Rock Picks: Os Mutantes, Hall and Oates, Bat for Lashes, Davila 666, Maia Sharp

Also playing Monday:

Grant Peterson

Cracked actors: The Warlocks

David Sherry

Tangled up in blue dreams: Bat for Lashes

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THE GROWLERS, MY PET SADDLE, GRAND ELEGANCE, THE MOON UPSTAIRS at the Echo; LOCAL NATIVES, THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE, AUSHUA, FUN at Spaceland; BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS, EXTRA GOLDEN at the Troubadour.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1

Davila 666, Mika Miko at the Echo
With their fuzz guitars, bratty vocals and rabid stage show, Davila 666 are the kings of the Puerto Rican trash-rock scene. Such stomping songs as “Muy Mal” have a Ramones-y punk rock drive, but newer tunes like “Sabes Que Quiero” also have peppy bubblegum hooks. This combination of punk rudeness with ’60s garage-rock jangle is similar to the Black Lips’ shtick, but Davila 666’s Spanish-language anthems, like the aptly titled distortion romp “Basura,” have their own inexplicably silly power. Lead shouter Sir Charles Davila spits out his wild rants like a cross between Iggy Pop and the late Sky Saxon, while the rest of his band churns out a noisy guitar-based racket. Davila 666 insist that their music sounds like “Menudo on lots of drugs,” but they’re just being atypically humble; their 2008 self-titled CD on In the Red Records is a riotous blast of unrefined, undiluted rock & roll. They play tonight with L.A.’s own manically frenzied coed punks Mika Miko. Davila 666 also at Alex’s Bar, Sat. (Falling James)

Also playing Tuesday:

THE DUKE SPIRIT, BAND OF SKULLS at El Rey Theatre; WEEN at the Fox Theater (Pomona); JOHN LEGEND at the Greek Theatre; LANTVRN, MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS, LULUC at the Bordello; THE 88, DANIEL BRUMMEL at Spaceland; MEW at the Troubadour.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

Nine Inch Nails at the Hollywood Palladium
You may have heard that Trent Reznor is shutting down Nine Inch Nails, at least as a live band. Or at least for the time being — it’s getting hard to tell: Earlier this year Reznor said that his recent tour with Jane’s Addiction would be NIN’s last, then he scheduled a series of intimate small-venue shows in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. So who knows; maybe he’ll be back. We’re getting the supposedly final four gigs here, which seems right given that the band has called L.A. home for quite a while now. In any event, you should go to however many of these sold-out shows your hookups can score you entry to. When I caught NIN on the NIN/JA tour in May, at Verizon Wireless in Irvine, they made Jane’s Addiction look like a bunch of jam-band dropouts (wasn’t hard, but still). If Reznor’s truly going out, he’s going out on top. Also Thursday at the Henry Fonda Theater, next Saturday at the Wiltern and next Sunday at the Echoplex. (Mikael Wood)

Hall and Oates at Nokia Theater
With recent releases by bands like Passion Pit and Phoenix, it seems there’s a resurgence of that gold-mine concoction so many ’80s hit-makers exploited: feel-good music. Young bands have figured out if you can make it bounce, a streamlined combination of simple beats, fearlessly catchy melodies and hopelessly optimistic intentions will spawn long-lasting pop accolades and endless earworms. Case in point, Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams Come True” is rearing its infectiously peppy head in the darnedest of places — like the (500) Days of Summer dance number and Keyboard Cat on YouTube. Daryl Hall and John Oates have been ridiculed to no end for their oftentimes silly, but enduring, piles of hits. But now, like ABBA, the Carpenters and others who’ve made it from jokey castoffs to those elevated and embraced for seamless pop gems, it looks like Hall & Oates are rounding the last curve. Live, they try to tone down the synth and make it “more contemporary,” which means acoustic guitars. We say, go whole hog, boys — your time has come. (Wendy Gilmartin)

Also playing Wednesday:

JOHN LEGEND at the Greek Theatre; MIKE HERRERA’S TUMBLEDOWN, JOHN NOLAN at the Knitting Factory; NINE INCH NAILS at the Palladium; NEW RADIANT STORM KING at the Echo; RICHIE SPICE at the Echoplex; DIVISION DAY, BAD VEINS, LOVELIKEFIRE at Spaceland; GREENSKY BLUEGRASS, FINDING FICTION, CHRIS AYER at the Mint; HEARTLESS BASTARDS at the Troubadour.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3

Gun Outfit, Milk Music, Mr. Highway, Francis Harold & The Holograms at the Smell
Olympia, Washington’s Gun Outfit doesn’t play bass. The trio’s debut LP for Dean Spunt’s PPM label, Dim Light, features dueling guitars and drums, but nary a deeply resonant pluck — and that’s perfectly fine. Singer Dylan Sharp sings in a low David Berman warble that resounds just fine, especially singing simple truths (“Filling each and every hole/Evolution’s only goal”) over his band’s divine, slackerly punk. Sharp and co. should fit right in at the Smell, even while maintaining that patent sleepy Northwestern vibe. MySpace offers few clues as to the M.O. of Milk Music, a local act that seems to have ties to up-and-coming rapper/producer Kenan Bell, and may or may not simply loop single beats (as in: one drum hit) for minutes at a time. Francis Harold & the Holograms hail from Bisbee, Arizona, and hew tough metallic sludge from vaguely poppy punk. It’s black and screechy, but all that guitar shredding is laid down over a backbeat fit for head-nodding and spazz-dancing. (Chris Martins)