Rock Picks: Sly & Robbie, Johanna Kunin, White Rabbits, Daniel Francis Doyle

SLY & ROBBIE AT HOUSE OF BLUES
When it comes to the fabled Jamaican team of bassist Robbie Shakespeare and drummer Sly Dunbar, there’s only one word to use: incomparable. One of the deepest-scouring, hard-sock-rocking and most in demand rhythm sections in the history of recorded music, the pair each played key roles in the fast-moving evolution of reggae (that’s Sly, f’rinstance, bashing it out on Dave and Ansel Collins’ 1969 classic “Double Barrel”) even before their 1975 partnership began, and they went on — via innumerable studio collaborations with everyone from Herbie Hancock and the Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan and KRS-One — to become the island’s de facto international ambassadors. Shakespeare’s languidly urgent bass lines and Dunbar’s devastating mix of restraint and dynamism always combine to instill an almost hypnotic state in their audience; it’s a consistently mesmerizing sound that’s hard as hell to articulate, something along the lines of a mystical Rasta-voodoo out-of-body experience, but even that overstuffed gobbet of hyperbole scarcely begins to describe the profound effect this alchemical twosome has. Long story short, you won’t believe your ears, but your soul will understand. (Jonny Whiteside)

Reuben Cox

Jay Reatard

Jason Creps

Neko Case

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Also playing Wednesday:

ART BRUT, NICO STAI, TALL HANDS at Spaceland; THE ENTRANCE BAND, SLEEPY SUN, DIOS, SLANG CHICKENS at Eagle Rock Center for the Arts; BUSDRIVER at Amoeba Music; CUT OFF YOUR HANDS, VIVA VOCE at the Echo; HOLLOH, BUTTERFLY BOUCHER, SUSIE SUH, KYLER ENGLAND, ANA EGGE at the Hotel Café.

THURSDAY, JUNE 18

WHITE RABBITS AT THE TROUBADOUR
Decent rock albums are a dime a dozen these days. In Pitchfork parlance, 7.6 is the new 6.2, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier to create something that anyone except Facebook friends will care about three years from now. Brooklyn by way of Columbia, Missouri, band White Rabbits released their first full-length, Fort Nightly, in 2007, and it became a slow-build record of the year. Drawing inspiration from the percussive David Byrne productions of the early 1980s — and a lot from the Specials’ post-ska masterpiece, More Specials — White Rabbits offered a sound that you could both sing and jump to, head-nodders and arm-crossers be damned. They’re now signed to the rising and consistently surprising TBD Records imprint (Other Lives, Local Natives, Radiohead), and have just released the Britt Daniel–produced It’s Frightening. The band’s progression is shocking; the post-pub Elvis Costello vibe has been given a cavernous depth, and 21st-century digital flourishes sneak in to remind us where we stand. Pianos reverberate, drums whoomp whoomp whoomp, and guitar lines wend through the fabric like a needle through silk. And best of all, you can scream and shout along, bouncing all the way. (Randall Roberts)

Also playing Thursday:

ART BRUT, RUMSPRINGA, VOXHAUL BROADCAST at Spaceland; KEYSHIA COLE, THE DREAM, KERI HILSON at the Nokia Theatre; WARPAINT at Amoeba Music; BUSDRIVER, NOCANDO, BLANK BLUE at the Knitting Factory; EMILY HAY at the Steve Allen Theater.