Music Picks: Batusis, Interpol, Minus the Bear

INTERPOL AT THE GREEK THEATRE

In an interview earlier this year, Interpol frontman Paul Banks broke down for me the straightforward reasoning behind the group's decision to sign to Capitol Records: "We're a band that's interested in gaining popularity," he said, "and the rumor at the time was that if you were a band poised at the threshold of some next level, a major label was a good vehicle to hop into to get there." Well, 2007's underrated Our Love to Admire didn't quite realize that goal, which is how we find the group back at its old home of Matador for its new, self-titled disc. But the major-label dalliance does appear to have bolstered Interpol's confidence in a weird way. Rather than seek out a kind of post-indie radio readiness, the new songs offer arty textures and winding melodies that seem unconcerned with seducing anyone who hasn't already been seduced. Though he took part in the writing and recording of Interpol, fashion-plate bassist Carlos D left the band before the album's release; former Slint dude David Pajo is on tour in his place. (Mikael Wood)

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Location Info

Map

The Wiltern

3790 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

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The Troubadour

9081 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: West Hollywood

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Bootleg Theater

2200 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Out of Town

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UCLA Royce Hall

340 Royce Drive
Westwood, CA 90024

Category: Music Venues

Region: West L.A.

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The Greek Theatre

2700 N. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

Category: Community Venues

Region: Los Feliz

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The Smell

247 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

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WHITE SHIT, DEMORALIZE, DUDE MIRROR AT THE SMELL

White Shit, the latest offering from Dean Spunt's Post Present Medium label, boasts a lineup both heavy and metal, harkening to a bygone era when life was good and dog shit was, well, white. It includes Andy Coronado of Wrangler Brutes and Jared Warren and Coady Willis of Big Business and the Melvins (apparently there's also someone called "Tits" in the band — a Venn diagram with the words "Melvins," "tits" and "demoralize" was bound to come into your life today). Straight outta Compton, Demoralize dispel the simplistic notion that there's only one kind of music in the city, with their youthful, straight-ahead take on metal taking their future squarely by the balls and making the most of it during this, likely their most shining moment to date. Dude Mirror, "the best 'worst band' you'll ever hear," mixes rock standards with originals like "Meat for Fruit," parlaying well-mixed zany vocals into a sound that's heavy yet lighthearted. (David Cotner)

SHAKIRA AT STAPLES CENTER

Don't be surprised if the ever-shimmying Shakira is one day president of her native Colombia. Far-fetched, perhaps (though no more so than her sometime collaborator Wyclef Jean ever ruling Haiti), but there really is much more to this Barranquilla beauty — a heavyweight philanthropist and partner of a serious political player — than midriff-missing outfits and home-wrecking belly-dancing. Though she plunders multiple genres (including pop Latino, folk, rock and R&B lite), sings in both Spanish and English, and often creates by committee (new album Sale el Sol credits more than a dozen writers and multiple guest performers), Shakira's ticklishly tremulous, apparently organically Auto-Tuned timbre — an odd offspring of Cher and Ofra Haza — ensures a more-ish through-line. Despite some transparent trend chasing (notably 2008's "She Wolf" electro-flop), there's a head-tossing joie de vivre in Shakira's performances that should permeate even the sterile Staples Center. (Paul Rogers)

Also playing Saturday: RUSSIAN CIRCLES at Spaceland; OCTOPUS PROJECT, STARFUCKER, PHYSICAL FORMS, STRENGTH at the Echoplex; DUTOIT CONDUCTS ROMEO AND JULIET at Disney Hall; JIGSAW SCENE at Akbar; AZURE RAY at Glass House.

SUNDAY/OCTOBER/24

BATUSIS AT THE VIPER ROOM

In the punk world, Sylvain Sylvain and Cheetah Chrome need no introduction, but here goes anyway for those of you who just arrived on this planet. Sylvain, of course, is one of the founding members of the New York Dolls (you know, the band that started it all), and while he's often overshadowed by Dolls singer David Johansen and the late Johnny Thunders, he's also that band's flamboyantly goofy bedrock, penning the immortal glam-pop classic "Trash" and counterbalancing Johansen's occasional pretentiousness. Chrome is no less of an important figure, if only for his participation in the crucial mid-1970s Cleveland punk pioneers Rocket From the Tombs, not to mention his savage riffery with those sonic reducers Stiv Bators and the Dead Boys. Although Sylvain has blown through town several times this decade with the reincarnated Dolls, Chrome almost never appears on this coast, which makes the West Hollywood debut of their new band Batusis a mandatory event for those who crave real, undiluted punk & roll. Their new self-titled four-song EP on Smog Veil Records is cranked up with fiery collisions of their trademark, no-nonsense guitar heroics, but there's also an unexpected garage-rock reinvention of Davie Allan & the Arrows' sinister biker-rock instrumental classic "Blues Theme." (Falling James)

BOBBY BROWN, RALPH TRESVANT, JOHNNY GILL AT GIBSON AMPHITHEATRE

Musically speaking, all things come back around, and at this exact moment in time, early-'80s babies are rallying around the cause of resurrecting New Jack Swing–era R&B. We (the author included) were quite young when the first Bobby Brown single hit the airwaves, and even younger (OK, unborn) when New Edition originally formed, but it's arguable that the movement really crested around 1991, following the breakthrough success of N.E. member Michael Bivins' stable of artists, collectively known as the East Coast Family: Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD. Bell Biv DeVoe did, in fact, include three N.E. alums, while the others continued solo careers: Brown, of course; Johnny Gill (whom we'd venture to dub the New Jack Michael McDonald for his 1990 ballad "Rub You the Right Way"); and Ralph Tresvant, who never saw the same level of success. Now, as the sounds of that era creep their way none-too-subtly into the burgeoning chillwave movement, three "Heads of State" (as they've taken to calling themselves) are hitting the road with support from contemporaries Guy and After 7. (Chris Martins)