Rock Picks: The Strange Boys, Memory Tapes, Scout Niblett, Four Tet

Also playing Friday:

KID INFINITY, SIGNALS, VERBS, BATWINGS CATWINGS at the Downtown Independent; VERY BE CAREFUL, CUCHATA, SUNNY WAR at the Mint; THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES, NICO VEGA at El Rey Theatre; EMILY WELLS & MONEY MARK at the Getty Center; BON JOVI, DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL at the Honda Center; BONEBRAKE SYNCOPATORS, VOODOO DAHLIA'S BURLEY-Q at Alex's Bar; AL DI MEOLA at House of Blues; MECOLODIACS, CHARMKIN REBELLION at Taix; WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS, THE LONELY FOREST, BEAR HANDS at the Troubadour; THE TOASTERS, LOS KUNG FU MONKEYS, THE SHEDS at Cobalt Café; THE DOWNTOWN TRAIN, TRICKY SIZZLER, RALSPHEENE, SPRING QUEEN at Echo Curio.

The Strange Boys are from Austin, and now feature Jenna Thornhill on sax.

Taken by Trees’ Victoria Bergsman mourns the end of trout season.

Location Info

Map

The Smell

247 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

Photos

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The Redwood Bar & Grill

316 W. Second St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

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More About

• Ryan Sambol
• Chris Martins
• Scout Niblett
• Folk Music
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Saturday/February/27

Four Tet at the Echoplex
Its first full-length in over four years, Four Tet's There Is Love In You (Domino) finds the London multigenre-ist Kieran Hebden devising a sort of career runthrough of the varied, gently experimental fields he's surveyed down the years. Hebden is well known for rad shifts in character from project to project, having graced us with everything from pastoral acoustic ambience to funky blends of DJ/house raveups and backpack–hip-hop grooves. Most interesting were his teamings with jazz drummer Steve Reid on a series of electronic/percussion improvs probing the reaches way outside the rave/DJ/hip-hop bags that casual listeners might've tossed him in previously. Emphasizing a trademarked organic/acoustic textural bent, arcanely pretty electronic grain and truly sophisticated polyrhythms, There Is Love In You isn't his best, in fact feels a tad too precision-oriented, but it does give good ear to the guy's sheer sonic wizardry. And the single, "Love Cry," is stupefyingly gorgeous. (John Payne)

Scout Niblett, Dirt Dress at Spaceland
In addition to having one of the cutest names in rock & roll, Portland-based grungette Scout Niblett has one of the most haunting, spine-tingling howls in the business. Her emotive warble suggests she's kindred spirits with Magnolia Electric main brain Jason Molina, but rather than rock you into a narco-depressive coma, Niblett drags ya through the dirt, dusts you off then busts your lip with a spirited right hook. The London-born singer and multi-instrumentalist is the perfect amalgam of two historically vital Northwestern scenes: Nirvana (they count as a scene, right?) and the do-it-yourself, etherea-loving world of the K Records crew. On her just-released Drag City full-length, The Calcination of Scout Niblett, the soloist often limits herself to just two sounds per song — guitar and voice, or drum and voice — but those that bring in all three tend toward dark blues and black metal. Yeah, that's how the Scout rolls: with enough heaviness to blow away any assumptions you might have had about adorableness. (Chris Martins)

Phranc at McCabe’s
Like every genre, folk music has been rehashed to death in recent years. But there was a long period of time when this seemingly timeless sound was virtually impossible to find on the airwaves and in nightclubs. After peaking with the early-'60s Greenwich Village boom, folk music had largely disappeared from popular culture in the homogenous classic-rock '70s. Ironically, its revival in the late '70s came from an unexpected source — adventurous-minded punk rockers who were supposedly interested only in destroying music's past. First and foremost among these new punk troubadours was the former Susan Gottlieb, who was soon better known as Phranc, the self-proclaimed "all-American Jewish lesbian folksinger." She'd been a part of the influential synth-punk saboteurs Nervous Gender and Slashmagazine scribe Claude Bessy's messily poetic Catholic Discipline, but Phranc didn't develop her own style until she went solo as an unplugged singer-guitarist. Her songs ranged from the whimsical ("Ballad of the Dumb Hairdresser") and the earnestly ardent ("I Love Charlotte," an ode to Go-Go's guitarist Charlotte Caffey) to heavier fare, such as her heartbreaking version of Bob Dylan's "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll." Not only did Phranc directly inspire the queercore and riot-grrl scenes, she eventually worked with members of Team Dresch and Bikini Kill. In recent years, she's been more focused on selling Tupperware (!) and making visual art, two activities that occasionally align with her infrequent musical performances. (Falling James)

Also playing Saturday:

GOODIE MOB, B.O.B. at Club Nokia; BON JOVI, DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL at the Honda Center; NICK OLIVERI, JESSE DELUXE, HDR at the Relax Bar; CAROLINA CERISOLA & THE WALTER DAVIS BAND at Eastside Luv; SPLOTCH, THE WIDOWS, EVIL TWINS at the Good Hurt; EVAN DANDO at the Hotel Café; LAS 15 LETRAS, BLUE JUNGLE, MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY at Pehrspace; MIKE WATT & THE MISSINGMEN, SPOT at the Redwood Bar; BIPOLAR BEAR, RESIDUAL ECHOES, NEVEREVER, TWISTED STARS at the Smell.

Sunday/February/28

Angelique Kidjo at Walt Disney Concert Hall

Entrancing Beninoise singer Angelique Kidjo brings her awe-inspiring rhythmic stew to Disney Hall. Discovered by Island Records' Chris Blackwell, the singer arrives in support of her new album, Õÿö. (Randall Roberts)

Also playing Sunday:

SCREAM, THE HOLLOYS at the Echo; ANARCHIST CAFE DAY PARTY at the Smell; LOUIS PRIMA JR. & THE WITNESSES, SARAH SPIEGEL at Dragonfly; TRIO ELLAS at Eastside Luv.

Monday/March/1

Moonrats, Adanowsky, Aska, SoKo at Spaceland
Local three-piece Moonrats is long overdue for an Eastside residency. The band formed in 2005 after singer Nathan Thelen left Pretty Girls Make Graves and relocated to Los Angeles, and it's since more than proved its songwriting mettle. Moonrats makes rock music that's easy to love, but always teetering on the edge of wildness. Splashy textures and aqueous guitar tones make for a dreamy and dissonant pop, with vocals that are instilled with Jeff Tweedy twang. Earlier in the night, the band's keyboardist (and then some) Aska performs songs from her Manimal-signed solo project. She's a classically trained pianist with husky vocals and a knack for hauntingly beautiful songs played out on a range of instruments and sprinkled with electronic effects. Equally notable and wholly unexpected is the presence of Adanowsky, aka Adan Jodorowsky, who just so happens to be the son of legendary Chilean film surrealist Alejandro Jodorowsky. The 30-year-old received his first guitar lesson from George Harrison and now specializes in a strange, jazz-tinged folk music. (Chris Martins)