The Pretenders at the Wiltern
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The Pretenders’ latest CD, Break Up the Concrete (on film producer Steve Bing’s Shangri-La label), is not only their first release in six years, it’s their most consistently satisfying album since 1984’s Learning to Crawl. Chrissie Hynde sounds newly inspired, as if she’s in love again, chanting rapid-fire koans over a punked-out Bo Diddley beat on the thrilling “Boots of Chinese Plastic,” an instant classic that will no doubt appear on their next greatest-hits set. (Curiously, session man Jim Keltner played drums on the album, although founding member Martin Chambers still tours with the band.) Much has been made of Concrete’s occasional country and rockabilly flourishes, but if you remove the pedal-steel sparkles by Son Volt’s Eric Heywood, tracks like “Love’s a Mystery” are really no different from Hynde’s trademark romantic pure-pop songs. Much stranger is the deliberately non-retro way Heywood’s and James Walbourne’s shivering guitar phantasms create a weirdly loopy mood on the carnal reverie “Almost Perfect,” where a spellbound Hynde gushes to her boyfriend, “phobically suspicious/with an oversized schlong/unemployable, illegal/you’re a whole film by Don Siegel ... you’re the best part of Ohio.” The longtime British resident seems to be getting back in touch with her inner Ohio, having recently opened a vegan restaurant in her Akron hometown. The CD packaging even includes seed paper meant for planting in similar concrete jungles. (Falling James)
Also playing Tuesday:
AKRON/FAMILY at the Steve Allen Theater; CUT COPY, MATT & KIM, KNIGHTLIFE at the Henry Fonda Theater; NEIL HALSTEAD, ZACH GILL at Largo at the Coronet.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11
John Digweed, Kazell at the Mayan
It’s been nearly three years since British DJ John Digweed has performed in Los Angeles. That’s a long time for someone who has seeded the local superclub scene with his progressive sound, and who has become a perennial New Year’s Eve headliner here. Dance music has come full circle since Digweed helped to put our city on the superclub map with his mix CD Global Underground: Los Angeles in 2001: That compilation explored twisted tribal rhythms and charged headfirst down dark, druggy alleys. While Diggers has since returned to more melodic techno (with the rest of the DJ world), the post-9/11 sounds of darkness have returned in this era of economic apocalypse (see DJ Hell). Will Diggers deliver the evil, angry energy we all crave? My money — what’s left of it — says yes. With reinforced sound and a club packed with true weeknight warriors, it’s a safe bet that this DJ’s DJ will return with a once-in-a-recession vibe. (Dennis Romero)
Guns N Bombs, Heartsrevolution, Beni, Acid Girls at the Echo
There’s a whole new generation of dance-music fans in Los Angeles — teenagers and 20-somethings who wouldn’t know a superstar DJ if they ran into one at the supermarket. These neon punks in emolike garb prefer beats wrapped in a garage-band aesthetic: fast, bombastic and irreverent. More than any other act, Guns N Bombs delivers the goods: guitarlike synth riffs, relentless pogo beats and post-disco loops that would put Daft Punk to shame. But the duo is among few local artists who put it down on turntables, as well as in the studio — with remixes on the Kitsuné label and an album forthcoming. Every shaggy-haired kid in L.A. with a MySpace page and a laptop is a nu electro DJ. But Guns N Bombs’ musicianship is a guiding light for a community set aglow by the merging fires of indie rock and DJ culture. Bask in its DJ set Wednesday as carmaker Scion gets its marketing on with a free party (and a free nu electro CD compilation) at the Echo. (R.S.V.P. required: www.scion.com/avrelease.) (Dennis Romero)
Also playing Wednesday:
AKRON/FAMILY at the Steve Allen Theater; RHONE OCCUPATION, FARAWAY PLACES at Silverlake Lounge (see music feature); CUT COPY, MATT & KIM, KNIGHTLIFE at the Henry Fonda Theater; KEITH JARRETT, GARY PEACOCK, JACK DEJOHNETTE at Royce Hall; SEMI PRECIOUS WEAPONS, KILLOLA, VON IVA at the Knitting Factory.
THURSDAY, MARCH 12
Yelle at El Rey
Despite finding fame with the very public ridiculing of a fellow musician’s manhood (MySpace hit “Short Dick Cuizi,” which cut Parisian rapper Cuizinier down to size), Yelle’s all about relentless Euro-electro charm. The dance world’s been thoroughly seduced by French acts of late (Daft Punk, Justice et al.), and here comes another one. Almost defiantly singing in her native tongue only ups Yelle’s coy joy as she wraps genuine melodies and nursery-rhyme refrains around squelchy/fuzzy Radio Shack synths and migraine-inducing megakicks. “Je Veux Te Voir” (the finalized version of “Short Dick Cuizi”) bounces all over Toni Basil’s “Mickey” with help from Human League, Ace of Base and flurried déjà views of Neneh Cherry’s “Buffalo Stance,” while “A Cause des Garçons” could be the analog-driven incidental music from some early-’80s movie, weaving fake-for-fake’s-sake beat-box cascades around textured stop/start science-project stabs. Yelle’s performance at the Music Box in November had even the bar-hugging +1 posers moving — you’re next. (Paul Rogers)
