Music Picks: Sweaters, Jonathan Richman, Hanni El Khatib, Henry Rollins

SUNDAY/DECEMBER/5

PHOTO BY BARBARA TALIA

Omar Walizadeh

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The Echo

1822 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Echo Park

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The Smell

247 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

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• Chris Martins
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• Hip-Hop and Rap

WU-TANG CLAN AT CLUB NOKIA

Promoter Goldenvoice promises the presence tonight of seven of the eight original Wu-Tang members currently available for live engagements: GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa. That means no RZA, who told AOL's Boombox he's got "too much business going this quarter" to hit the road, nor any Boy Jones, who filled in for his father, the late Ol' Dirty Bastard, at this summer's Rock the Bells. It's anyone's guess, of course, how the absence of those twin pillars will affect the influential New York hip-hop crew's performance. Best case? More solo tracks from Raekwon and Ghostface. The latter has a new one, called Apollo Kids, due out this month. Worst case? An overload of the decentralized chaos that is more or less Wu-Tang's onstage style. (Mikael Wood)

FANTASTIC PLANET SCREENING WITH JESUS MAKES THE SHOTGUN SOUND AT CINESPACE

The superbly strange Fantastic Planet (1973) was created by French animation team Roland Topor and René Laloux during five years of painstaking work at Jií Trnka's renowned Czech animation studio. It's an uncanny world crafted with hand-drawn images that flow like a moving, morphing painting, with a story that tells of conflicts between enslaved humanoids the Oms and the bigger and supposedly more civilized Traags. This was a scenario that director Laloux used as metaphor for the era's Soviet occupation of the Czech Republic, yet the issues addressed are ambiguous; racism, totalitarianism and animal rights all seem to figure in among these truly haunting tableaux of sights and sounds. One of the film's chief pleasures is the spellbinding prog-rock/psych-funk alterna-landscape score composed by Serge Gainsbourg sideman Alain Goraguer, which L.A.-based apocalypto synth rockists Jesus Makes the Shotgun Sound have the unenviable task of re-creating tonight. (John Payne)

Also playing Sunday: RUMSPRINGA, MISSISSIPPI MAN at the Bootleg Theater; MEREDITH MEYER, ONE TRICK PONY, STAR PARTS at Spaceland; MARCHFOURTH MARCHING BAND at the Echoplex; KOOL KEITH, KING, FANTASTIC, J*DAVEY, LE VICE at the Roxy.

MONDAY/DECEMBER/6

THE GREENHORNES AT THE TROUBADOUR

Cincinnati garage rockers the Greenhornes have been lying low for much of the past few years, with drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence collaborating with Brendan Benson and Jack White in the Raconteurs and backing Loretta Lynn on her 2004 comeback album, Van Lear Rose. On top of that, Lawrence also is part of the Dead Weather, White's revisionist-blues psychodrama with Kills diva Alison Mosshart. These impressive side projects seemingly sidelined Greenhornes singer-guitarist Craig Fox, who eventually invested his time into another band, the Cincinnati Suds. Now the Greenhornes are finally back together, with a new CD, Four Stars — their first full-length album since 2002's Dual Mono and their first burst of new material since the 2005 EP East Grand Blues. Keeping it all in the family, the Ohio trio released the new album on White's Third Man Records. Despite the long absence, the Greenhornes sound more explosive than ever on Four Stars, as Who-style rockers like "Saying Goodbye" and "Underestimator" collide with more introspective jangles like "Cave Drawings." (Falling James)

SWEATERS, BIG SEARCH, BOWERY BEASTS, WHISPERING PINES AT SPACELAND

It's hard to imagine a local rock band better suited to a Spaceland residency than Sweaters. With just two 7-inch releases under their belt, the fresh-faced quartet is still relatively unknown, but the four songs they've released are clarion calls to see the band live. The Sweaters' sound is an upbeat, jangling thing, with its roots somewhere between the soulful rock & roll investigations of early Kinks and Stones, and the energetic pomp of Iggy and the Stooges. Singer Jordan Benik is loud and bellowing, able to shred his pipes but smart enough not to abuse the ability. The keys are, well, key — piano and organ drive songs like "Can't Stop Winning" (White Iris) and "Investigation" (Slow Death) as much as if not more than the lithe guitar and Sweaters' solid rhythm section. Joining them on night one is Big Search — the folksy bedroom-pop solo project of Foreign Born's Matt Popieluch — the Ozzy-inspired Silver Lakers Bowery Beasts, and country-rock bumpkins Whispering Pines. (Chris Martins)

Also playing Monday: GROUPLOVE, the 88 at Bardot; IO ECHO, HAIM, WHITE ARROWS and guests at the Echo.

TUESDAY/DECEMBER/7

JONATHAN RICHMAN AT THE TROUBADOUR

When Jonathan Richman led the first lineup of the Modern Lovers in the early 1970s, the Boston band came off like a wittier, more suburban version of the Velvet Underground. There was a defiantly nonarty silliness to songs like "Pablo Picasso," but darker tunes like "Hospital" had a distinct air of melancholy and soulfulness. Despite some belated appreciation in the late-'70s punk and power-pop underground (including remakes of his songs by everyone from the Sex Pistols, David Bowie and Iggy Pop to Burning Sensations, Echo & the Bunnymen, Greg Kihn and Modern Lovers producer John Cale), Richman turned his back on his early sound, moving in a softer, kid-friendly direction with whimsical pop ditties like "Ice Cream Man" and "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz." In more recent years, he and his longtime drummer Tommy Larkins (ex–Naked Prey) have expanded their range to encompass more exotic influences, as on their new French-language album of love songs, O Moon, Queen of Night on Earth. Also Wed. (Falling James)