Rock Picks: Dan Auerbach, Primal Scream, Lyrics Born

Sunday, March 15

Arthur Verocai and orchestra, Madlib, DJ Nuts at Harriet and Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex 

James Quine

Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys: Electric crunch and blues-rock roar

Rocio Rodriguez Salceda

DJ/rupture: Twisted beats, crooked and broken

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Part 3 of Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s “Timeless: The Composer/Arranger Series” finds our hip-hop heads paying homage to one rather obscure but influential Brazilian composer, Arthur Verocai. He’s a sort of folk-jazz iconoclast who is credited with devising a lot of the creative and complex arrangements and compositions for, among others, modern sambistas Jorge Ben and Gal Costa back in the ’70s. The thing that sealed Verocai’s legend, though, was his one-off eponymous solo album of 1972, a string-drenched, multicolored orgy of funky psychedelia and experimental soul-jazz stylistics that the casual listener might liken in hindsight to work from that era by David Axelrod. A 30-piece orchestra of devoted locals will be on hand to interpret, hopefully not too reverently. Opening magic comes from Madlib and DJ Nuts, and there’ll be surprise others popping in as well. Be there or be square, real square. (John Payne)

Also playing Sunday:

TOUMANI DIABATE at Largo at the Coronet; DAN ZANES AND FRIENDS at Royce Hall; AUSTRALIAN BBQ WITH THE DRONES, DAPPLED CITIES, MY DISCO, RED RIDERS AND OTHERS at the Echo; SF JAZZ COLLECTIVE at the Catalina Bar & Grill.

Monday, March 16

Primal Scream, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Kuroma at Club Nokia

Though they’re still a big deal in their native U.K., Primal Scream have been on cult-fave duty for the past decade or so on this side of the pond, due in no small part to bandleader Bobby Gillespie’s decision ’round about 2000’s XTRMNTR to transform the group from a flower-powered dance-rock troupe into a vehicle for half-baked radical left-wing politics. (“Kill All Hippies,” the lead track on XTRMNTR was called.) Primal Scream’s latest, last year’s Beautiful Creature, contains no shortage of the expected agitprop — sample title: “Suicide Bomb” — but it also features Gillespie’s prettiest writing in years; “Over & Over,” an unlikely dub-soul duet with Linda Thompson, could bring a tear to the eye of even the most hardened commie scumbag. Last year Brian Jonestown Massacre released the supremely craptastic My Bloody Underground; fortunately, their shows are more about engaging in onstage high jinks than they are about playing music. Athens, Georgia–based opener Kuroma is the pet psych-pop project of former Whigs and MGMT dude Hank Sullivant. (Mikael Wood)

Also playing Monday:

O+S, GREAT NORTHERN at the Silverlake Lounge; SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO at the Henry Fonda Theater; WAIT.THINK.FAST, VOICES VOICES, THE LATE BIRDS, DAME SATAN at the Echo; LARYTTA, GIRLS, HECUBA, NOSAJ THING at the Echoplex; NICO STAI, JOSH PIKE, YOUTH GROUP at Spaceland.

Tuesday, March 17

Ladyhawke at the Troubadour

Pip Brown started playing guitar for rockers Two Lane Blacktop in 2001, then moved on to the hormone-crazed electronica duo Teenager with Pnau’s Nick Littlemore. Together, those experiences gave Brown a peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate revelation before she finally got it right in her fully formed project, Ladyhawke. The rock-fused dance pop, big on synth riffs, theatrical ’80s affectation and sexual suggestion, is the musical equivalent of a sweaty pillow fight in those shiny American Apparel tights. Ladyhawke’s really packing venues in the U.K., but Americans aren’t as apt to swallow her easy, candy-coated ’80s shtick. Brits know better: It’s more fun to give in to Ms. Brown’s bravura. With her kick-in-the-balls delivery and her Stevie Nicks–meets–Debbie Gibson looks, Ladyhawke may still sound tame enough for airplay on KCRW, and Christina Aguilera may cover Pip Brown’s songs (the track “My Delirium” will be featured on her new album), but you can be sure, after this show, you’ll be proud to scribble “Ladyhawke” across your math folder without shame. (Wendy Gilmartin)

Also playing Tuesday:

...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF THE DEAD at the Echoplex; SKID ROW at the Key Club; MICKEY AVALON, THE PRICKS at the Roxy; DJ BONEBRAKE’S BONEBRAKE SYNCOPATERS at the Echo; OLLIN, SPEEDBUGGY at Spaceland.

Wednesday, March 18

Golem at the Echo

Golem are a New York City band that takes klezmer and Eastern European folk strains and bashes them out with a punky fervor, which aligns them philosophically with Gogol Bordello and such JDub label mates as Balkan Beat Box and Matisyahu. Accordionist-bandleader Annette Ezekiel Kogan and Aaron Diskin trade off lyrics in English, Yiddish and Ladino as trombonist Curtis Hasselbring and violinist Alicia Jo Rabins stitch the songs together with frantic tempos and madcap melodies on their latest album, Citizen Boris. But Kogan’s lyrics don’t ape the surreal bohemianism of Gogol Bordello singer Eugene Hütz’s wild-eyed tales. Instead, her tunes are more overtly sensual, such as “Tucheses and Nenes,” where Diskin frankly lists his favorite types of women (“I like them dirtier than clean”). Even more intriguing is “Come to Me,” which unwinds with mesmerizing, serpentine weaves of Rabins’ violin as Kogan sighs and screams with orgasmic delight. The song pulls off that rare trick of being sexually thrilling without being crass or juvenile. Diskin and Kogan are also delightfully whimsical on the title track, where they grill each other with questions lifted directly from a citizenship test. (Falling James)