Rock Picks: Daedelus, Peanut Butter Wolf, Femi Kuti, Isis
Also, The Choke, Nouvelle Vague, Wilco, Sunset Rubdown and others
Also playing Saturday:
SHELLAC, ARCWELDER at the Echoplex; PJ HARVEY & JOHN PARISH at the Wiltern; THE ENGLISH BEAT at the Canyon; ME WITHOUT YOU, THE DEAR HUNTER, BEAR COLONY at El Rey Theatre; DE LA SOUL at the Galaxy Theatre; CHAIRLIFT, DUBLAB DJS at the Getty Center; DEAN & BRITTA at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre; THE QUEERS, THE MANSFIELDS, HOT TODDIES, ATOM AGE at Alex’s Bar; OREN LAVIE at the Mint.
SUNDAY, JUNE 21
Femi Kuti & the Positive Force at the Hollywood Bowl
The Nigerian singer Femi Kuti is a major figure in world music, and not just because he’s the son of the late, legendary Afrobeat kingpin Fela Kuti. Like his dad, he’s seen as a threat by Nigerian authorities because of his political lyrics and the way his exultant music inspires unrestrained dancing and celebrates such subversive notions as freedom and equality. But Kuti has gone far beyond his father’s early sound, branching out now into elaborate, polyrhythmic funk and vibrant jazz on his recent CD, Day by Day. Such inspiring English-language songs as “You Better Ask Yourself” shouldn’t be filed away and ignored in some condescending world-music category; this is simply great rock and dance music, inspired as much by Miles Davis as James Brown. Kuti has some incisively cutting things to say about the excesses of capitalism and environmental destruction in Africa, but he has the rare talent for making such pointed insights come off as inspiring rather than preachy. It doesn’t hurt that his band, the Positive Force, pump up these sentiments with plenty of palpable grooviness, such as the way the fiery horns throttle the landscape of tunes like “Demo Crazy” a herd of angry elephants. Kuti headlines a strong bill that includes Philadelphia indie rocker Santigold and soul veteran Raphael Saadiq. (Falling James)
Also playing Sunday:
SHELLAC, ARCWELDER at the Echoplex; NORA AUNOR, BERNARDO BERNARDO, MARICA QUIZON at the James R. Armstrong Theatre.
MONDAY, JUNE 22
Wilco at theWiltern
First time Jeff Tweedy ever registered in my head as someone to pay attention to, he was working at a little St. Louis record store called Euclid, and he had listed on a chalk board his two favorite records of 1989: The Mekons Rock ’N Roll; and Slovenly’s We Shoot for the Moon. Unfortunately obscure records 20 years later, the two albums capture the essence of Wilco’s allure: a desire, like the Mekons, to crack the code of rock & roll while simultaneously celebrating and decrying it; and an affection, like Slovenly, for weird-ass songs with wild-ass guitar solos and smart-ass words. Luckily, Tweedy’s got a better voice than Slovenly Peter, better business sense than the Mekons, and the luxury and good ears to construct a Wilco lineup that lives up to his lofty ideas about music, musicianship and the craft of songwriting. The band’s seventh studio album, Wilco (The Album), is a tight, dense album of three- and four-minute pop songs, some of the best (and not so best) songs of his career. “Wilco (the song)” digs up a classic, primal rock riff, softens it with a little pop, and then makes it all messylike with Nels Cline’s guitars. “Bull Black Nova” is an odd five-minute song that sounds the most like a lost Slovenly track — not that that means much to most. Which is to say, guitars battle with melody, things stretch out, and then there’s a big finale. Expect three nights of lots and lots of guitars and textures, as the band takes over the Wiltern. (Randall Roberts)
Also playing Monday:
ELVIS COSTELLO & JIM LAUDERDALE at Amoeba Music; OLIVER FUTURE, CAPSHUNS, HORSE THIEVES, DIVISIBLE at the Echo; CASTLEDOOR, LOCAL NATIVES, MUSIC FOR ANIMALS at Spaceland.
TUESDAY, JUNE 23
Sunset Rubdown, Elfin Saddle, Witchies at the Echoplex
Like his music, vocalist/keyboardist Spencer Krug is busy being a full-time member of Montreal’s Wolf Parade and pinch-hitter for Frog Eyes, too. But what’s really keeping him up late is his own Sunset Rubdown, originally intended to be a poppier catch-all for the prolific Krug’s songwriting leftovers on behalf of the more drastically noisy Wolf Parade. Krug’s brand of shambolic yet precision-hewn melodic marvels has developed apace; his second and third releases, Shut Up I Am Dreaming (2006) and Random Spirit Lover (2007), were case studies in impure pop hysteria, given to maniacally mangled mash-ups dripping with “classic” ’70s more-more-more production aesthetics. Krug has a way of injecting real excitement into pallid old pop, and his brand-new Dragonslayer on Jagjaguar finds him further pushing the palette while homing in on the essence of what might make us (or him) jump for joy — or shed a tiny tear. (John Payne)
Occidental Brothers Dance Band International at the Echo
A most worthy new hybrid, the superfunky Occidental Brothers Dance Band Intern ational brings together luminaries of Chicago’s underground rock and jazz worlds with stars of the Ghanian highlife scene. This is a tough-minded and truthful mixing of disparately related styles which, while hitting hard on classic Central and West African dance music such as soukous or the mesmerizing Ashante style of Sikyi highlife, along with rumba and dry guitar (dry guitar?), brings to trad Afro sounds newer progressive strains from the American and British POV. (You gotta hear their clatteringly propulsive take on New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle.”) Most of frontman/trumpeter Kofi Cromwell’s lyrics are performed in the Ghanaian Fante or Twi dialects, a tonality that well suits his growling, percussive vocal larks and bantering showmanship. The group was founded by ex-Zincs and Edith Frost guitarist Nathaniel Braddock; he’s joined by sax man Greg Ward, Ghanian drummer Asamoah Rambo and Puerto Rico’s Joshua Ramos on upright bass. Do yourself a favor and pick up this ace band’s new disc Odo Sanbra. (John Payne)
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