Rock Picks: THE JOE KROWN TRIO, THE FIERY FURNACES, THE LILYS, MR. GNOME

EL PERRO DEL MAR AT THE HOTEL CAFÉ
The Swedish singer Sarah Assbring, a.k.a. El Perro del Mar, steps out from her tour with Peter Bjorn & John (which visited Club Nokia on Saturday) with a solo set at this intimate bar. Her latest album, Love Is Not Pop (the Control Group), is a set of love songs that are indeed quite pop. The song cycle is reportedly inspired by Lou Reed, although you’ll find little of the former Velvet Underground leader’s dark, literate imagery swimming around in El Perro del Mar’s simple pop tunes and ethereal ballads. Still, tracks like “A Change of Heart” and “Gotta Get Smart” have a quietly insistent and mesmerizing loveliness, as Assbring purrs softly against a glassy soundscape of icy keyboards and shiny acoustic guitars. El Perro del Mar hits the club’s small stage at 8 p.m., following Hecuba and preceding sets by Annie Stela and the Parson Red Heads. (Falling James)

Also playing Monday:

Paige Lacombe

Symbol Six look for evidence of lost punk civilizations.

Mike Wilson

Kronos Quartet

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More About

• Kirk Joseph
• Joe Krown
• MYSTERIOSOS Alex
• Ray LaMontagne
• Indie Rock and Indie Pop

JET, PAPA ROACH, KILL HANNAH at Club Nokia; THRICE, THE DEAR HUNTER at Avalon; DAVID SCOTT STONE, BOBB BRUNO at Echo Curio; THE WATKINS FAMILY HOUR at Largo at the Coronet; FORMER GHOSTS, WHITMAN, MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY at Pehrspace; THE HAPPY HOLLOWS, DIOS, ONE TRICK PONY at Spaceland; POLKA DOT DOT at Historical Marker 157.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24

MR. GNOME AT SILVERLAKE LOUNGE
One hesitates to describe Mr. Gnome as a two-piece band. The awesome rush of sound that comes out of Nicole Barille’s lungs and guitar and Sam Meister’s drums seems much bigger and more powerful than anything two people are capable of. Mr. Meister shifts the room with each stomp of his kick drum, while Ms. Barille launches landslides of surging, Sensurround guitar on the Cleveland duo’s second CD, Heave Yer Skeleton (El Marko Records). He hammers down her Sabbath-y riffs with a Bonham-esque finality on “Plastic Shadow,” and they scour the clouds away with punk tempos and flamethrower blasts on “Cleveland Polka.” But that’s about as “normal” as Mr. Gnome gets. Stormy passages like “Hills, Valleys and Valium” are broken up with spacy interludes where Barille’s eerie, wraithlike keening mood-swings into delicately angelic cooing. Such arty juxtapositions are freaky, cute, savage and scary, all at the same time. Mr. Gnome don’t really sound like anyone else, and their ghost-ridden songs only make sense with a dreamtime logic. Also at Alex’s Bar, Wed. (Falling James)

WOLFMOTHER, HEARTLESS BASTARDS AT THE WILTERN
Singer-guitarist Andrew Stockdale returns to town with a completely different lineup of Wolfmother, but the Australian band still has the same retro ’70s hard-rock/metal sound on its latest album, Cosmic Egg. While relatively poppy tracks like “White Feather” and the banal power ballad “Far Away” show a relatively modern White Stripes influence, most of the new songs, such as “Sundial” and “California Queen,” are derived from Wolfmother’s previous inspirations Black Sabbath, Kyuss and Blue Cheer. Stockdale’s latest version of the group rocks mightily, but the lack of an original style ultimately keeps the quartet from reaching the creative heights of superior (albeit lesser-known) underground bands like Backbiter and Biblical Proof of UFOs, who share many of the same psychedelic and punk influences but still manage to sound distinctive. Opening band Heartless Bastards bring the thunder down from their aptly titled third album, The Mountain (Fat Possum Records), but singer-guitarist Erika Wennerstrom is just as deft at stirring up hazy ballads like the sweetly rootsy “Be So Happy” as she is at churning out compulsively throbbing hard-blues rockers like “Out at Sea.” It won’t be long before this uniquely talented songwriter and her fulsomely heavy band are headlining large venues like this. (Falling James)

Also playing Tuesday:

KISS at the Honda Center; RED ARROW MESSENGER, LISSIE, LESLIE & THE BADGERS at Bootleg Theater; THE JOE PERRY PROJECT at House of Blues; SUZY WILLIAMS at Angel’s Piano Bar & Supper Club; CAFE TACUBA at Club Nokia; THE BIG MANNY BAND at Joe’s Great American Bar & Grill.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO AT THE MAYAN
James Ford and Jas Shaw, the producers behind Simian Mobile Disco, have crafted thundering, melodic dance backdrops for the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Peaches and Klaxons. Perhaps you’ve dug their own tracks while purchasing a pair of sparkly purple tights at American Apparel, where Simian Mobile Disco’s newest full album, Temporary Pleasure, is getting a lot of store play. SMD’s grunting, pumping dance-party shtick fits nicely with the sweaty, neon-colored, pillow-fighting style of American Apparel. Anyone remember Ya Kid K? Her overplayed hit “Pump Up the Jam” is resurrected and remixed here, with surprisingly fresh results. But Ford and Shaw are keen to the careful craftsmanship it takes to break down such seemingly airheaded, bubblegum techno and rudimentary ass-shaking beats. Less ambitious than 2006’s dense Attack Decay Sustain Release, SMD’s latest offering goes for irritatingly infectious beats and undeniable dance-floor chemistry with bat shit–crazy imagery — grape Kool-Aid–filled swimming pools and studded alligator-leather gold thongs — yow! (Wendy Gilmartin)