ANA TIJOUX AT LITTLE TEMPLE
The hip-hop MC Ana Tijoux was raised in France after her Chilean father went into exile to escape the terrors of Augusto Pinochet's regime. Her family eventually returned to Chile, and the young performer worked her way into the Santiago rap scene. Switching from French rhymes to Spanish, she fronted the hip-hop band Makiza for several years before branching out as a solo rapper. Since then, she's collaborated with Bajofondo and Control Machete and gained some mainstream attention when she appeared on Mexican alt-pop chanteuse Julieta Venegas' hit "Eres Para Mi." Tijoux's upcoming album, 1977 (named for the year of her birth), on Nacional Records is her homage to the early-'90s rap that inspired her, and a surreal look back at her childhood on two continents. Rather than being strident or full of narcissistic braggadocio, Tijoux is a more thoughtful, socially conscious rapper, backed by an intriguing blend of textures and beats, from the urgent, urban tension of "Sube" (which features an inspiring English rap by guest MC Invincible) and the dreamy electronica of "Crisis de un MC" to the jazzy, funky romanticism of the French-language "Oulala" and the spacey, glassily compelling soundscape "Humanidad." She's a rapper with a lot on her mind, and many ways of expressing it. Also at La Cita, Wed. (Falling James)
Also playing Tuesday:
Bassekou Kouyate cradles his ax.
I, robot: Janelle Monae
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RODRIGO Y GABRIELA at the Grammy Museum; SPRING SUMMER & PATRICK PARK at the Hotel Cafe; KREATOR, KATAKLYSM, EXILE, LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH at House of Blues; CURT SMITH & ZOE KEATING at Largo; THE NEUROTICS, SWORDS OF FATIMA at the Redwood Bar & Grill; MISCHKA, HONEYHONEY at the Roxy; SPACE WAVES, KASHMIR at Silverlake Lounge.
WEDNESDAY/MARCH/24
DEVENDRA BANHART & THE GROGS AT THE WILTERN
Soothsaying bearded rock star Devendra Banhart weaves a choicely malformed macramé of sound and imagery wherever his floppy sandals choose to tread. While the spider-fingered guitarist-singer's 2007 Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (XL) was a sprawling missive groping sprightly '30s music hall, burnished '60s-'70s folk-pop/epic heavy rock, sad-eyed sea chanteys and lovelorn lyricism en español, his recent What Will We Be (Reprise) is a mostly cheery-toned though deceptively offhanded set that zeros in on song craft among its ornate instrumental and vocal-harmony charms. Banhart's ambitious, aiming for something that's not mere eclecticism run amok; his California-ized psychedelia derives from an atypically intuitive gift for absorbing disparate patches of sonic antiquity to brew this enthralling stuff that, if you're paying attention, is unlike much of anything that's gone down before. The sheer bravery of his startlingly fruity vocal stylings — and majestic sartorial flair — ought to fling off any last perceived images of Banhart as a spearhead of ye moldy olde "freak folk" scene and herald his arrival as a great champion of genuinely new music. (John Payne)
THE LOW ANTHEM, TIMBER TIMBRE AT LARGO
The Low Anthem is still riding high on last year's breakout release Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, which landed the Rhode Island–based band on many year-end best-of lists and led to a recent Letterman appearance. Front man Ben Knox Miller and his multi-instrumental cohorts Jeff Prystowsky, Jocie Adams and Mat Davidson mine an old-timey country-folk sound that feels more timeless than time-bound. Utilizing a trunkload of instruments (from banjos to zithers), they craft music that sways between the earthy and the ethereal. Oh My God offers gently gorgeous gems like "To Ohio" and "Charlie Darwin" — songs that soar beautifully on Miller's fragile falsetto. But he can also growl out something grittier, as the bluesy foot-stomper "The Horizon Is a Beltway" and the Tom Waits cover "Home I'll Never Be" prove. Currently on its first headlining tour, the Low Anthem is a fast riser among the current Americana crop. Opening the shows is Timber Timbre (aka Canadian Taylor Kirk), whose stripped-down, bucolic blues delve into more haunted territory. Also at Bootleg Theater, Thurs., March 25. (Michael Berick)
Also playing Wednesday:
RAY DAVIES, THE 88 at Grove of Anaheim; ADMIRAL RADLEY, THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE at Bootleg Theater; CKY, YEAR LONG DISASTER, WARNER DRIVE at the Canyon; CYMBALS EAT GUITARS, BEAR IN HEAVEN, FREELANCE WHALES at the Echo; BAD RELIGION at House of Blues; ANA TIJOUX at La Cita; WORLD'S GREATEST GHOSTS at Silverlake Lounge; JANELLE MONÁE at Viper Room.
THURSDAY/MARCH/25
RAY DAVIES, THE 88 AT THE CANYON
Is it just a Kinks-y coincidence that
Ray Davies is performing at this club one night after a show by his nephew
Daniel Davies' group Year Long Disaster (which recently released its excellent second album, the cryptically tangled hard-rock opus
Black Magic: All Mysteries Revealed)? These days, such an accidental near-rendezvous is about as geographically and genetically close as Ray gets to playing with his long-estranged brother, Dave. Even with the Kinks still on hiatus, Ray has been typically busy in the past few years, giving his old classics a choral makeover on the 2009 album
The Kinks Choral Collection. While the gimmick didn't always work, the vocal-heavy arrangements were sometimes quite moving, especially on "Days," "Waterloo Sunset" and a gorgeously austere a cappella reduction of "See My Friends." Davies even reunited with his ex-wife
Chrissie Hynde — musically speaking — with a duet on a new song, "Postcards From
London." This time around, he's touring without the chorus, performing with guitarist Bill Shanley in a set of recent solo songs and past obscurities. Local Kinks acolytes the 88 open, in what is doubtless the dream gig of their career. (Falling James)
