Rock Picks: Acid Mothers Temple, Kate Maki, Marissa Nadler, Mirah

Also playing Tuesday:

Acid Mothers Temple: Conjuring galaxies of ultrapsychedelia

Simgil

The curious, infectious German electro-punk duo Stereo Total

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More About

• Omar Sosa
• Acid Mothers Temple
• Marissa Nadler
• John Payne
• Folk Music

CLEM SNIDE, LE SWITCH, THE HELIGOATS at Spaceland; MEGADETH, ALL THAT REMAINS, HATEBREED, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, SUICIDE SILENCE at Club Nokia.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8

Jerkagram, Talibam! at the Smell

Along with bands named This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb and the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower appearing in the wake of 9/11, Talibam! might not be the first thing one might think of when it comes to free spazz and bombast. And yet somehow it all works for the synth/drums duo of Matt Mottel and Kevin Shea — so much so that the endlessly respectable ESP-Disk label in Brooklyn signed their forthcoming album. Talibam!’s is an attack that doesn’t take prisoners so much as it gives them Stockholm syndrome, inclusive and enthusiastic as all good connections with bands should be. Jerkagram, a r/evolving Connecticut musical collective, accompanies them on this magical misery tour of these United States throughout springtime — and, besides the obvious rhyming kinship the bands share, they’re equally matched in terms of epic and lengthy skronk dominance. With Infinite Body, Corey Marc Fogel of Gowns. (David Cotner)

Also playing Wednesday:

LIVING THINGS, BLOODCAT LOVE at Spaceland; KATIA & MARIELLE LABEQUE, MAYTE MARTIN at Royce Hall; ALEXI MURDOCH at El Rey Theatre.

THURSDAY APRIL 9

Mirah at the Echo

The Portland, Oregon, singer Mirah gets back to her winsomely beguiling art-pop folk style on (A)spera (K Records), her first proper solo album since 2004’s C’Mon Miracle. In recent years, she’s experimented with her sound on 2006’s Joyride: Remixes and 2007’s Share This Place: Stories and Observations, a collaboration with Spectratone International, where she imagined the secret lives and aspirations of insects. Of course, her new tunes aren’t just simple folk songs: The album opener, “Generosity,” is wrapped up in a bow of melancholic violins, and the somber ballad “The World Is Falling” is arranged with soothingly ghostly harmonies and ambient buzzing sounds. “Why were you not built for wonder?” she coos with a Kate Bush intimacy. The glassy spell is briefly broken on the swirling tangle of “Country of the Future,” where she seduces a lover over a clatter of exotic percussion: “Love has both captured and set us free to each our own country.” About halfway through, the intimate pop track “The Forest” expands with momentous hard-rock guitars and grandly billowing horns. Throughout, Mirah is clever without being too cute, and playfully romantic without succumbing to typical pop sappiness. (Falling James)

Jesca Hoop at the Hotel Cafe

Of all the fine singer-songwriters who’ve come out of the Hotel Café, Jesca Hoop might be the most wildly inventive. Her 2007 major-label debut, Kismet (Red Ink/Columbia), is more than just the usual assortment of pop-folk songs, because it’s layered with wonderfully mesmerizing arrangements and evocatively arty lyrics. “Seed of Wonder” trundles along with clanking percussion, tick-tocking art-rock guitars, febrile harmonies and dense cascades of “silken ringing,” while “Out the Back Door” stomps with boxy rhythms and sensually filtered vocals. It’s not like Hoop’s songwriting is only about studio trickery, though; gently pretty ballads like “Love Is All We Have” are adorned with little more than acoustic-guitar plucking and her languidly enchanting harmonies. But it’s most impressive when her sinuous melodies are combined with strange instrumentation, as in “Money,” which hints at the angular approach of Tom Waits. Hoops has gained some media notoriety because she used to work as a nanny for Tom Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan, but that tidbit of trivia shouldn’t overshadow the seemingly boundless creativity of this very special performer. (Falling James)

Also playing Thursday:

LILA DOWNS at Royce Hall; MATT SHEEHY, E.G. DAILY at the Mint; DENGUE FEVER at the Echoplex; VOLTAIRE at the Knitting Factory; SPINDRIFT, WHISPERING PINES, RESTAURANT, NEW YORK RIFLES at Spaceland.