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

Also playing Monday:

EL GRAN SILENCIO, MEXICAN DUBWISER at the Echoplex; THE MONOLATORS at Pehrspace; JAKE LA BOTZ at Redwood Bar & Grill; FREE MORAL AGENTS at Sam’s at the Regent; WESTERN STATES MOTEL, MARCHING BAND, BRAM at Spaceland; THE BINGES at the Viper Room.

Drew Reynolds

For the love of ivy: Emily Wells

Elena House

Dandelion wine: Miranda Lee Richards

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18

Emily Wells at Henry Fonda Theater

The Hotel Café Tour comes to town with a lineup of women pop-folk singers who’ve outgrown the namesake Hollywood bar’s tiny stage and are ready for a bigger spotlight. There’s an impressive variety of intelligently tuneful performers — including the soothing confessions of headliner Rachael Yamagata and the whimsical, rambling pop of Thao Nguyen (appearing tonight without her usual band, the Get Down Stay Down) — and we urgently recommend arriving early for the local singer-violinist Emily Wells. Her new CD, The Symphonies: Dreams, Memories & Parties, is divided into 10 “symphonies,” which are actually endearing, arty songs layered with up to 21 tracks of violin apiece. “So I learned to play a little bit of violin, but most of all I learned how to listen,” she explains on the rapid-fire autobiography of “Symphony 3,” a.k.a. “The Story” (which features a guest rap from Count Bass D). Wells carves up elegant, classically based pop tunes and frosts them with Björk/Kate Bush–style embellishments. Her lyrics draw upon fantastic imagery, such as the secrets hidden in “suitcase of fireflies” in “Fair Thee Well,” and “Synesthesia tastes just like a rainstorm, hears like a lover’s kiss,” from “The Click Boom Boom.” This multi-instrumentalist is multitalented, with subtle powers of magic and persuasion; she even “taught the neighborhood how to creep for you.” (Falling James)

Also playing Tuesday:

MATISYAHU, FLOBOTS at Club Nokia; EVEREST, HENRY CLAY PEOPLE, NICO STAI at the Echoplex; LUDOVICI EINAUDI at Largo; MIKE STINSON, DAVE GLEASON at Redwood Bar & Grill; ABE VIGODA at the Smell; SPINDRIFT at Amoeba Music, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19

 
Miranda Lee Richards at Tangier

Miranda Lee Richards first came to some attention in 2001 with the release of her debut album, The Herethereafter, which featured a wonderfully sparkling version of the old Rolling Stones tune “Dandelion.” Written just as the Stones were entering their psychedelic period in the mid-’60s, it was a perfect little ephemeral soap bubble of a song, with atypically sunny, hippie-ish lyrics and an airy-fairy musical backing that was countered by Charlie Watts’ thunderous tom-tom fills. Richards’ remake was even more precious, with her sweetly true melodies replacing Mick Jagger’s rough shouting, and it announced the arrival of a unique stylist. Her long-awaited follow-up album, the new Light of X (Nettwerk), produced by Rick Parker, charms with delicate, carefully rendered balladry and gently laid-back pop tunes. There’s a hint of country music and wide-open spaces with Ben Peeler’s pedal-steel adornments on “Savorin’ Your Smile” and “Olive Tree,” and Richards’ radiant voice lights up the dusky guitar riffs of “Early November.” She gives good jangle on the power-pop reverie “Pictures of You,” while Parker frames her solemn piano chords with shimmering guitar plucking on the ballad “Here by the Window,” which builds a haunting momentum with bluesy grandeur. Her lyrics dip a little too often into facile clichés (“biting the hand that feeds us,” “caught in the headlights,” etc.), but Richards’ gorgeous singing usually elevates even the plainest sentiments. (Falling James)

Ohgr at El Rey Theatre

Nivek Ogre, you might recall, was the front man for Vancouver’s semi-legendary industrial fear-mongers Skinny Puppy. The appropriately named vocalist shifts slightly as Ohgr with this really intriguing new album called Devils in My Details, wherein his old band’s doomy, wicked factory sounds of jackboot percussive stomping and buzzsaw synth work are submerged amid huge loads of clean-lined electro-rock and subtle swaths of swirling musique concrète hinting at Satanic ritual, vintage sci-fi reels and eerily obscure Christian infomercials from a time when the world was black & white. With Ohgr, there’s always a kind of bleakly black humor involved, and if you’re listening closely — as his intensely devoted cult will assuredly be — you’ll find cleverly bleak yocks aplenty on Devils. You’ll also hear one of the most ingeniously engineered productions in recent memory, thanks to Ohgr’s longtime studio partner Mark Walk. The live show promises jaw-dropping new technology and special-guest “chaos magicians.” (John Payne)

Also playing Wednesday:

USHER at Club Nokia; LUCINDA WILLIAMS at Ventura Theatre; SUGAR MINOTT, SCIENTIST at the Echoplex; CARINA ROUND at the Hotel Café; VONDA SHEPARD at Largo; ELISA, ARI HEST, SARA HAZE at the Roxy; AIDS WOLF, ARRINGTON DE DIONYSO at the Smell; DANNY B. HARVEY at Taix; PORTUGAL THE MAN at the Troubadour.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20

 
Kaiju Big Battel, Busdriver at the Mayan

Women will cry! Men will laugh! For . . . it seems to be alive! Not one but two Kaiju Big Battels are coming to town, live monster-mayhem spectacles bringing to thrilling life the very real threat of the evil brains from the outer galaxy who have come to destroy planet Earth and probably steal our jobs. The Kaiju Commissioner will be doing his best to save the entire world before it explodes in a flame of terrible color! Unfortunately, we are currently being threatened by an active roster of more than 50 monsters, including Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle, Dusto Bunny, Call-Me-Kevin and the notorious square-headed mad scientist known as Dr. Cube. Referee Jingi will ensure evenhandedness in the ring, even when the monster has 10 of ’em, while Davio Salbino is an urban-renewal expert who reconstructs the crumbled cityscapes between Battels; your host for the events is MC Louden Noxious. Mind-warping speed-rapper Busdriver opens the proceedings. (John Payne)