Music Picks: Jail Weddings, Summer Darling, Roky Erickson, Jonathan Richman

Also playing Saturday: CAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR at The Hollywood Bowl; LOS PINGUOS at The Mint; FLYING LOTUS at The Echoplex; JOHN WICKS & THE RECORDS at Rusty's Surf Ranch; CARNEY at El Rey; 30 SECONDS TO MARS, SHINY TOY GUNS, NEON TREES at The Greek Theatre, ANNUALS, THE MOST SERENE REPUBLIC, WHAT LAURA SAYS THINKS & FEELS at Spaceland; JOSHUA TREE MUSIC FESTIVAL at The Joshua Tree Lake Campground; MICHIKO & THE BIRTHDAY BOYZ at Molly Malone's; NICOLE KIDMAN, ESSAY, KNIGHT RIDER, JONATHAN SNIPES at The Smell; RUST, LIONS IN IRON, ARMY OF KINGS at Viper Room; TOOTS & THE MAYTALS at Saint Rocke; BLACK FAG, A PRETTY MESS at Que Sera.

PHOTO BY LAUREN EVERETT

Burnt rubber soul: Jail Weddings

Location Info

Map

Walt Disney Concert Hall

111 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

Photos

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Key Club

9039 W. Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Out of Town

REDCAT: Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

631 W. Second St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

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Mayan Theater

1038 S. Hill St.
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Category: Theaters

Region: Out of Town

The Wiltern

3790 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

Photos

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• Gustavo Santaolalla
• Bajofondo
• Mikael Wood
• Indie Rock and Indie Pop
• Punk Rock

SUNDAY/MAY/16

TOOTS & THE MAYTALS AT THE KEY CLUB
Toots Hibbert has one of the mightiest, most distinctive voices in reggae. It's a wise, weathered and burnished instrument that draws just as deeply from American soul and gospel as it does from Jamaican influences. Of course, when it comes to inspiration, Toots & the Maytals are more influential than influenced. Their 1968 single "Do the Reggay" was among the first songs to put a name to the hypnotically offbeat, slower, spiritually uplifting rhythms that grew out of the ska scene. And "Pressure Drop" (from 1970's Monkey Man and 1973's The Harder They Come sound track) is an enduring classic, with an ominous, universal urgency that came through even when the Clash buried it in punk rock guitars on their 1979 version. Various Maytals have come and gone (or died), but Toots is still a vibrant performer. While the production on his new album, Flip and Twist, is a little plain, there are some fiery moments, ranging from the Staxy strut of "Fool for You" and the gospel harmonizing of "Almighty Way" to the mysterious, electro-funky "There Is a Reason" and a compulsively slinky remake of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground." Also at Saint Rocke, Sat. (Falling James)

RING FESTIVAL L.A. CONSIDERING WAGNER AT REDCAT
It has been 135 long years since Richard Wagner completed his moving monster Der Ring des Nibelungen, enough time surely for a reasoned reassessment of its creator's indubitable dreams and devilish desires. This night of music and film in four acts skews the angles of Wagner's musical and theatrical innovations and his grand visions for Art through excerpts of several operas given contemporary instrumental and procedural twists reflecting the evolution of creativity itself. At three-plus hours (with intermissions), the varied program presents former Villa Aurora resident composers Peter Ablinger, Marko Ciciliani and Ulrich Krieger; chamber-ensemble performances of compositions by Mark Menzies, Marc Sabat and Wolfgang von Schweinitz; plus Krieger's Ginnungagap & 3 Nornen, featuring Scott Cazan on laptop computer and Krieger on alto saxophone; also films by Peter Rappmund and Meason Wiley. This presentation is part of the 10-week Ring Festival L.A., centered around L.A. Opera's new production of Wagner's Ring cycle. Starts at 7 p.m. (John Payne)

Also playing Sunday: SONNY ROLLINS at Walt Disney Concert Hall; BONFIRE MADIGAN at Bootleg Theater; THE GRAND OLE ECHO at The Echoplex; THE MONTHLIES at Dakota Music Lounge; JOSHUA TREE MUSIC FESTIVAL at The Joshua Tree Lake Campground; RICK HOLMSTROM at Liquid Kitty; KIRRILY KEAYES at The Mint; THE SHRILL, DIRTY LOVIN' DOZEN GUN METAL GROOVE, RAVEN PARADE at The Roxy; THE STOWAWAYS at Saint Rocke; GIL MANTERA'S PARTY DREAM at Spaceland; STEREOFIX at The Viper Room.

MONDAY/MAY/17

JAIL WEDDINGS, THE LIKE AT THE ECHO
Under the baton of singer-guitarist Gabriel Hart, L.A.'s Jail Weddings purvey one of your grittier, scarier even, views of the '60s soul sound. JW are a mini-orchestra known to number up to 10 players, including strings and brass and a beguiling batch of backing singers. Hart's obsessively Orbison-esque vocal pleas can send shivers down the spine and draw a tiny tear to the eye in songs that reek of moody doo-wop and do not skimp on the steamy, heaving punk rock & roll. They've got an excellent EP out called Inconvenient Dreams (White Noise) that you need to seek out. The Like are three young white girls who can boast inspired song craft, a stunning heaviosity in their playing prowess and an oddly wise intelligence and humor about it all. Their new album, the Mark Ronson–produced Release Me(Downtown), is out in June. (John Payne)

Also playing Monday: SWEETHEAD, RED FANG, EARTHLINGS at Spaceland; BRANDI THORNTON at The Lighthouse Cafe; SYNDROME WPW at Pehrspace; STEEL PANTHER at House of Blues; TODD BARRY at Largo; MARK BALLAS at The Mint; WAR TAPES at Silverlake Lounge; FALLING STILL, RAJAS, SQUARE ON SQUARE at The Troubadour; RANDOM IMPULSE, DANCE LAURY DANCE at Viper Room.

TUESDAY/MAY/18

ROKY ERICKSON AT THE MAYAN
There's a tiny number of incontestably original voices in rock & roll, and one of those belongs to Roky Erickson. The brilliant, troubled singer, who did his level best to change the universe fronting psych-shock troupe the 13th Floor Elevators, possesses not only one of the most irresistibly arousing vocal approaches ever visited upon us but also a natural instinct for both penetrating, poetic lyrics and mad rocking of the most unhinged order. Between his own drastic rebel modus operandi and the duty-bound peace officers of the Lone Star State, Erickson squandered quite a few prime years in a state hospital for the criminally insane, and while his subsequent output has been consistently, beautifully bizarre, he's rolling in tonight bearing the standard of True Love Cast Out All Evil, his first new album in a long stretch. It's a dangerously engrossing set, fraught with bewildered vulnerability, tender melancholy and a righteous, highly individualized spirituality, urged along by relentless, contrary undercurrents of desperate longing and profound tension. Those qualities are inimitably — and exclusively — pure Roky, and there has never been a better time to recognize him (again) as one of rock & roll's most valiant practitioners. (Jonny Whiteside)