Music Picks: Amanda Jo Williams, Usher, Masaki Batoh, Procol Harum
Also, Dustin Wong, Greg Dulli, Ghostface Killah
Also playing Tuesday: THE THERMALS, THE NIGHT MARCHERS, WHITE FANG at El Rey; GEORGE CRUMB PROGRAM at Disney Concert Hall; NILE at Key Club; POMEGRANATES, OH NO OH MY at the Bootleg Theater; IDLEWILD at the Echo.
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Dinner House M
1263 W. Temple St.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Category: Restaurant > Bakery
Region: Echo Park
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The Troubadour
9081 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Category: Bars and Clubs
Region: West Hollywood
Roxy Theatre
9009 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Category: Bars and Clubs
Region: West Hollywood
House of Blues Sunset Strip
8430 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Category: Bars and Clubs
Region: Out of Town
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WEDNESDAY/NOVEMBER/17
THE GHOST OF A SABER TOOTH TIGER AT LARGO
Singer Sean Lennon seemingly can't go anywhere without the ever-present ghost of his famous father, John, and the strong presence of his mother, Yoko Ono, looming over him. It's somewhat remarkable that he hasn't turned into a celebrity waste case or a bitter prodigal son, but he's managed to carve out his own identity nonetheless. His latest project, the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, is an endearing folk-pop collaboration with his girlfriend, model Charlotte Kemp Muhl. Without trying to outdo his dad or become freakier than his mom, Lennon has created an idyllic space where the ambitions are small-scale and the end result is quietly mesmerizing. He strums dreamy pop songs such as "Jardin du Luxembourg" as Muhl coos with close, intimate harmonies. Ultimately, the appeal of a track like "Rainbows in Gasoline" lies not in Lennon's family history but in the way he and Muhl find subtle joys in the titular imagery, fleshed out only by a soft bubbling of keyboards and bedroom voices. (Falling James)
LEONARD DILLON AT THE ECHOPLEX
Jamaican rocksteady spearhead Leonard Dillon ranks as one of reggae's critical stylists, an artist present at the music's first dawning, when he and a handful of others began the alchemical melding of calypso with American rhythm & blues ("a matter of slowin' up some of the instruments, and speedin' up some," as Dillon describes it). As leader of fabled vocal group the Ethiopians, he also infused the sound with several crucial elements, singing in natural dialect when most early '60s Jamaican vocalists uniformly mimicked English-style phrasing. Dillon also added some of the earliest "conscious" lyrics, articulating the grim day-to-day reality of poverty and oppression rather than sticking to fizzy romance and dance numbers. The good news is that Dillon is still in tremendous condition (he positively slayed all comers at his last visit) and with the bonus screening of new documentary Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae, it would appear that those Dub Club cats have whipped up another irresistible and near-historic groove-fest. (Jonny Whiteside)
AMANDA JO WILLIAMS AT THE REDWOOD BAR & GRILL
Georgia-born singer Amanda Jo Williams is one of the leading lights in L.A.'s freak-folk underground, twisting up her simple tunes with spacy touches. Sometimes her little-girl vocals can come off as contrived as another, unrelated singer with the same last name, Victoria Williams. Both performers have a fatal tendency to dip into an easy cutesiness while attempting to evoke a mythically timeless Americana. At such moments, one wishes that Amanda Jo Williams would reveal some real blood and vulnerability, rather than hiding behind facile imagery about animals in the woods. On the other hand, she does manage to create a spell with little more than a softly clucking acoustic guitar underneath her tremulous singing on tracks like "Soul in Songs." Williams is even more fascinating on "Ohio" (not the Neil Young song), where her whimsy is wrapped up neatly in dusty, old-time violins, with lyrics that move beyond the sugary and into something palpably stranger, tangled up in the tree branches of a dark, mysterious forest. (Falling James)
Also playing Wednesday: PAPERCRANES, SISTER CRAYON, ROCKET, FRANKEL at Bordello; ROBYN, MALUCA, NATALIA KILLS at Club Nokia; DANIEL FRANCIS DOYLE, BIG WHUP at The Smell; MARK MALLMAN at Silverlake Lounge; IDLEWILD at the Echo.
THURSDAY/NOVEMBER/18
USHER AT STAPLES CENTER
You gotta give it to Usher. Even as he transitioned from adorable baby-faced preteen star to "Oh, baby, look at those abs," he cashed in on his image as eternally scorned lover. Some preternatural goddess or another has been making him lose his mind since he was 16. But now in his 30s, the loads of dirty laundry he aired from those failed relationships seem to have steadied that mind enough to focus on more mature matters. So what if Usher's a little young — and a lot hot — to be slinking about like a stalker, and soliciting sex in dicey underground clubs, as in the video for "Lil Freak"? So what if he's a little old to be churning out cheesy, techno-tinged club joints like "OMG"? Part of being a grown-up (musician) is making sacrifices (for your desired fan base). Of course, when those radio-ready cuts are international hits, and you can out-dance your 16-year-old protégé, Justin Bieber, we're still not feeling sorry. Trey Songz, who's picked up where R. Kelly left off, and L.A.'s own Miguel, whose track "All I Want Is You" was one of the sexiest songs of the summer, open. (Rebecca Haithcoat)
DUSTIN WONG AT THE SMELL
Armed with an electric guitar, a couple small Fender amps and a well-stocked bank of delay pedals, former Ecstatic Sunshine axman Dustin Wong creates worlds within worlds, within other, newer worlds. His recent double disc, Infinite Love (Thrill Jockey), is a mesmerizing, indeed hair-raising affair that finds Wong taking his cues from the late avant-folk guitarist John Fahey, painting with what amounts to a million or more melodic motifs, layered, distorted, looped and octave-divided. The pieces start simply, and grow, and grow exponentially again and again, until he's achieved an orchestra of guitar sonics that impress because they're not a mess — there's a real architecture in the way Wong constructs his works. Like some of Steve Reich's pieces, Wong's clashing tone sculptures conjure memories and pictures in the listener's head, where rural American vistas establish plausible links to medieval English court music or the reveries of North Indian ragas. Fascinating, exhilarating stuff. (John Payne)
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