Rock Picks: Everest, Mumiy Troll, Busta Rhymes

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27

Mike Watt & The Secondmen, Lee Ranaldo, The Nichemakers, The Electric Illuminati, The Hootenanny All-stars at Spaceland

Gooby Herms

Faun Fables: An ideal, and a dream

Former Southern preacher Jim White

Related Content

• These Are the Strangest Hip-Hop Soda Commercials
  May 30, 2013
• The Best Concerts to See in Los Angeles This Week
  May 20, 2013
• Music Picks: Charli XCX, Polica, Esperanza Spalding and More
  August 16, 2012
• The Best Concerts to See In L.A. This Week
  April 1, 2013
• The Best Concerts To See in L.A. This Week: Oct. 15-18
  October 15, 2012

More About

• Lee Ranaldo
• Busta Rhymes
• Lynda Carter
• Bob Mould
• Punk Rock

This is a huge, arty blowout sort of thing in celebration of the opening of the group exhibition “Rock, Paper, Scissors” at Robert Berman Gallery (on view February 28–March 21), which highlights musicians who mash the mediums of music and visual art in their work — and that would have to include Raymond Pettibon, Daniel Johnston, Ron English and Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers, as well as Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. So just take a gander at the headline here and assume all sorts of creatively advanced rocking spew, in separate groups and in bizarre new collaborative hybrids-with-superspecial-unnameable-guests gracing the stage. Mike Watt & the Secondmen will chock-a-block-rock obliquely; the Nichemakers oeuvre stars the aforementioned Mr. Pettibon; the Electric Illuminati is fronted by Ron English; and then you’ve got this whole other amazing opening bit by the razor-witted Old War Shirt, plus M.S. Garvey’s Buspoems, the very, very Famous Bob Rokos and without a doubt much, much Moore. ... (The same bill, minus Lee Ranaldo, will perform a benefit concert at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m.) (John Payne)

Everest, Two Sheds, The Parson Red Heads at the Echo

Everest continue their climb up the indie-rock mountain, riding the momentum of their 2008 CD, Ghost Notes, which was released on Neil Young’s Vapor Records. They were supposed to open for “Old Man” Young last October at the Forum, but the concert was canceled at the last minute, when he refused to cross a union picket line. There are elements of Young’s pastoral country-folk on Ghost Notes, with Russell Pollard singing with a lonesome haziness. Actually, Pollard’s soft crooning on tunes like “Only in Your Mind” and “Trees” sounds more like Paul Simon, albeit surrounded by a sparkle of countrified guitars from the band, which includes former members of the Folk Implosion, Earlimart and Sebadoh. The Sacramento duo Two Sheds purvey a similarly mellow form of austere country-pop on their self-titled EP, highlighted by Caitlin Gutenberger’s coolly contemplative vocals. She and her bassist-partner, John Gutenberger, balance their downbeat ballads with a few unexpected twists, such as the charming way she turns the phrase “What the fuck?” into a sugary melodic hook on the relatively rocking “WTF?” or how they use the sound of their cat Buddy crunching his food as an effect on the acoustic interlude “To Be Alive.” Tonight’s bill is nicely rounded out with locals the Parson Red Heads, who expanded their own country-rock sound to encompass jangly power pop on their recent EP, Owl & Timber. (Falling James)

Also playing Friday:

HANK III at the Roxy; ANGRY SAMOANS at the Knitting Factory; PRINCESS SUPERSTAR, SOUTH RAKKAS CREW at Bardot; KENNY BARRON at the Jazz Bakery; KOOL KEITH, KUTMASTA KURT at El Rey; JON BRION AND FRIENDS at Largo at the Coronet.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28

Faun Fables, Voco at Spaceland

Building on a tradition of American avant-folk with roots stretching back to YaHoWa and Cromagnon and before, Dawn McCarthy, of Oakland, has collaborated with everyone, from Bonnie Prince Billy to Nurse With Wound’s Matt Waldron — not out of some misguided careerist collection of strategies but with an eye toward communion in a music world fraught with cynicism. With a name like “Faun Fables,” one might suspect the music to be inconsequential (or precious, or jocular) twaddle — yet the unassailable tradition of Americana that McCarthy draws from precludes such snark. Naiveté and simplicity notwithstanding, it’s music that’s not so much a fable as it is an ideal and a dream. Also on the bill are Voco, local Appalachia fetishists — where “fetish” means a meaningful totem, not a meaningless burlesque — who’ll present their modern volkish radiance via the inestimable talents of Moira Smiley, Jess Basta, Jessica Catron and Christine Enns on banjo, accordion, harmonies and “body percussion.” Acoustic body music (ABM)? It’s about time! (David Cotner)

Thank You at The Smell

Just when you thought that Baltimore was all about Bmore hip-hop, club and gutter music, Thank You come along and rip you a new one. With their sophomore record (first for Thrill Jockey) appropriately titled Terrible Two, the trio of Jeffrey McGrath, Michael Bouyoucas and Elke Wardlaw have carried five songs and just more than 35 minutes to places few full-blown orchestras (the Spike Jones type) have ever dared to go. The trio owes a debt of gratitude to Sonic Youth and the Boredoms, and there seems to be something cultish about them: They blindfold and spin you around with their syncopation, then hypnotize and seduce you with feedback and drones. Their lady percussionist, Wardlaw, is like two Moe Tuckers with double doses of speed, and the album’s first cut, “Empty Legs,” may have you thinking that someone told them they just got the gig to create the soundtrack for a new surf movie called Apocalypse Now. Mi Ami is also on the bill. (Daniel Siwek)