Rock Picks: Daedelus, Beth Thornley, Yeasayer

Friday/February/5

The beguiling Beth Thornley plays the Hotel Café.

PHOTO BY OLLY HEARSEY

Vivian Girls

Location Info

Map

The Echoplex

1154 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Out of Town

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The Smell

247 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

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More About

• Chris Martins
• Yeasayer
• Beth Thornley
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Indie Rock and Indie Pop

Daedelus, Nosaj Thing, Jogger at the Echoplex

We've heard rumors that Pasadena bass-head Nosaj Thing may be releasing his second album of glitchy, gorgeous beatscapes as early as this year, but he'll have to do much better than that to catch up with Santa Monica electronica vet Daedelus. Alfred Darlington borrows his better-known recording handle from the mythological inventor of Greek legend, and it's a good fit. Not only does Daedelus create custom noisemakers out of old keyboards and sound toys, he's cooked up 11 albums and even more EPs over his last 10 years of music-making, working with nearly every electronic label worth its weight in bleeps and bloops. His compositions typically weave together organic sounds, heavy thump and lo-bit effects, as heard on his recent contribution to the Friends of Friends label split series. Daedelus recently started his own imprint as well, called Magical Properties, and the opening act is its first signing: L.A. duo Jogger, who carve wildly eclectic dance music out of influences as disparate as Laurie Anderson and death metal. (Chris Martins)

Yeasayer, Warpaint at the Natural History Museum

It's been a long wait since 2007's All Hour Cymbals, Yeasayer's rocket launch of a debut album that had SXSW buzzing that year and loads of fans starving for more. But despite constant touring on their part, and even though most of us have already heard the new album thanks to loose MP3's (Odd Blood is officially out February 9), L.A.'s got to feel lucky that the trio are launching their highly anticipated international tour in support of Odd Blood right under the nose of T. Rex's bony remains. With a delivery oh so over the top and gossamer-slick with '80s drama, Anand Wilder, Chris Keating and Ira Wolf Tuton beat it down hard like wailing, religious cult members and yet concoct a disciplined punch that packs in enough proggy orchestration, new-age Enya-mocking and meandering psychotropic loops that Damo Suzuki, Klaus Nomi, Conor Oberst and Sade could all get it on to the soundtrack (not that you'd want to be there for that). Lighting up the night at the museum with Yeasayer is Warpaint — L.A.'s Jenny Lindberg, Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman's tri-vocal freak-out. (Wendy Gilmartin)

Also playing Friday:

EMILY WELLS & THE PORTLAND CELLO PROJECT at Largo at the Coronet; AMANDA BLANK at Bardot; KEITH MURRAY at the Airliner; MARIACHI JESUS DE LA PLAZA at Eastside Luv; EBONY BONES, LITTLE RED RADIO at the Echo; ANVIL at House of Blues; ZIGGY MODELISTE at the Mint; BIG SANDY & HIS FLY-RITE BOYS at the Redwood Bar; HELEN STELLAR, SHILOE, WET & RECKLESS, DIRT BIRD at Spaceland; THE CHAPIN SISTERS at Synchronicity Space; RHETT MILLER & THE SERIAL LADY KILLERS, LESLIE & THE BADGERS at the Troubadour.

Saturday/February/6

Vivian Girls at the Smell

Named after a novel by the late outsider artist Henry Darger, the Brooklyn trio Vivian Girls shroud their pop songs in tons of fuzz and reverb, turning simple melodies into something much darker and stranger. On their second album, Everything Goes Wrong (In the Red), they twine their voices together to create an eerie doubling effect instead of making traditional harmonies. Tracks like "The End" contrast the Vivian Girls' sweetly serene singing with a jangling, clanging blur of punky guitar. Their new single, a cover of the Chantels' "He's Gone" (Wild World), sounds like a vintage girl-group tune that was recorded by ghosts in an underwater haunted mansion. Like the Vivian Girls themselves, the song is simultaneously candied, creepy, cute and unsettling. (Falling James)

Beth Thornley at the Hotel Cafe

Beth Thornley is a singer-pianist from Alabama who's been living in Los Angeles for much of the past decade. Her second album, 2006's My Glass Eye, closed with a memorable acoustic reworking of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," which was pumped up with accordion and featured some interesting melodic variations. Her new CD, Wash U Clean, has a bit of a Beatles-like pop-rock influence, mixed with occasional newfound touches like the hip-hop-lite phrasing on "You're So Pony" and the saucy horn retorts on the catchy title track. As a lyricist, though, Thornley is still struggling to find her own voice; she indulges in clichés about burning bridges (as well as lovers who crash and burn). Some lyrics start o ut promisingly, such as "You shine like a Cadillac," only to be followed by anticlimactic punch lines like "If you got sold, I'd buy you back." Despite such clunky moments, Thornley is a beguiling singer, especially on graceful, more evocative ballads like "Still Can't Hide." For tonight's record-release show, she and her guitarist-husband, Rob Cairns, will be joined by a full band. (Falling James)

Hepcat, Dengue Fever, Joey Altruda's Crucial Riddims, Very Be Careful at El Rey THEATRE

It makes sense that the Dub Club DJs would be in the house for this show, whose proceeds will go toward relief efforts in Haiti. Island sounds are the backbone of this night, with colorful cultural asides playing the part of connective tissue. Homegrown headliner Hepcat has been churning out rocksteady and ska for crowds around the world for the better part of 20 years. The band has all the bells and whistles —­ er, horns and keyboards ­­­— of any good third-wave ska posse, and it puts on a skank-heavy extravaganza. L.A.'s Dengue Fever, of course, gets its wild worldly flavor from a different isle, Cambodia, while Joey Altruda's Crucial Riddims is Latin in its base, but will include drop-ins from Jamaican icons Wailing Souls and Ras Michael. The Lions is a dubwise big band whose sound is about as authentic as it gets (especially hailing from Southern California), while the Tuffingtons hew a bit more poppy and lo-fi, with stylistic nods to the Clash. (Chris Martins)