Music Picks: Buzzcocks, Diana Ross, Isis, the xx

Also playing Tuesday: SUCKERS at Amoeba; THE GOOD LIFE, THE PARSON RED HEADS at the Glass House; GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS at the Roxy.

What do they get? Better with age: Buzzcocks.

Stripped: Thao and Mirah unplugged

Location Info

Map

The Smell

247 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

Photos

1 user reviews	Write A Review
Save to foursquare

The Troubadour

9081 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: West Hollywood

Photos

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

8800 Irvine Center Dr
Irvine, CA 92603

Category: Performing Arts Venues

Region: Out of Town

Related Content

• Take The Bike Train to Work, L.A.
  May 21, 2013
• Silver Lake Has Always Been Gay, Readers Say
  April 25, 2013
• Move Over, West Hollywood -- Silver Lake Is the True Gay Mecca
  April 19, 2013
• The 10 Best Restaurants in Silver Lake: A Neighborhood Grub Crawl
  May 7, 2013
• Happy Hour: Hyperion Public in Silver Lake Happy Wings!
  April 24, 2013

More About

• James Murphy
• John Payne
• Mikael Wood
• Punk Rock
• Celebrity News

WEDNESDAY/JUNE/9

KAREN ELSON AT SPACELAND
Karen Elson might be best known as Jack White's wife, but the British model has been a longtime member of the NYC cabaret collective the Citizens Band, putting her personal spin on songs by the Velvet Underground, Marlene Dietrich and Kurt Weill. More than just a pretty face, Elson has an enchanting voice and has recorded duets with Cat Power and Robert Plant. She met White when she acted in a video for the White Stripes song "Blue Orchid," and married him in 2005. Since then, the Nashville-based couple's collaborations have included two children, as well as Elson's debut CD, The Ghost Who Walks (Third Man Records). Although White produced and played drums, the album is really Elson's show. She delves into rootsy folk and country styles, infusing them with a sense of eeriness that's echoed by the haunting imagery in the title track. Elson is just as persuasive when she's intoning stripped-down, austere folk songs like "Lunasa" as she is singing the circus-y cabaret idyll "100 Years From Now" and the funereal blues lament "Mouths to Feed." (Falling James)

DIANA ROSS AT NOKIA THEATRE
Backed by a sizable ensemble that includes live strings and horns, Diana Ross is on tour playing hits from a career that's spanned some serious stylistic turf: soulful girl-group pop with the Supremes, bluesy vocal jazz in Lady Sings the Blues, hands-in-the-air disco in "I'm Coming Out." The show's called More Today Than Yesterday, after the Spiral Starecase hit she covered on 2006's so-so I Love You, but judging by reports from the road, the set list (which evidently includes a tribute to Michael Jackson) has more to do with yesterday than with today. Given Ross' still-powerful voice and her wonderfully diva-tastic hair — not to mention a promise from the singer's rep of "breathtaking costumes and stage designs" — that shouldn't be a problem. "Breathtaking," people! (Mikael Wood)

Also playing Wednesday: JAGUAR LOVE at Alex's Bar; HOT HOT HEAT at the Bootleg Theater; LOOKBOOK, TWILIGHT SLEEP at Silverlake Lounge; BATHS at the Echo; SAGE FRANCIS at the Glass House; THE GOOD LIFE, THE PARSON RED HEADS at the Troubadour; JOSE JAMES at Catalina Bar & Grill.

THURSDAY/JUNE/10

THE SADIES AT THE ECHO
Over the course of their 12-year career, the Sadies have worked with Neko Case, John Doe and Andre Williams — collaborations that have sometimes overshadowed their own brilliant records. The Canadian band's new CD, Darker Circles (Yep Roc Records), produced by the Jayhawks' Gary Louris, tries to put the focus back on their music, which ranges from traditional country and folk to weirdly evocative spaghetti Western soundscapes. Brothers Dallas and Travis Good trade off on guitars and vocals on such hazy ballads as "The Quiet One" and fiery barn burners like "Another Day Again," which sounds like the Meat Puppets riding the rails. The guitar pluckin' is intricately knotted on the rootsy folk ramble "Postcards," while the enigmatic "Violet and Jeffrey Lee" (a possible reference to the late Gun Club singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce?) churns with febrile banjo embellishments. (Falling James)

BILLY CHILDS JAZZ-CHAMBER ENSEMBLE AT REDCAT
One of the busiest composers, arrangers and pianists in jazz, Billy Childs has been showered with Grammy nominations and a couple of wins (one for Best Instrumental Composition for "Into the Light," from his 2005 album, Lyric, and the other for Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist, for Chris Botti and Sting). The L.A. native does a lot of things well, but it's his contribution as one of the supreme melodicists working the new-jazz turf that really stands out. That gift comes to the fore in the beautifully autumnal settings he's sketched for what he calls his Jazz-Chamber Ensemble, whose sets tonight will be performed by Bob Sheppard (woodwinds), Larry Koonse (guitar), Carol Robbins (harp), Hamilton Price (bass), the great Marvin "Smitty" Smith (drums) and the Eclipse String Quartet. These concerts are presented as part of the Jazz Bakery's "Movable Feast" series. (John Payne)

BARRINGTON LEVY AT HOUSE OF BLUES
Fans of the SoCal reggae scene may recognize Barrington Levy's hypnotic croon from his guest work with Long Beach Dub All Stars, or San Diego–based Skunk Records stars Slightly Stoopid, but the 46-year-old vocalist has a considerable legacy that stretches back to his native Jamaica. Levy was 13 when he founded his first dance-hall band, in the populous Clarendon Parish. Mighty Multitude's first single was "My Black Girl," and though it was a minor hit at local parties, the pubescent singer wasn't happy sharing the modest glory. He went solo at 14, and was eventually discovered by producers from the Channel One studio, where Roots Radics would serve as his backing band. Levy's peak came in '79 and '80, with a pair of excellent roots reggae albums, Englishman and Robin Hood, but his influence has been steady over the years in part due to the fact that his relative obscurity has made his music worth discovering time and time again. (Chris Martins)