Rock Picks: Amadou & Mariam, Manimal Festival, Marianne Faithfull, Gil Scott-Heron

The Joe Perry Project at  the Viper Room
When the classic lineup of Aerosmith fell apart in a druggy haze in the early 1980s, it was claimed that this would lead to more productivity, since there supposedly wasn’t room for so many great songwriters in one band. In reality, the various spinoff groups, as well as the fraudulent incarnation that carried on for a few years under the Aerosmith name, were creatively bankrupt, with only the Joe Perry Project managing to strike some legitimate sparks. (Ironically, when the original lineup got back together in 1984, they were so short on ideas, they resorted to employing such hack songwriting mercenaries as Desmond Child and Jim Vallance. Aerosmith became slicker and more generic, but no one seemed to care once their comeback CDs achieved multiplatinum status.) With Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler out of commission for a while after recently injuring himself in a tumble from the stage at a concert in South Dakota, guitarist Perry gets a chance to stretch his legs on his new solo album, Have Guitar, Will Travel (Roman Records). While the onetime author of “Let the Music Do the Talking” will never be the most articulate lyricist, Perry has crafted an imaginatively diverse work that stands apart from Aerosmith, with majestic psychedelic raveups like the glimmering epic “Heaven and Hell” and the funky hard-blues instrumental “Wooden Ships.” About the only drawback is a surprisingly wimpy remake of early Fleetwood Mac guitarist Jeremy Spencer’s “Somebody’s Gonna Get (Their Head Kicked in Tonite),” which sounds creaky and doddering next to the Rezillos’ definitive version. (Falling James)

Youri Lenquette

Amadou & Mariam unroll their magic carpet

Marcus Maeder, in a vortex of lights

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Also playing Tuesday:

DR. DOG, JEFFREY LEWIS at Club Nokia; INGRID MICHAELSON at the Troubadour; RAY MANZAREK, ROBBY KRIEGER at Club Nokia; ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS THREE at Spaceland; STARFUCKER at the Echo; 69 EYES, DOMMIN, THE BECOMING at the Key Club.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7

Fever Ray at Henry Fonda Theater
Fever Ray is a solo project by Karin Dreijer Andersson, a singer with the Swedish electronic-music duo the Knife. This self-described “capsule of energy” used to play in Honey Is Cool and has made guest appearances on records by Röyksopp. Fever Ray’s recent self-titled CD (Rabid/Mute) showcases Andersson’s eerie vocals in a variety of electronic settings, ranging from the icy cyber-funk of “Triangle Walks” to the ominously throbbing hum of “If I Had a Heart.” She packs away her romantic entreaties in a “cushion filled with all I found,” and the combination of wintry soundscapes and spectral vocals often evokes midperiod Kate Bush. Such enigmatic lyrics as “There is room in my lap/For bruises, asses, handclaps” and “I learned to not eat the snow . Velvet mites will keep us warm” contribute to the gently intoxicating sense of mystery. (Falling James)

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks at Henry Fonda Theater
In much the same way that the early punks roiled the waters and capsized the sunny dreams of the easy-listening yacht-rock crowd, No Wave bands like Teenage Jesus & the Jerks in turn challenged the musical limitations and increasingly rigid formalism of the original punks. Whereas the Ramones sang about chain-saw massacres, the Jerks sounded like literal chain-saw massacres, with poet-guitarist Lydia Lunch “hammering out rhythms dictated by the insults, which were chicken scratched in my notebooks.” As she explains in the liner notes to the Jerks’ 2008 reissue, Shut Up and Bleed (Atavistic), “The driving vision behind Teenage Jesus was to castrate the tradition of melody and composition and simply vent in the most primal way possible the horrible din of my own torture.” Out of all of that abrasive atonality came something emotionally cathartic and even weirdly uplifting, especially in the way that the Jerks’ beautiful noise anticipated and instigated other groups in the New York City underground, such as the Swans and Sonic Youth. Lunch will reportedly be joined tonight by longtime drummer Jim Sclavunos (Bad Seeds, Congo Norvell) for this reunion set, a curiously and atypically nostalgic event from this confrontational and terminally forward-looking artist. (Falling James)

Also playing Wednesday:

JACK PENATE, MIIKE SNOW at Spaceland; JULIAN CASABLANCAS at the Broadway Palace Theatre; THE QUEERS, TA80, THE LEFTOVERS at the Knitting Factory; STAR WARS IN CONCERT at the Nokia Theatre; TOTIMOSHI, SUBARACHNOID SPACE, OVO at the Echo; HOT TODDIES, FOXES, KISSING COUSINS, RACHEL IN THE WEEDS at the Silverlake Lounge; INGRID MICHAELSON at the Troubadour; THE CHAPIN SISTERS at Hotel Cafe.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8

Andrew W.K. & the Calder Quartet at Largo at the Coronet
If you haven’t paid attention to Andrew W.K.’s career over the past few years, you might be surprised to find that the over-the-top party rocker — once known for gems like “Party Til You Puke” and “Totally Stupid” — has cultivated a bizarre sideline as a motivational speaker. Yet even that’s not quite as unlikely as his latest gig: classical pianist. On his new 55 Cadillac, W.K. tickles the ivories with little of his usual pop-metal abandon, establishing instead a convincingly refined mood better suited to art openings and dinner parties than to beer-soaked blowouts. For this show, the final gig of a seven-date North American tour, he’s teaming with L.A.’s Calder Quartet for a collaborative performance that W.K. promises on his Web site will “stimulate all parts of your brain” and offer the opportunity for “both rapt listening and raucous dancing.” Party on. (Mikael Wood)