Rock Picks: Ozomatli, Harper Simon, Spain

Friday/December/18

Calexico get surly waiting for their appetizers to arrive.

Welcome to her nightmare: Lady Gaga channels Alice Cooper.

Related Content

• Silver Lake Has Always Been Gay, Readers Say
  April 25, 2013
• Move Over, West Hollywood -- Silver Lake Is the True Gay Mecca
  April 19, 2013
• The 10 Best Restaurants in Silver Lake: A Neighborhood Grub Crawl
  May 7, 2013
• Happy Hour: Hyperion Public in Silver Lake Happy Wings!
  April 24, 2013
• Whole Foods Coming To Silver Lake
  May 8, 2013

More About

• Nokia Theatre
• Charlie Haden
• Liam James
• Calexico (Band)
• Celebrity News

Harper Simon, the Chapin Sisters at the Bootleg Theater
When the Chapin Sisters started out in the local scene five years ago, the folk-pop group needed little more than Abigail Chapin’s and Lily Chapin’s acoustic guitars to support the sumptuous harmonies on their deliciously somber remakes of the Smiths’ “I Know It’s Over” and Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” as well as the often-bewitching original songs that eventually ended up on their 2008 full-length debut, Lake BottomLP. Earlier this year, the trio (which also includes half-sister Jessica Craven) began performing live with a full electric band, whom they jokingly refer to as “the Brother Brothers.” While there was a stark intensity and an austere simplicity in the Chapins’ previous, virtually a cappella arrangements, the new guys help the sisters rock out a little more, giving their spare tunes more warmth and rhythmic push without getting in the way of those fabulously eerie voices. Like Abigail and Lily (the daughters of folkie Tom Chapin) and Jessica (the daughter of film director Wes Craven), the pleasantly soft-rocking headliner Harper Simon has the considerable advantage of being born into pop royalty — as opposed to, say, the singers of bands like Vampire Weekend, the Wiyos and Everest, who seemingly have less of an excuse for sounding just like Harper’s dad, Paul Simon. (Falling James)

Ozomatli at Club Nokia
Their old backpack-rap peers in the Black Eyed Peas may have gone superstar, but the members of L.A.’s Ozomatli are still keeping it real: Earlier this year these world-hop believers traveled to Southeast Asia under the aegis of the U.S. Department of State and rocked, among other unlikely venues, a Burmese school for the blind. Fortunately, Ozomatli haven’t started to sound like they’re keeping it real. In one track from their latest full-length, 2007’s aggressively rambunctious Don’t Mess With the Dragon, they cribbed the vocal melody from Deniece Williams’ “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” of all appealingly unserious things. According to the band’s representative, they’re currently at work on Dragon’s follow-up with producer Tony Berg, which means new material may be on the docket tonight. Also Sat. (Mikael Wood)

Also playing Friday:

JON BRION at Largo at the Coronet; CAMP FREDDY, DARLING STILETTOS at the Roxy; ORGONE, DJ RIGHTEOUS TRASH, BLUESKYREALITY, WINDSOR DRIVE, FRANK & DEROL at the Mint; BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA, THE VENTURES at the Gibson Amphitheatre; TOYS THAT KILL, BIPOLAR BEAR at the Smell; AQUABATS, BUCK O’NINE, SUPERNOVA at the Henry Fonda Theater; RICKIE LEE JONES at the Orpheum; MICKEY AVALON at Vanguard; VERY BE CAREFUL, SERGIO MENDOZA Y LA ORQUESTA at the Echo; EL VEZ, LOS STRAITJACKETS at the Troubadour; FOREIGN BORN, BEST COAST, EL SPORTIVO & THE BLUES at Spaceland; TREMELLOW, SIGNALS, SNOWSUIT, NO BABIES, WHITMAN at the Echo Curio; MIKE WATT & THE SECONDMEN, SACCHARINE TRUST, LANDFILL, OTHERS at the Good Hurt; HO-HO-TEL feat. AM, JIM BIANCO, BROTHER SAL, CARY BROTHERS, BUDDY, ANDY CLOCKWISE at the Hotel Café; AM, GOSSIP TREE, MY PET SADDLE, THE FUNERAL PARTY at Pehrspace; SUKI EWERS, DUKES & GANNON at Taix.

Saturday/December/19

El Ten Eleven, Triorganico at the Bootleg Theater
Make not the mistake of confusing El Ten Eleven with similarly Spanglish-named groups like Los Lonely Boys or Los Super Seven — there’s nothing particularly Tex-Mex about what these guys do, and no language employed whatsoever in the execution of their danceable post-rock compositions. The local duo — doubleneck-ist Kristian Dunn and drummer Tim Fogarty — offers a near-exact triangulation of Trans Am spoof, Fucking Champs shred and Ratatat synthery. Entertaining, yes, but the true highlight of the night should be Triorganico, whose bossa-infused jazz and easy summertime psychedelia breezed their way into this city’s consciousness earlier this year by way of a glorious debut, Convivencia. Oddly enough, that album was a mere afterthought to the intimate jam sessions that the flute-loving three-piece had been holding in mastermind Pablo Calogero’s L.A. garage. The Brazilian-born Fabiano do Nascimento is as handsome a looker as he is a guitar-player, and percussionist Ricardo “Tiki” Pasillas has played with everyone from Marc Anthony to Poncho Sanchez. (Chris Martins)

X, Calexico at the Wiltern
Jam in the key, stomp on the gas and roar down the road: Like a trusty, rusty old pickup, L.A.’s beloved ’77-school vets X just refuse to putter out. The faithful will flock to hear our most revered local beat combo blast their countrybilly-laced “punk rock” one mo time, wailing along with singer Exene Cervenka and bassist John Doe as the iconic pair twine their darkly poetic lyrics like barbed-wire and the great Billy Zoom on electric guitar picks and grins, every damn one of us eager slaves to brother D.J. Bonebrake’s meticulously tight tub-whackin’. The Southwest Sound finds its artful counterpart in Calexico, ex–Giant Sand/Friends of Dean Martinez mates Joey Burns and John Convertino’s long-running Tucson collective, which simmers a dusty, burnt-orange country-indie rock with intriguing new strands of tejano/mariachi, Euro-modernism and a whole lot more. (John Payne)