Rock Picks: Rain Machine, Pearl Jam, Wallpaper, Bon Iver, Dodos

Bon Iver at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Bon Iver’s stunning debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, is all about place and transcendence. It was famously written and recorded over a winter spent in a Wisconsin hunting shack — a result of Justin Vernon needing some time off from normalcy as well as looking for a new beginning. Imagine, then, that soulful set of songs being performed by Vernon and his band as the sun rises over a place where people typically go after they’ve already succumbed to the cold. If you can get past the creepiness of sleeping on cemetery grass, this might be one of the musical experiences of the year. Hollywood Forever’s gates open on Saturday night at midnight, and the show starts at 6 a.m. Sunday morning (though the sleepover isn’t mandatory). Entertainment will be provided at night; coffee and pastries will greet the faithful in the morning. Provided, of course, the zombies don’t get them first. Kind of gives a whole new meaning to the Bon Iver song, “Creature Fear.” Also at the Wiltern, Fri. (Chris Martins)

Renata Raksha

Foot Village get their drums on.

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Dodos at El Rey Theatre
In the gently experimental mode, a more über-pleasant indie rock than the Dodos’ would be hard to come by, and that’s no diss at all. The duo of singer/guitarist Meric Long and drummer Logan Kroeber made good use of the inviting head room allowed via limited instrumentation on their 2008 Visiter album, where Long’s furiously strummed or finely spider-picked acoustic guitars and rich-toned voice spun so easily around Kroeber’s athletic and consistently surprising polyrhythms — an aggressively pastoral effect, let’s call it, not entirely unlike that of English Settlement-era XTC. The new Time to Die (Frenchkiss) adds vibes player Keaton Snyder, whose minimal enhancements heighten the mood-elevation several notches. All this pretty sound, best of all, acts to cloak some very well-written songs, whose complex hooks are well worth the patience it takes to hear them bubble to the surface. (John Payne)

Also playing Sunday:

ABBOT KINNEY FESTIVAL FEAT. EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS, JULIETTE COMMAGERE, ESKIMO HUNTER, DIOS, OTHERS at Abbot Kinney; REVOLTING COCKS, JIM ROSE CIRCUS, BLOWNLOAD at House of Blues; KOOL & THE GANG, NILE RODGERS & CHIC, MAXINE NIGHTINGALE, VILLAGE PEOPLE at the Hollywood Bowl; !!! at the Troubadour; BLU, EXILE at the Roxy; NIKKOLE, RAHSHAD at the Mint; DAVE ALVIN, THE FLATLANDERS at Kachina Express; TWEAK BIRD, 60 WATT KID, AUDITORY APHASIA at the Knitting Factory; DAN HICKS & HIS HOT LICKS at McCabe’s; KID KOALA at the Key Club.

Blitzen, Trapper, Wye Oak at El Rey Theatre
The Baltimore duo Wye Oak have an interesting way of making music. Jenn Wasner sings and strums guitar, while Andy Stack manages to play drums with his feet and one hand while simultaneously pumping keyboard bass lines with his other hand. Lest you think that they’re just some lo-fi novelty act, Wye Oak actually have a big, full sound that matches the expansive moodiness of their songwriting. On their recent CD, The Knot (Merge Records), Wasner churns out towering grunge riffs that crumble into vast sonic canyons, which seem empty at first, until Stack’s production reveals wisps of psychedelic pedal steel and violin wending their way through the crashing silence. Such cloudy epics as “Mary Is Mary” and “Take It In” come off like Jesse Sykes backed by a Pink Floyd–inspired one-man band. Whether she’s tugging mountainous seas of feedback from her amp or keeping her hazy country idylls at a low jangle, Wasner generally sings with an unforced and coolly dreamy melodicism. Close your eyes, and she and Stack will sound much grander than they might appear onstage, opening tonight for arty Portland folkies Blitzen Trapper. (Falling James)

Also playing Monday:

DAVY KNOWLES at the Mint; LESLIE & THE BADGERS, SIAN ALICE GROUP, BEST COAST, PAPERPLANES at the Echo; SAINT MOTEL, GANGI, MISSISSIPPI MAN, LINKS at Spaceland; THE ICARUS LINE, BROKEN MIRRORS, NOMAN at the Silverlake Lounge.

Wallpaper at Cinespace
They’re the new Michael Jacksons: Keeping their noses to the grindstone, Bay Area dudes Eric Frederic and beatkeeper Arjun Singh produced and recorded the wonderwall of danceable sonic rubbish unfortunately called Doodoo Face (Eeenie Meenie). This is a very funny thang, greasy glittery funk liberally drizzled with monster beats, aerified ’80s polysynth chord garbage, supa-bowel-cleansing bass and, you were asking, heavy loads of Vocoder (thank you, Roger Troutman). Check their track “I Got Soul, I’m So Wasted,” where it’s like irony to the 90th power but it just doesn’t matter; singer Ricky Reed creepy-croons it all out with genuine charisma, like he believes in himself (very important). The duo’s P-Funk-Arabian Prince-Debarge whatever-type party sleaze simply sounds real good right now. You may know Wallpaper, as well, from Frederic’s recent renegade remix/mashup of Jay-Z’s “Death of Autotune” and “99 Problems,” in which the producer feeds Jay-Z’s rap through ... you guessed it, Autotune. (He also rewrites the chorus of “99 Problems” to include the line, “I got 99 problems but my pitch ain’t one.”) (John Payne)