Rock Picks: Amy Millan, Dirty Projectors, Chip Taylor, LA 101

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31

Basement Jaxx plays Hard Haunted Mansion on Halloween night

R. Kelly delivers the hot, buttered funk at the Nokia Theatre on Thursday.

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• James Taylor
• Dinosaur Jr.
• Tahiti
• Indie Rock and Indie Pop
• Halloween

Justice, Deadmau5, Basement Jaxx, A-Trak, Major Lazer, Modeselektor at Hard Haunted Mansion 2009 at the Shrine Expo Center
Hold on to your pumpkins, ’cause HARD’s back with its biggest, baddest dance-music orgy since the gargantuan HARD New Year’s Eve and HARD Summer Fest spectacles (or, in the latter’s case, nonspectacle) in L.A. Spread out over two days on two stages, Hard Haunted Mansion brings a most choice selection of progressive-aligned DJs and electronic-dance movers and shakers, emphasizing a more extreme modernist soundmakers’ contingent that includes the French duo Justice and U.K. veteran house-music innovators Basement Jaxx, rarely seen live in these parts, who’ll preview audacious versions of their upcoming Scars album. All good, right, but the ultraboombastic competing lineup includes Deadmau5, 2ManyDJs, Crookers, A-Trak, the Bloody Beetroots, Modeselektor, Major Lazer, Buraka Som Sistema, the strangely awesome Zombie Nation, Steve Aoki, Destructo, Don Rimini, Shinichi Osawa and too, too much more. Runs 8 p.m.-4 a.m. both nights. And be aware that this will be a limited-capacity event, so get your tix, like, now. Also Fri. (John Payne)

Dirty Projectors, Little Wings at the Jensen Rec Center
With Bitte Orca under its belt, Brooklyn’s Dirty Projectors would be forgiven for taking the tail end of 2009 off. That album — a virtuosic and hyper-rhythmic testament to what might happen if D’Angelo and Paul Simon had a music-baby together — is easily one of the year’s best. But instead of indulging in the soft, homey comforts of the holiday season, David Longstreth and his exceedingly tight six-piece are working a double-shift here in L.A., on Halloween night. Their loss, of course, is our gain. Appropriate costumes for a night of angular R&B? Mariah Carey, David Byrne, or the aforementioned mutant music-baby. Kyle Field, a.k.a. Little Wings, voiced the part of Death on the Microphones’ epic, album-length dirge Mount Eerie, but his own stuff is generally lighter — folksy fare that often finds the Alabama-born artist posing beatific questions in a slack drawl over bedroom-born pileups of guitar, voice and light drumming. Think Will Oldham wearing a K Records suit. (Chris Martins)

Also playing Saturday:

KCRW MASQUERADE PARTY FEAT. EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS, LITTLE DRAGON, SEA WOLF at the Park Plaza Hotel; DEAD MAN’S BONES at the Echo; CHEVELLE, NICO VEGA, THE AFTER MIDNIGHT PROJECT, NEW MEDICINE at Club Nokia; TIGER LILLIES at Royce Hall; GORGEOUS GOT A GUN at the Mint; BOUNCING SOULS, BAYSIDE, BROADWAY CALLS at El Rey Theatre; PHISH at Empire Polo Field (Coachella); TIGER ARMY, MILWAUKEE WILDMEN at the Grove of Anaheim; ROB ZOMBIE, NEKROMANTIX, CAPTAIN CLEGG & THE NIGHT CREATURES at the Hollywood Palladium; USELESS KEYS, TASSO, OVIDEO at American Legion Post 206; DOWN & DERBY HALLOWEEN ROLLER DISCO FEAT. PINK DOLLAZ at the Echoplex.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1

Kris Kristofferson at Walt Disney Concert Hall
Superstar producer Don Was, the Wallflowers’ Rami Jaffee, the Red Headed Stranger (Willie Nelson) and others grace the gravelly goodness of Closer to the Bone, Kris Kristofferson’s new full-length album, the best one in a real long while. Including odes to many fallen musical brethren like Eddie Rabbitt’s late son, after his battle with cancer, it can be a downer, yes, but Closer to the Bone is equally hopeful and honest and you sure as hell won’t hear it on the radio — mainstream country is way too pansy-ass to go down Kristofferson’s ghostly road. You get the feeling the man prefers it that way; with lines like “God bless Obama, God bless America, and God bless the others outside our borders” all over his album, his is less a sentiment wrapped in jingoistic overdrive and more a quiet prayer for tragedy’s terrible spell to wane toward hope. Tonight Kristofferson is flying solo; much like his 2005 Royce Hall show under one lonely spotlight. Fittingly on Día de los Muertos — when those taken from us are remembered through celebration and song — the show is dedicated to one of Kristofferson’s fallen band mates, Stephen Bruton, who served as guitar sideman to Alejandro Escovedo, Bonnie Raitt, T Bone Burnett and countless others. (Wendy Gilmartin)

Horrorpops at House of Blues
HorrorPops are a band from Denmark who kick up their ska-pop tunes with punk-rock tempos and a twist of rockabilly. But what really makes them unique is singer/standup bassist Patricia Day, who possesses a mighty voice with a grand Siouxsie Sioux allure and presence that give even the poppier songs a darkly moody edge. I’m always afraid that, considering the melodic potential of her singing, HorrorPops will turn into No Doubt any day now. But they’ve so far resisted taking the easy route, with Day’s guitarist-partner Kim Nekroman churning out distorted power chords that keep things sounding punk. And while they’re more “pop” than “horror,” they’ve always been a fun Halloween band, with a crew of foxy, colorfully garbed dancers wreaking havoc as Lady Day pumps her bass and belts out vengeful anthems about duplicitous blonde femme fatales. (Falling James)