Rock Picks: Iron & Wine, Mika Miko, the Vaselines, Extra Golden

MEAT PUPPETS AT THE MINT

Carrie Rodriguez

Leslie & the Badgers

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It’s been a long, strange trip for Arizona trio Meat Puppets, who are finally back together and creatively thriving after a decade of false starts and tragedies, such as the incarceration of bassist Cris Kirkwood, who was imprisoned for a couple of years and seriously wounded after being shot twice by a security guard in a bizarre incident outside a Phoenix post office in 2003. He’s apparently since recovered from various drug addictions and rejoined his singer-guitarist/brother Curt Kirkwood and new drummer Ted Marcus on the Puppets’ 2007 comeback album, Rise to Your Knees (Anodyne). The band are now on a new label, Megaforce, for the release of their latest CD, Sewn Together, which is a wonderfully satisfying work that evokes classic mid-’80s-era albums like Up on the Sun. As ever, Curt sings with a laconic drawl, even as his guitar bubbles over with madly psychedelic riffs on tracks like “Love Mountain.” The Puppets ramble through bleary-eyed country numbers like “Smoke” and stretch out into stranger territory on the elegantly trippy piano ballad “Clone,” where Curt ruminates about scientists “cutting up the molecules of gold” to create “the perfect sheep” who “can fly a fancy plane.” Somehow, it all does get sewn together in a mix of styles that’s both head-spinning and earthily rocking. (Falling James)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13

EXTRA GOLDEN, THE MEDITATIONS, FOOL'S GOLD, YOUSSOUPHA SIDIBE AT THE ECHO AND THE ECHOPLEX

Dub Club’s “Reggae Meets Africa” night may be lazily named, but there’s not a single slouch in the lineup. Headliner Extra Golden is a Kenyan/Pennsylvanian hybrid specializing in Benga music, a bright sound typified by intricate guitar, full-bodied bass, and syncopated drums. The band came together when member Ian Eagleson’s doctoral studies took him to Nairobi to work with expert Otieno Jagwasi. Tragically, Jagwasi died of AIDS complications before Thrill Jockey released Extra Golden’s debut, but that album’s success has spurred the project onward. The current lineup — which includes Jagwasi’s brother and Weird War’s Alex Minoff — has just released a third LP, titled Thank You Very Quickly, and despite the music’s sunny disposition, the alternating English and Kenyan lyrics deal with heavy stuff — namely political strife and infectious disease. Jamaica’s The Meditations had their biggest hit in 1976, sang backup on several Bob Marley hits, and have been touring since. Fool’s Gold are locals who sing Hebrew over highlife, and Youssoupha Sidibe is a Senegalese kora master. (Chris Martins)

THURSDAY, MAY 14

SCOUT NIBLETT, LOVETONES, STEREO WORKERS UNION, CHIEF NOWHERE AT SPACELAND

English-born Scout Niblett is something of an anomaly in her country of origin: a Kurt Cobain–obsessed rock minimalist who would sound right at home on a lo-fi American imprint like Drag City. Good thing, because after eight years and four LPs on Secretly Canadian (also a fine fit), she’s just released her new single, “It’s Time, My Beloved,” on none other than — wait for it — Drag City. It also makes a lot of sense that she’s lived in Portland for some time and frequently works with producer Steve Albini. Scout’s songs typically feature her whispery twang over spare electric guitar or drums (both if she’s feeling flashy) which seem to take their cadence and rhythmic cues from her vocals alone. On the new single, with her voice doubled and floating above a sea of distortion, she sounds like a haunted Joanna Newsom spinning a black yarn about loneliness and love lost. (Chris Martins)