Music Picks: Batusis, Interpol, Minus the Bear

SHANBEHZADEH ENSEMBLE AT THE TROUBADOUR

The Shanbehzadeh Ensemble performs a subtly modernized fusion of traditional and trancelike musics from the southern Iranian province of Boushehr, in the Persian Gulf region. The group is composed of father Saeid Shanbehzadeh on neyanban (Iranian bagpipe) and neydjofti (double flute); son Naghib, who plays a ferociously nimble tombak (hand drum) and zarbetempo (percussion); and Habib Meftah Boushehri on dammam (dual-faced percussion), zarbetempo and flute. The Shanbehzadeh Ensemble's hypnotic, explosive (to say the least) sound — one of the lesser-known styles among the rich Persian music tradition — is accompanied by dancers who become the physical embodiment of the wild complexities of tone and rhythm the musicians play. A very rare event, in an unusual setting. (John Payne)

Azure Ray

Location Info

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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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Also playing Sunday: SUFJAN STEVENS at the Wiltern, COREY FELDMAN & TRUTH MOVEMENT at House of Blues; SASSAS/SOUNDHOPE OPEN IMPROV at Eagle Rock Center for the Arts; DUTOIT CONDUCTS ROMEO AND JULIET at Disney Hall; GOLD MOTEL at the Echo; SAMANTHA RONSON at On the Rox; JOAN OSBORNE at the Roxy.

MONDAY/OCTOBER/25

UNKLE AT EL REY

UNKLE is British electronic music in one of its more expansive forms, to understate it a bit. The band is not a band as such, more the brainchild of founder James Lavelle, whose recent Where Did the Night Fall (Surrender All) has again called in an interesting assortment of collaborators/juxtaposers, including former Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan, Clayhill's Gavin Clark and the Black Angels. The result is one of the most sonically inspired albums of the year, a dark and complex wall of sound whose sweeping vistas and thick textures are given different stylistic contexts (e.g., psychedelic rock, minimal house) in which to reveal their mysteries. Much of the album has undergone the remix treatment for an EP called The Answer, which includes a collaboration with hip-hop raver Lupe Fiasco and an exceptionally heavy remix by original UNKLE member Tim Goldsworthy. (John Payne)

Also playing Monday: CHRISSIE HYNDE, JP AND THE FAIRGROUND BOYS at House of Blues; RADARS TO THE SKY at Spaceland.

TUESDAY/OCTOBER/26

THE PARTING GIFTS AT THE ECHO

When the Ettes started out as an obscure garage-rock band in Los Angeles (before relocating back East a few years ago), they mainly wrote their own songs, with the notable exception of a fannish tendency to champion and cover songs by the slightly less obscure (but crucially influential) garage auteur Greg Cartwright. Imagine how delighted Ettes singer-guitarist Coco Hames was when it turned out that Cartwright not only approved of their remakes but wanted to work with them. The pair's scattered collaborations have led to a wonderful new side project, the Parting Gifts, which combines the endearing pop allure of Hames' kittenish singing with Cartwright's rootsy raw power and world-weary howling. Their debut album, Strychnine Dandelion (on Larry Hardy's venerable label In the Red Records), is enlivened further by participation from fellow Ettes Poni Silver and Jem Cohen and the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, who's seemingly at the center of every righteously rocking garage-blues album coming out of the Midwest these days. The Gifts' Strychnine is laced with garage, pop, blues and even traces of down-home country, all of it lovingly rendered in catchy, original two-minute pop nuggets. Also at Spaceland, Wed. (Falling James)

MURDER BALLADS NIGHT AT THE ECHOPLEX

Harry Smith, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave (with an occasional Kylie Minogue), Elvis himself, drunk Scotsmen, heartbroken Irishmen, Harvard folklorists, Appalachian moonshiners, and the heart of country, blues, folk: There's a thread that goes through all that and you don't have to be Greil Marcus to trace it to dark corners in the stickier places of the American — and universal — dream. Relentless neo-traditionalist cheerleader (also L.A. Record executive editor and L.A. Weekly contributor) Daiana Feuer is behind this grassroots affair highlighting the creepy romance of the murder ballads (the O.G. emo?). Leave your Stetson at home, though — shit might go down. (Gustavo Turner)

Also playing Tuesday: THRONES at Spaceland; SEABEAR, GRANDCHILDREN at the Troubadour; LIGHTS, JEREMY FISHER at El Rey; CHRISTIAN ZACHARIAS at Disney Hall; GIANT DRAG at the Bootleg.

WEDNESDAY/OCTOBER/27

GORILLAZ AT THE GIBSON AMPHITHEATRE

In 1998, while most of us were still checking our e-mail at cyber cafés and still trusting MTV was about music, former Blur frontman Damon Albarn and friend/cartoonist Jamie Hewlett cooked up the idea to form a virtual band of comic book characters as a means of commenting on the increasing vapidity of the "Music TeleVision" channel. Over a decade later, their hip-hop/pop-rock/electro-funk mash-up cartoonish Frankenstein monster — Gorillaz, of course — has collaborated with folks flesh-and-blood bands would kill for, like surviving members of the Clash, MF Doom, Mos Def, etc. De La Soul got the gang a Grammy for the tangy, toe-tapping "Feel Good Inc." in 2006. The legendary hip-hop trio, a natural partner for the Gorillaz due to their playful innovation both lyrically and in their videos, is said to be joining them for the L.A. date of current world tour Escape to Plastic Beach. The set list supposedly switches up every night, so expect the guest-appearance roster to do so as well. (Rebecca Haithcoat)