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

Also playing Monday:

Kenneth Capello

The Kills channel Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Fri.

Doug Coombe

Nomo bring their favorite toys to show & tell, Sat.

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More About

• Staples Center
• Annie Clark
• Alison Mosshart
• The Kills (Band)
• Justin Townes Earle

LEO NOCENTELLI at Topanga Community Club, 3 p.m.; JULIETTE COMMAGERE, THE CHAPIN SISTERS at the Echo; STEEL PANTHER at the Key Club; JAKE LA BOTZ at Redwood Bar & Grill; GOLDEN ANIMALS, LOWER HEAVEN at Silverlake Lounge.

TUESDAY, MAY 26

LADY SOVEREIGN AT EL REY THEATRE
Lady Sovereign’s that husky-voiced English half-pint from the projects who came out of London’s grime scene to blow people’s minds with the true grit of a poor white girl. She hit big with her 2006 CD, Public Warning (with “Love Me or Hate Me”), on Def Jam/Island, then ran into problems with the label, which messed up her life for a spell. Now she’s got a follow-up out called Jigsaw, and she went through all kinda BS to get it released, ultimately getting a deal to put it out on her own Midget Records, through EMI. Like her debut record, Jigsaw features a lot of those big-bomb mixes by producer Medasyn, and throws some severely eclectic surprises into the Lady’s funky stew pot of plucky raps, weird-ass beats and electro-shocked dance fodder — like solidly written songs very saucily blending wicked-witty lyrical chest-thumpin’ on her trials and tribulations of the past couple of years. Not “merely” a rapper, Lady Sovereign makes a go of singing on these tracks, too, and, considering her fiery resilience in the face of a lotta corporate bullshit and failed romances, the effect is even kinda touching. ... [sniff!] She’ll have Chicago-based DJ Annalyze and a live drummer along for the ride. (John Payne)

Also playing Tuesday:

THE PRODIGY at Grove of Anaheim; MANDY MOORE at Amoeba Music, 6 p.m.; ROBIN TROWER at the Canyon; AVI BUFFALO at the Echo; MIKE STINSON at Redwood Bar & Grill; VOICES VOICES at the Smell; THE SADIES at Spaceland; PHANTOM BLUE, LIZZY BORDEN, MELDRUM, LEMMY KILMISTER at the Whisky.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 27

SUN KIL MOON AT EL REY THEATRE
A Mark Kozelek song remains the same — loosely plotted, suffused with an eerie sense of resignation and swathed in narcoleptic melody. Across his two decades of recorded output, he may have gone from the reverb-drenched cathedrals of remorse of early Red House Painters to the tousled chords and sepia-tinted rusticity of solo projects and, more recently, Sun Kil Moon, a group that by admission is Red House Painters with another name. The tones have warmed. What once felt remote and removed is close. But there remains, amid the even now languorous rhythms, that surfeit of longing lingering between rest and exhaustion. The third Sun Kil Moon record, April, lacks the tuneful surge and alert arrangements of the group’s 2003 debut, Ghosts of the Great Highway, an album sharp enough to suggest Kozelek had snapped awake from a decade-long slumber (which he nearly had, given the nearly five years it took for the final Painters record and another two before Sun Kil Moon surfaced). But in its mussed delicacy and drowsy gloom, April remains unmistakably Kozelek. And a chance to catch this doyen of the improbable cover — from “The Star-Spangled Banner” to the Cars — is certainly recommended. (Bernardo Rondeau)

Also playing Wednesday:

THE PRODIGY, GLITCH MOB at Hollywood Palladium; WAR TAPES at Boardner’s; CARINA ROUND at the Hotel Cafe; LOVE GRENADES, ROY G. & THE BIV at Spaceland; MARK MILLER, SWORDS OF FATIMA at Taix.

THURSDAY, MAY 28

ST. VINCENT AT EL REY THEATRE
Annie Clark, also known by her stage name St. Vincent, is all about dreaming up perfect little pop fantasies, dressed up in inventive yet also sumptuously sugary arrangements. Her music isn’t far removed from the otherworldly whimsy of Kate Bush, and the clever production and arrangements also remind us a little of Jesca Hoop’s wonderful Kismet CD. But the Brooklyn singer (and former member of the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens’ band) really is off in her own world — a world of her own careful choosing and creation — on her just-released second album, Actor (4AD). The songs are loosely inspired by, and work as alternate mini-soundtracks to, some of Clark’s favorite movies. While we’d love to know which tunes were actually influenced by one of our own faves, Pierrot le Fou (could it be “The Party” or perhaps “The Strangers”?), it really doesn’t matter in the end, as the songs on Actor cumulatively create their own cinematic momentum and storyline. “Marrow” and “Actor Out of Work” rock uptempo, but most of the songs are more candied and ethereal, such as “Black Rainbow” and “The Strangers,” whose celestial string arrangements tumble across the sky like heat lightning. (Falling James)

PASSION PIT, HARLEM SHAKES, CALE PARKS AT THE TROUBADOUR
Boston’s Passion Pit released its dance-y debut EP less than a year ago, and already, mastermind Michael Angelakos has seen his former bedroom project grow into a five-piece band with a major record deal and an ever-expanding pool of indie cred. The group’s first album, Manners, is out now on Frenchkiss/Columbia Records, and its lead single, “The Reeling,” is rightly earning the band a lot of Justice comparisons. The similarity lies mostly in the song’s driving pulse and playful call-and-response (recalling the Parisian duo’s “D.A.N.C.E.”), but where Justice’s expertise lies in thick blurts of bass-y synth and micro-edited effects, Passion Pit’s music is flavored by a warmth and looseness that complements Angelakos’ hankering for the epic. Think of the band as a less expendable and grittier answer to MGMT. Brooklyn’s Harlem Shakes carve out an intimate space where folksy strumming, pop piano, ghostly croons and electronic embellishments mix freely, while opener Cale Parks has taken a break from drumming in his better-known bands Aloha and White Williams to play melancholic art-pop with an ’80s flair. (Chris Martins)

Also playing Thursday:

FLEETWOOD MAC at Staples Center; BEN HARPER & THE RELENTLESS 7, THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE at the Wiltern; ROBIN TROWER at House of Blues; MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL CULT at the Key Club; VOLUMEN CERO at the Knitting Factory; HUMAN HANDS at the Scene.