Music Picks: Plastic Ono Band, Ooh La LA Fest, Belle & Sebastian

Also playing Friday: FOSTER THE PEOPLE, SUPERHUMANOIDS at the Echo; NEON INDIAN, PREFUSE 73, MINIATURE TIGERS at the Music Box; FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE at the Troubadour; THE SWORD at El Rey; LUDO at Key Club; TOM PETTY, ZZ TOP at the Hollywood Bowl.

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Location Info

Map

The Echoplex

1154 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Out of Town

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Nokia Theatre

777 Chick Hearn Court
Los Angeles, CA 90015

Category: Music Venues

Region: Downtown

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The Smell

247 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

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The Orpheum Theatre

842 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Category: Music Venues

Region: Downtown

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Hollywood Palladium

6215 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

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The Wiltern

3790 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

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• Chris Martins
• John Payne
• Mikael Wood
• Indie Rock and Indie Pop
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

SATURDAY/OCTOBER/2

OOH LA LA FEST WITH GOTAN PROJECT, GENERAL ELEKTRIKS, EL HIJO DE LA CUMBIA AT CLUB NOKIA

Last night of the Ooh La LA fest (see above) brings the baddest Nuevos Tangueros on the block: The Gotan Project, who've ripped world music a new sound hole with their tough-minded mélange of tango, electronics, neo prog jazz and dubby trip-hop that's dark and hot and very, very smart indeed. The ecstasy barely contained on Gotan's recent album Tango 3.0 (XL) is a dangerous thing, as is the controlled volatility of the band as a live unit. Also Hervé Salters, aka General Elektriks, a Parisian vintage keyboard aficionado, composer and songwriter with a tasty line in the post-post electro hip-hop beats and sounds game; and nuevo electro-cumbia from young Argentine producer-musician Emiliano Gómez, who calls himself El Hijo de la Cumbia. (John Payne)

BAD COMPANY AT L.A. COUNTY FAIR, POMONA

Supergroups are often more commercial ventures than organic collectives. Yet Bad Company, by modern standards, sounds like a bunch of (incredibly talented) buddies jamming in a barn. Never mind the bastardized incarnations in between, it's the original 1973 lineup of Free vocalist Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, reunited in 2008 (only one missing: King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell, who passed in 2006) that matters. While Bad Company don't quite achieve Free's outdoorsy, sepia-toned self-reflection, they remain a visceral animal thanks to fluid musicianship and Rodgers' subtly grained, aching soul. Yes, they were a hit factory ("Can't Get Enough," "Feel Like Making Love," etc.), but it's more modest tracks like "Simple Man" (from 1976's Run With the Pack) that truly allow Rodgers to explore both inflection and whole eras of emotion. (Paul Rogers)

Also playing Saturday: PLASTIC ONO BAND at the Orpheum (see Friday and music section); ARTICHOKE at the Eagle Rock Music Festival (see music section); MARIACHIS LOS CAMPEROS DE NATI CANO at Royce Hall; MATADOR 21 at the Palms in Las Vegas (see Friday); MATT & JIM, FANG ISLAND, HAWNAY TROOF at Music Box; THE BLOOD ARM at Spaceland; CARRIE UNDERWOOD at the Hollywood Bowl.

SUNDAY/OCTOBER/3

BELLE & SEBASTIAN, JENNY & JOHNNY AT HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM

There's never been a better musical rebuttal to jocks than the existence and continued success of Belle & Sebastian. Since the Glaswegian group's formation in 1995, they've boldly stood for all that is fragile and precious and deeply romantic in the world. This is no small feat — just look at Morrissey's ever-growing status as indie rock's curmudgeon-in-chief — but B&S have grown up gracefully, taking the quiet whimsy of their auspicious debut Tigermilk and giving it room to expand and retract over time. This has allowed for both the bright and soulful folk-pop of 1998 classic The Boy With the Arab Strap and more introverted moments, like 2002's overlooked soundtrack for Storytelling. It's fitting, then, that the septet's last album was called The Life Pursuit. Also almost comically apropos is the title of their soon-to-be-released eighth album, Belle & Sebastian Write About Love. Like, duh. Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis and her beau Johnathan Rice also will be channeling adoration as the rootsy indie-pop duo Jenny & Johnny. (Chris Martins)

Also playing Sunday: DEAD MEADOW, EXPLODING FLOWERS at Echoplex; MATADOR 21 at the Palms in Las Vegas; GUITAR WOLF at El Rey; ROBERT HENKE: MONOLAKE LIVE at REDCAT (see GoLA).

MONDAY/OCTOBER/4

GUIDED BY VOICES AT THE WILTERN

At a moment when seemingly every band that ever existed (and then broke up) is back on the road in some kinda-sorta form or another, there's something refreshingly straightforward about Guided by Voices' current U.S. trek, which hits L.A. directly after the semi-legendary Ohio garage-rock act's appearance at Matador Records' 21st-anniversary blowout at the Palms in Las Vegas (see Friday). The Guided by Voices Classic Lineup Reunion Tour, as it's called on their website, is exactly what you get: frontman Robert Pollard, guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell, bassist Greg Demos and drummer Kevin Fennell, presumably doing songs from Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes Under the Stars — aka the mid-'90s albums that cemented GBV's status as lo-fi heroes and the ones that contain all the songs people still wanna hear a decade and a half later. Here's hoping the beer doesn't run out till they've played 'em all. With Times New Viking. (Mikael Wood)

WET & RECKLESS AT SILVERLAKE LOUNGE

With a name like a top-shelf magazine and the heady/nostalgic effect of a top-shelf tipple, Wet & Reckless convey complex moods through deceptively deft, if technically simple, punk-lite. These Echo Park gals oddly evoke a lo-fi, less android Interpol with the chiming guitars and in-and-out dynamics of the gauzy "Your Song" and nervously urgent "Walk Me Home." Yet the more lived-in "Take" comes on a little country, with woody bass and swingy drums bouncing beneath savvy lyrics loaded with both blatant regret and implied self-esteem ("I'd rather pass out when the past is coming out my sleeves"). Wet & Reckless turned in a solid outdoor set at Silver Lake Jubilee in May, but the cozy surroundings of this October residency should better suit their autumnal, confessional creations. (Paul Rogers)