Rock Picks: The Kills, Lady Sovereign, Fischerspooner, the Dears

FISCHERSPOONER AT AVALON
Fischerspooner’s new record, Entertainment, may be a mediocre slice of electropop lite filled with weak beats and uninspired lyrics, but heed not these typical signs of a band worth ignoring. Album be damned, these boys know how to put on a show. Their deep roots and many contacts within the New York dance/theater/art scene guarantee a truly spectacular event packed to the brim with elaborate costumes and props, experimental choreography and loads of overt lip synch. The group’s current show, billed as “Between Worlds,” began initially as a collaboration with SoHo’s famed theater dissidents the Wooster Group and reportedly incorporates elements of kabuki, flamenco and vaudeville into a tale about space travel and the American Dream. Front man Casey Spooner had his unique headgear — the metal contraption featured on Entertainment’s cover — custom-designed to include a fully operable neon light. Ambitious? Absolutely, but this is one area of entertainment in which Fischerspooner unerringly succeeds. (Chris Martins)

Joshua Black Wilkins

Son of a preachy man: Justin Townes Earle, Sun.

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THE DEARS, GREAT NORTHERN AT THE ECHOPLEX
“It’s all the same, with different words,” Rachel Stolte confesses on Great Northern’s new CD, Remind Me Where the Light Is (Eenie Meenie). And while it’s true that the local indie-pop group’s latest album draws upon much of the shimmering, majestic sound of their 2007 full-length debut, Trading Twilight for Daylight, there is also a newfound assurance and sleekness to their songwriting. That smoothness gives Remind Me much of its hypnotic allure, even as it occasionally threatens to make the musical backing feel anonymous and bombastic. String parts by the Ru Quartet layer such tracks as “Snakes” with a billowing expansiveness, but Stolte’s and partner Solon Bixler’s vocals are usually more intimate and emotionally affecting without such grandiose accompaniment. At times, Bixler’s weary, somnolent singing on “Stop” and “Driveway” is a nice contrast to Stolte’s dreamier, more melodically beguiling style. When all of the ideal elements combine, relatively simple lyrics like “Our minds have slept for days” and “Stuck with a moment/tied to my waist” take on a romantically dramatic intensity. Great Northern open for the latest lineup of the Montreal indie-rock band the Dears, whose intelligently sarcastic (albeit wimpy) tunes are subverted by singer Murray Lightburn’s predilection for imitating Morrissey’s most cloying vocal tics. (Falling James)

Also playing Saturday:

FLEETWOOD MAC at Honda Center; LEON RUSSELL at the Brixton South Bay; AMY KUNEY at the Hotel Cafe; IAN TYSON at McCabe’s; CULVER CITY DUB COLLECTIVE at the Mint; THE BLACK WIDOWS at Mr. T’s Bowl; REBEL REBEL at Relax Bar; GROOVY REDNECKS, CHEATIN’ KIND at Cinema Bar; I SEE HAWKS IN L.A. at Coffee Gallery Backstage.

SUNDAY, MAY 24

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE AT McCABE’S
According to many — me being one of ’em — Steve Earle is the greatest folk musician of his generation. On first listen to his son Justin Townes Earle’s debut, The Good Life, in 2008, I was selfishly rooting for the kid: I wanted more Earle magic. And knowing he would not only be compared to Dad but to his namesake Townes Van Zandt, I felt protective. I heard a deep understanding of masters like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Ray Price. (How many Americana cats dig a Texas shuffle?) I heard a fingerpicker who sounded like he practiced often. But his singing was tentative and insecure and his songs pastiche. 2009 is the year Justin delivered on disc. On Midnight at the Movies, the singer is confident, even swaggering. The songs capture that essence of American music — impermanence. In young Earle’s finer new stories, something or somebody is always coming and something or somebody is always leaving, too. With a name like his, comparison was inevitable. With his new album, comparison misses the point. (Michael Simmons)

Also playing Sunday:

THE VAQUETONES, MIKE STINSON, DAVE GLEASON, MEMPHIS KINGS at Redwood Bar & Grill, noon; ERYKAH BADU, DE LA SOUL, PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS at UCLA’s intramural field, noon.

MONDAY, MAY 25

ALEXANDRA HOPE AT SPACELAND
There are a lot of singer-songwriters with beautiful voices, and some of them even write memorable songs, but what makes Alexandra Hope different is how her singing blends with her unusual guitar playing. She doesn’t solo much like traditional lead guitarists on her new CD, Invisible Sunday (Manimal Vinyl), but her climbing riffs and febrile strumming echo such early post-punk trios as the Urinals, Mission of Burma and the Clean, whose exotically droning chords were later transmuted by groups like Yo La Tengo, the Breeders and Sonic Youth. Aside from the promising opening lines of “Your Universe” (“Tiny little objects you construct from/bits of rubble, lightning flash & comic books”), Hope’s lyrics are remarkably unremarkable. But the New York singer’s real eloquence comes from the way she winds the clear and lovely beacon of her voice around the serpentine guitar angles of “Liar” and the shadowy stomp of “The Mirror.” Her fairy-tale-heroine keening juxtaposed against a heavy, sullenly compelling rhythmic throb makes “Dangerous” almost sound like a lost Dagons song. This tricky act of juggling softness and power is reflected on Hope’s MySpace page, where the waiflike singer is shown awkwardly brandishing a gun, as well as a poor speared fish, in an apparent attempt to get in touch with her inner Ted Nugent. (Falling James)