Also playing Monday: TWILIGHT SLEEP at Silverlake Lounge; WHITE ARROWS at Spaceland; TIM FINN at the Troubadour; UNKLE MONKEY at the Waterfront.
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TUESDAY/AUGUST/3
CIRCA SURVIVE AT THE BOOTLEG THEATER
These Pennsylvania emo-prog dudes recently completed a stint as
Coheed and Cambria's opening act and will hook up with
Deftones for a run following this headlining L.A. date. But Circa Survive definitely deserve their own look: On
Blue Sky Noise, the band's major-label debut (which came out in April), frontman
Anthony Green layers his yearning little-boy vocals over knotty, complex arrangements that inspire equal parts headbanging and fist-pumping. Like Coheed and Deftones (and
Tool, whose sometime-producer
David Bottrill helmed
Blue Sky Noise), Circa Survive exist within a complicated world of their own devising: It's probably worth noting that the new album's cover, for instance, depicts a Pegasus with a rainbow where its head should be. Yet Green's singing provides a route into the music that personalizes it in an uncommon way. Good stuff. (
Mikael Wood)
Also playing Tuesday: MICHAEL MCDONALD at Coach House; TUESDAY CLASSICS: LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC WITH GUSTAVO DUDAMEL, GABRIELA MONTERO at the Hollywood Bowl; THE RICHARD GLASER JAZZ BAND at the Waterfront.
WEDNESDAY/AUGUST/4
EL-P AT THE AIRLINER
As indie-rap's resident eardrum-smasher,
Brooklyn producer El-P, aka Jaime Meline, has carved out a musical corner all his own by reinventing the explosive boom-bap of
Public Enemy for the digital age. Though he's an excellent rapper as well — with a frantic, word-crammed style that relies less upon rhyme than it does the brute force of consonance — El's greatest gifts to music may wind up being his inimitable soundscapes. Early indie-rap adopters were first wowed by his work with '90s crew
Company Flow, but his flair for the dense and dramatic evolved into something far more dangerous just as the record label that he founded in 1999,
Definitive Jux, came into its own. He produced the entirety of
Cannibal Ox's revered 2001 album
The Cold Vein, and followed that up with a solo debut,
Fantastic Damage, that was everything its name suggests.
I'll Sleep When You're Dead (2007) found him diving deeper into Orwellian imagery and self-loathing — an intense experience for the artist, presumably, as his last two releases have been heavy-duty instrumental mixes (the
Weareallgoingtoburninhell series) — which he'll be re-creating live here at Low End. (Chris Martins)
Also playing Wednesday: AUTOLUX at Amoeba Music; LEIF VOLLEBEKK at Hotel Café; K'NAAN, BRUNO MARS at House of Blues Sunset Strip; DEATH KIT, STANDING SHADOWS at Silverlake Lounge; TY SEGALL, YELLOW FEVER, ROYAL BATHS, MOONHEARTS at the Smell; SAMMY HAGAR AND THE WABOS at Pacific Amphitheatre.
THURSDAY/AUGUST/5
DECONSTRUCTING DAD: THE MUSIC, MACHINES AND MYSTERY OF RAYMOND SCOTT AT THE SILENT THEATRE
The "Don't Knock the Rock" music doc fest and Cinefamily present an enthralling film about pioneering composer and electronic-music pioneer Raymond Scott. Deconstructing Dad: The Music, Machines and Mystery of Raymond Scott tells the story of a truly pivotal figure in 20th-century music whose madly eclectic achievements remain largely obscure. Scott began in the '30s as a swing/big-band composer and conductor, later creating wonderfully weird scores for Hollywood films, cartoons and commercial jingles, and in the third act devoted his life to his first real love, audio technology. A musician-inventor like the more heralded Les Paul, Scott conceived and built literally dozens of electronic musical instruments. Many of his innovations were years ahead of their time, such as his best-known conception, the Electronium, an "instantaneous composition and performance machine." An essential view inside the wonders of creative genius, American-style. (John Payne)
RICKIE LEE JONES AT THE SANTA MONICA PIER
Rickie Lee Jones returns to her roots tonight at the pier, coming full circle in a musical journey that began when the Chicago native ran away from home and ended up in Santa Monica in the '70s. The seaside setting is bound to inspire memories "that cry and quiver/When a blue horizon is sleeping in the station." Local imagery plays such a big part in Jones' work, especially on her 2007 album The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, which fancifully reset the story of Jesus among modern L.A. landmarks. While her 2009 follow-up, Balm in Gilead, wasn't quite as musically adventurous, it was still a moving collection of folk, jazz and pop ballads, fleshed out with support from such guests as Chris Joyner, Victoria Williams and the late Vic Chesnutt. The ethereal track "His Jeweled Floor" is a moving series of hushed echoes and solemn harmonies that combine into an especially bewitching soundscape. "I am the last of my kind in this town," she confesses on "Eucalyptus Trail," and you'd do well to heed her siren song before she slips away again. (Falling James)
Also playing Thursday: EVEREST at the Bootleg Theater; LISA LOEB at Canyon Club; KENNY BURRELL QUINTET at Catalina Jazz Club; OTEP, BIRTHDAY MASSACRE, BENEATH THE SKY, THE AGONIST at Galaxy Concert Theatre; DARREN JOHNSTON QUINTET at the Hammer Museum; THURSDAY CLASSICS: LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC WITH GUSTAVO DUDAMEL at the Hollywood Bowl; ELVIS BOSSA NOVA at Levitt Pavilion Pasadena; THE B-52s at Pacific Amphitheatre; STEVE RILEY & THE MAMOU PLAYBOYS at the Skirball Cultural Center.
