Rock Picks: Al Kooper, Year Long Disaster, Steven Severin, the Phenomenal Handclap Band

Tuesday/January/12

Merrill Garbus, aka Tune-Yards, offers her digital folk jams at the Natural History Museum.

The wild, untamed Ruby Friedman Orchestra gigs the Hotel Café.

Location Info

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McCabe's Bar & Grill

2455 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Santa Monica

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THE RUBY FRIEDMAN ORCHESTRA AT THE HOTEL CAFÉ
With a name like the Ruby Friedman Orchestra, you might expect some retro swing or jazz chanteuse dusting off ancient standards in front of a fussy, fusty big band, but the actual dame in question isn’t so easily tied to any one genre or era. In fact, her “orchestra” is really a group of rock veterans who’ve variously backed the disparate likes of Powerman 5000, Shakira, Glen Campbell and Avril Lavigne — none of whom sounds remotely similar to the titular Ms. Friedman. The singer, it turns out, is no shrinking violet, belting out glammy power ballads like “Shooting Stars” and “Hang Around” with a big voice and plenty of charisma. “That’s why I let you hang around/Because you make me laugh ... You cut the pain in half,” Friedman declares with stirring romantic intensity. She and her hard-rocking band show considerable commercial potential, although at this stage the otherwise smart songwriting isn’t nearly as wild and untamed as Friedman’s voice. But give them time. On the ork’s faithful yet savage transformation of the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” she sounds deliriously feverish as she bends her wraithlike cries into the fat dip and curve of Adam Zimmon’s guitar licks. It’s possibly the best version of one of the most intense songs by the most famous band in rock history — that’s not easy to do, you know. (Falling James)

Vampire Weekend at Henry Fonda Theater
Vampire Weekend spent a good chunk of November playing a series of small-scale shows in such out-of-the-way California burgs as Visalia and Lomita — they also cropped up at the Gibson last month for the second night of KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas — and now the New York indie stars are back again to celebrate the release of their excellent new sophomore disc, Contra, with a higher-profile (but still relatively intimate) gig at the Henry Fonda in Hollywood. (Are these dudes considering a West Coast relocation or what? New album includes one tune called “California English.”) World-music purists who balked at Vampire Weekend’s appropriation of African-pop guitar riffs last time around will have an even harder time choking down this new one, which finds them dabbling even more boldly than before. So far my favorite cut is the one where frontman Ezra Koenig gets his Auto-Tune on. (Mikael Wood)

The Phenomenal Handclap Band at Cinespace
Hands down, one of the great details about albums from the ’60s and ’70s is the real hand claps. The cowbell comes in a close second, but the concept of musicians gathering around a microphone to clap their hands is the ultimate testament to the communal celebration that once took place in the studio — before the party was replaced by the lonely solitude of 808s, 909s. Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand felt the same way when they put together this outfit, which consists of more than two handfuls of bad-ass players. Call them the Polyphonic Spree of dance music, but the collective (which also includes Bart Davenport, TV on the Radio’s Jaleel Bunton, L’Trimm’s Lady Tigra) brings the sounds of the “me” generation back to the “we” generation, and successfully combines the liberation of psychedelic soul (à la Undisputed Truth and Shuggie Otis) with the elevation of cosmic disco (as coined by Daniele Baldelli and remixed by Prins Thomas, who recently did his thing for Phenomenal’s “You’ll Disappear”). Their self-titled debut is out now on Friendly Fire Recordings. You can also catch them at the Echo tomorrow night. (Daniel Siwek)

Also playing Tuesday:

BETH ORTON at Largo at the Coronet; RUIDO DE FONDO, BEATMO, WAIT.THINK.FAST, LEO MACHADO at the Troubadour; SEVEN SATURDAYS, THE PARSON RED HEADS, GO WEST YOUNG MAN at the Bootleg Theater; OLIN & THE MOON, ELENI MANDEL at the Echo; ROYAL CROWN REVUE at the Mint.

Wednesday/January/13

Willi Williams at the Echoplex
The Dub Club scores another wet-dream booking with this ultrarare show from reggae kingpin Willi Williams, the potent Jamaican chanter responsible for apocalyptic groove masterpiece “Armagideon Time.” With it’s darkly irresistible riddim and haunting end-time lyric, Williams crystallized reggae’s emphasis on doom and destiny, oppression and justice, with memorably epochal flair, and its music went on to serve as backing track for innumerable Jamaican discs before finally being introduced to the Anglo mainstream, when the Clash slapped their version onto the B-side of the “London Calling” single. Williams, of course, has quite an impressive additional slew of credits — he’s been cutting records since ’66 as part of the essential, unbeatable Studio One crew, and he brings the full experiential weight of that musical revolution along with him. Backed by able acolytes the Expanders, with the crucial addition of veteran reggae percussion legend Larry McDonald, not to mention Slackers saxist David Hillyard and Italian trombone man Mr. T-Bone, there will be very little suffering here tonight. (Jonny Whiteside)