Rock Picks: Ozomatli, Harper Simon, Spain

Tuesday/December/22

Calexico get surly waiting for their appetizers to arrive.

Welcome to her nightmare: Lady Gaga channels Alice Cooper.

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Local Natives at the Echo
The rising froth surrounding Silver Lake quintet Local Natives is a mite bit rabid, but understandable nonetheless. Though the group formed little over a year ago, its debut album, Gorilla Manor (available on import now, coming to the U.S. via Frenchkiss in February), presents an infectious combination of contemporary influences that walks a tough-to-tread line between genuinely frenetic and well-arranged. Take the song “Wide Eyes,” for example: A Grizzly Bear–like flair for segueing between disparate bits takes the listener from taut wintry pop to spacious percussion-heavy swoon to folksy vocals-only passages. The band has the multipart songs to match its rich three-way harmonies, and the energy to actually pull off a midalbum cover of Talking Heads’ “Warning Sign.” Animal Collective too plays heavy among Local Natives’ touchstones, as does a thankfully patois-free touch of reggae, heard on the bubbly single “Camera Talk.” Catch ’em live to see for yourself: In spite of the band’s actual origins, even Orange County kids can show a little soul. (Chris Martins)

Honeyhoney at Largo
“I’m singing the same songs/Wearing the same old clothes,” Suzanne Santo confesses on Honeyhoney’s strutting pop-rock track “Black Crows.” And while it’s true that she and her guitarist-partner Ben Jaffe aren’t exactly inventing any radical new musical styles, they do whip up some charming tunes on their Loose Boots EP and their full-length debut, First Rodeo (on actor Kiefer Sutherland’s Ironworks label). Santo is a melodically beguiling singer-violinist who’s just as persuasive belting out barn-burning country-rock ravers like “Give Yourself to Me” as she is confiding bluesy soul ballads like “Who’s Loving You.” She’s also becoming a wittier lyricist than most mainstream pop divas. “I think that we should screw tonight,” Santo purrs as Jaffe strums a languidly folksy accompaniment. Honeyhoney performs tonight in Largo’s Little Room. (Falling James)

Also playing Tuesday:

SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK at Walt Disney Concert Hall; KID CUDI at Club Nokia; LADY GAGA, KID CUDI, SEMI PRECIOUS WEAPONS at the Nokia Theatre; GHOSTWRITERS, JERRY

HANNAN at the Mint; KILLBIRDS at the Silverlake Lounge; LEOPOLD & HIS FICTION, MAGIC MIRROR, OJOS ROJOS at Spaceland.

Wednesday/December/23

The Swords of Fatima at Pershing Square
At a time of year when there’s so much cloying white-bread holiday music polluting the aesthetic atmosphere, it’s a relief to see a band like the Swords of Fatima playing this week — and at a free outdoor show, to boot. The self-described “flamenco Bollywood disco punk” duo stir up febrile, messily exotic instrumental passages like “The Swaying Caravan” and “The Sea of Cortez,” on their debut CD, Two Days, Two Swords ... Walk Alone at Midnight. Buko Pan Guerra, who’s played with Lily & the Ladies, Black Cat Mafia and Sun Trash, peels serpentine riffs from her guitar while drummer Nick Scott (Popdefect, Project K) chases after them with rolling tom-toms and speedy surf-garage fills. Without really meaning to, Guerra’s darkly twisting curlicues on “Then He Called at Midnight” simultaneously evoke the Doors’ sprawling moodiness and the Velvet Underground’s droning distortion, while the blurry garage-punk rush of “Catch the Sword” isn’t far removed from the Dagons’ nightmarish reveries. Ultimately, though, the Swords of Fatima are weirder than most groups these days. As their MySpace page humbly explains, “Without the hindrances of pesky lead singers and bass players to get in the way, there’s nothing in the world to stop them.” (Falling James)

Tenacious D at Largo at the Coronet
Over the course of several conversations I had with him while reporting L.A. Weekly’s April story on Silver Lake’s Dangerbird Records, I discovered that label chief Jeff Castelaz isn’t just a savvy businessman and a devoted husband and father — he’s also something of an amateur comedian. So it makes sense that for the latest in a recent series of high-profile benefit concerts for the Pablove Foundation, which Castelaz and his wife launched to help fight children’s cancer after their son Pablo was diagnosed last year, he’d enlist the services of Tenacious D, the funniest folk-metal duo in the world. (Sorry, Flight of the Conchords.) Even minus the excellent cause, these guys are worth the steep $50 cover; perhaps that princely sum will earn you a preview of their long-awaited follow-up to 2006’s The Pick of Destiny. (Mikael Wood)

Also playing Wednesday:

KID CUDI at Club Nokia; LADY GAGA, KID CUDI, SEMI PRECIOUS WEAPONS at the Nokia Theatre; CLOWNS & FETUSES, GREX at the Echo Curio.

Thursday/December/24

Playing Thursday:

CHOP SCHTICK at Genghis Cohen; FISHTANK ENSEMBLE, LISA HALEY, LOS PINGUOS at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.