern

For all of the hype about the Pixies reunion a few years ago, many of us were more thrilled about the return of Kim Deal’s other band, the Breeders. While the brief Pixies revival was more about nostalgia, the Breeders continue to make interesting, unusual records, including the consistently excellent Mountain Battles, which came out on 4AD earlier this year. There’s a newfound exhilaration in rumbling, tumbling songs like “Overglazed,” which is topped by Deal’s searingly clear vocals and wrapped up in a blanket of backwards guitars, and she trips out further on weird interludes like the shadowy “Istanbul.” As ever, much of the excitement comes from the seductively smooth way Kim’s cool harmonies blend with her twin sister Kelley Deal’s on the rustic ballad “Here No More” and, especially, the stately, spare beauty of “We’re Gonna Rise.” “I’ll tell the story — or not,” Kim teases, her voice trailing off delicately into the void, as the guitars subside into a glassy silence before sparking up again. Other surprises await: Kim practices her best German on the chugging midtempo rocker “German Studies” and her best Spanish on the languid idyll “Regalame Esta Noche.” She “waits for Mercury to fall” on “Walk It Off,” where she advises her fans, “Nobody’s allowed to fight/Till the band starts playing tonight.” (Falling James)

Weave at the Echo

Is the name Weave an ironic reference to the ubiquitous faux follicles rocked by sistas and starlets alike around L.A., or is it a more introspective statement about the band’s varying stratum of sound and overlapping influences? With local rockers Weave, you never know (their MySpace addy is “Weave Yo Head”). The quartet definitely inject a sense of quirky fun into their hypnotic, dance-y yet vicious tunes. Compared to everything from Blonde Redhead to the Slits (we think the girl vocals recall Le Tigre and even a little X), the arty grinders definitely have a respectable pedigree. The band emerged from Ivory Lee Carlson and Nicole Turley’s Seventh Sea & Blood Everywhere and spent 2007 with pickup members, including Ariel Pink (Haunted Graffiti), ultimately solidifying their lineup with Philip Haut (the Centimeters, Bubonic Plague) and Bryan Lasley (Bubonic Plague), both of whom offer rhythmic presence to the femme-driven fervency. Also Mon., Nov. 24. (Lina Lecaro)