Music Picks: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Donovan, Ana Tijoux, John Wicks

Also playing Saturday:

STEPHEN STILLS at Grove of Anaheim; GOMEZ at El Rey Theatre; DEVIN SARNO & G.E. STINSON, JEAN BAUDIN at Bootleg Theater; AGRESSION at the Cobalt Cafe; BETH HART at the Echo, 7 p.m.; JOHN C. REILLY, GILLIAN WELCH & DAVE RAWLINGS, SARAH & SEAN WATKINS, THE LIVING SISTERS at Largo; THE RAVE UPS at Molly Malone's; JOE HAJEK, SIERRA LYNN at Pig 'N Whistle; THE WOOLLY BANDITS at the Press (Claremont); MIKE WATT & THE MISSINGMEN at the Redwood Bar & Grill; AZTLAN UNDERGROUND, LA BESTIA, SCOTT RODARTE at Salon de la Plaza; KINGSIZEMAYBE, SIMON STOKES at Taix.

The Low Anthem are really evolving.

Location Info

Map

El Rey Theatre

5515 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Mid-Wilshire/ Hancock Park

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The Echo

1822 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Echo Park

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More About

• Donovan (Singer)
• Chris Martins
• Timber Timbre
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

SUNDAY/MARCH/21

MIA DOI TODD, MAURICIO TAKARA, THE REBEKAH RAFF HARP ENSEMBLE AT BOOTLEG THEATER
L.A. singer-songwriter Mia Doi Todd has 14 years and nine albums of dulcet autumnal folk under her belt, not to mention collaborations with Dntel, Saul Williams and Lou Barlow's Folk Implosion. The cult of Todd is broad indeed — evidently including Michel Gondry, who directed the video for her new song "Open Your Heart" — but this night's openers deserve followings of their own. Mauricio Takara is a multi-instrumentalist from São Paulo who handles drums for the moody post-rock sextet Hurtmold, but his solo compositions are lush electronic works that weave samba, dance music, organic percussion and break beats into a Prefuse 73–like collage. He's worked with Can's Damo Suzuki and a number of Chicago post-rockers, and yet Takara's résumé pales next to that of Rebekah Raff. The locally based musician has at one point or another been the harpist du jour for Kanye West, Britney Spears, Ghostface Killah and OutKast, though her most recent recorded contributions have been to the Flying Lotus oeuvre. (Chris Martins)

Also playing Sunday:

GOMEZ at El Rey Theatre; DEAKIN at Eagle Rock Center for the Arts, 5 p.m.; TEARS FOR FEARS at the Wiltern; GROOVE ARMADA at Henry Fonda Theater; BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA at Amoeba Music, 7 p.m.; ELECTRIC JELLYFISH, BLACK APPLES at Echo Curio; PAUL WALL, CHAMILLIONAIRE at House of Blues; CHAPEL OF THIEVES, TOY ATTICA at Que Sera.

MONDAY/MARCH/22

JULIA HOLTER, NUDGE, MATTHEWDAVID AT SYNCHRONICITY SPACE
Julia Holter is the co-founder of Human Ear Music, the local label/audio institution that's aided in the rise of such artily inclined Eastsiders as Ariel Pink and Nite Jewel. Holter herself is a trained composer who applies her formal music knowledge to enjoyably experimental ends. Her oeuvre thus far is small but strong — an ever-shifting mix of baroque ideas, exotic pop, dingy keyboard sounds and airy vocals. Ambient band Nudge is a bit of a Kranky Records all-star outfit, revolving around L.A.'s Brian Foote but usually including Portland solo artists Valet and Strategy. Nudge's instrumental pieces hew more ghostly but include a great deal of live instrumentation, with dubby bass lines twining around fuzzy synth textures and unsourceable effects. Opener Matthewdavid lives music, working with both Dublab and Alpha Pup, running his own Leaving Records and co-hosting the Friday-night club Calling All Kids. He also makes tunes of his own using found sounds as the foundation for his adventures into the unknown. (Chris Martins)

JOHN WICKS AT GENGHIS COHEN
In the late 1970s, singer-guitarist John Wicks was one of the main men in the modish British pop band the Records, who are still fondly remembered for the incandescent hit "Starry Eyes." With its sunny, jingle-jangling guitars disguising bittersweet, poison-pen lyrics, "Starry Eyes" was a hook-filled power-pop classic on par with the Plimsouls' "A Million Miles Away," Eddie & the Hot Rods' "Do Anything You Wanna Do" and 20/20's "Yellow Pills." Now based in Los Angeles, Wicks often performs the old faves as John Wicks & the Records — in fact, they're scheduled in upcoming weeks at Molly Malone's (April 9) and Rusty's Surf Ranch (May 15) — but tonight he's breaking it down acoustically, accompanied only by guitarist Dennis Taylor. While they might get a bit starry-eyed at the end, Wicks and Taylor intend to preview new songs from an upcoming album. Wicks' material in recent years, as best documented on 2007's Rotate, encompasses orchestrated pop epics ("Whenever You're Near"), laid-back country folk ("Come on Round") and, of course, stellar power pop with those distinctively chiming guitars ("Rising Stars"). Speaking of stars, Wicks was joined by the Plimsouls' Peter Case and the Nerves' Paul Collins recently at a similar acoustic gig. (Falling James)

Also playing Monday:

MARVIN HAMLISCH at UCLA Freud Playhouse; KASHMIR, OLIVER FUTURE, ITALIAN JAPANESE at Bootleg Theater; THE FREQUENCY, LAST MAN STANDING, HORSE STORIES at the Echo; DAVID SCOTT STONE, THE FARADAY TRIPPERS, SLEEPWALKERS LOCAL at Echo Curio; POWERSOLO at the Redwood Bar & Grill; FRENCH MIAMI, SEASPIN, TWILIGHT SLEEP, FUTURE GHOST at Silverlake Lounge; MOONRATS at Spaceland; SERENA MANEESH at the Troubadour.

TUESDAY/MARCH/23

JANELLE MONÁE, BRUNO MARS AT THE VIPER ROOM
Backed by both Diddy and OutKast's Big Boi, Janelle Monáe has been threatening to break out since 2006, when she appeared on the soundtrack to OutKast's movie musical Idlewild. In 2007, she released an EP on Diddy's Bad Boy label, then followed it up the next year with a special-edition reissue that included a too-cutesy rendition of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile." This May, she'll finally make her full-length debut with The ArchAndroid, which reportedly features collaborations with Big Boi, Saul Williams and Of Montreal, among others. "Tightrope," the album's lead single, is an up-tempo "Hey Ya!"–style rave-up with a bass line that's cooler than being cool. The singer's handlers are already mentioning Monáe alongside such future-funk luminaries as Sly Stone and Prince, and, though I can't endorse those comparisons — opening for Adele last summer at the Hollywood Bowl, she seemed woefully underequipped to move a crowd of nearly 20,000 — she's definitely one to watch. With Bruno Mars, who sings the hook on B.o.B.'s current Top 40 hit, "Nothin' on You." Also Wed. (Mikael Wood)