Rock Picks: DJ Spinna, Bodega Girls, Andre Nickatina, Elevated Suspects

BLACK IRIS XMAS PARTYAT SPACELAND

We've already logged a hearty endorsement for Sweaters' ongoing residency at Spaceland, so suffice it to say that you will fall in love with their winning mix of soulful rock & roll and high-energy pomp. Time to meet the rest of the gang. L.A.'s own Black Iris, a commercial music house with a budding label (White Iris), is mobilizing the gang for a Christmas celebration, indie rock–style. The Dead Trees split time between SoCal and Portland and have worked as the backing band to Strokes offshoot Little Joy (the band, not the bar). Their own tunes are a mix of clean garage rock, Pavement-like slack 'n' jangle and upbeat pop classicism. El Sportivo's story is a little harder to pin down, if not downright incredible. We don't mind, of course, as long as Fool's Gold and Foreign Born man Lewis Pesacov is masterminding the project, which appears to be a collective of very able musicians turning out smoky, easygoing rock grooves of the Fleetwood Mac variety. (Chris Martins)

PHOTO BY SHERYL NIELDS

Aimee Mann

PHOTO BY JESSIE MANN

People Under the Stairs. See Saturday

Location Info

Map

The Echo

1822 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Echo Park

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Key Club

9039 W. Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Out of Town

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Also playing Monday: MICHAEL BUBLÉ at Staples Center; BIG WHUP (record-release party) with KID STATIC, DAVID LIEBE HART and ADAM PAPAGAN, plus PETER PANTS at Pehrspace.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14

TAME IMPALA, STARDEATH AND WHITE DWARFS AT THE ECHOPLEX

Perth Australia's Tame Impala have out a recent debut album, InnerSpeaker, on the Modular label, and it's a magnificently maundering mess of great melodies and peppy-poppy beats. Yes, but dig a bit and savor, just under the band's breezy, swaying ambience, all these intriguing swells of textural sophistication. Oklahoma City's psychedelia-imbued Stardeath and White Dwarfs are fronted by Dennis Coyne, nephew of Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne; legend has it that Stardeath first erupted during the boys' time spent as the road crew for the Lips and they have, yea verily, studied under The Masters. The 'deaths can boast an excellent CD called The Birth (Warner Bros.), and they've recently collaborated with the Lips on their surprise-hit cover of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. (John Payne)

Also playing Tuesday: Elysium Sessions featuring RAIN PHOENIX, EMILY KOKAL (WARPAINT) AND GIFT HORSE PROJECT at Largo at Coronet; THE CIVIL WARS at the Hotel Cafe.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15

X AT HOUSE OF BLUES

With their tales of sugar-lit junkies, desperate Hollywood Boulevard evacuations, high-society morbidity, existential nausea and pulpy bus-stop assignations/assaults, X might not seem like the cheeriest band for the holidays. However, the beloved local roots-punk combo have been known to whip out a few souped-up Xmas carols in the middle of their crash-and-burn sets, and tonight they have several treats in store. The evening kicks off with a screening of documentary The Unheard Music, which manages to tell the band members' disparate stories in a way that's inventive and yet also satisfyingly definitive. (Who can forget the mesmerizing scene in which a house moves through the streets like a feverish dream, the perfect metaphor for Exene Cervenka's and John Doe's bed-bound philosophizing and restless wanderlust?) Then the band will come out and slam through a full-length live performance of their classic debut album, Los Angeles. If there's one drawback to all of this seasonal merriment, it's that Cervenka and Doe seem satisfied to just play X's oldies, even though each singer has separately released recent solo albums that prove they're still creatively thriving and capable of so much more than blue sparks of nostalgia. (Falling James)

BADLY DRAWN BOYAT THE TROUBADOUR
This fuzzy-faced English songsmith (real name: Damon Gough) emerged at the same time as Coldplay: Their Parachutes came out in 2000, a mere two weeks after The Hour of Bewilderbeast, Badly Drawn Boy's Mercury Prize–winning debut. Needless to say, the last decade has treated each act rather differently: Nowadays Coldplay might be able to fit its catering operation inside the Troubadour. Surprisingly, though, that change in fortune doesn't appear to have affected Gough's music much: Although his latest, It's What I'm Thinking Pt. 1: Photographing Snowflakes, dials down the lavish orchestral arrangements of earlier BDB efforts, it mines a familiar wistful-nostalgic folk-pop vein. As that somewhat unwieldy title suggests, Snowflakesis the first volume in a proposed trilogy; perhaps Gough hasn't completely lost his taste for the grandiose. These two shows cap BDB's current North American tour; maybe he'll get loose with a left-field cover or two. (Mikael Wood)

Also playing Wednesday: LOW at Spaceland; HORSE FEATHERS and Y LA BAMBA at the Echo; ADAM LAMBERT at Music Box; ADAM SCHLESINGER and MIKE VIOLA at Hotel Café.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16

THE CHAPIN SISTERS AT THE AUTRY MUSEUM

Less is usually more, but in the case of the Chapin Sisters, it was more than a shame that Jessica Craven left the band earlier this year after the birth of her baby. When Craven twined her voice together with her half-sisters, Abigail Chapin and Lily Chapin, the effect was positively mesmerizing. The trio's golden harmonies were overtly beautiful, of course, but there was a corresponding undercurrent of sadness and soulful ruefulness, especially when Craven sang such stark and lonely songs as "Kill Me Now." On their latest CD, the aptly titled Two, Abigail and Lily pick up the slack with a set of new tunes, which shows the Chapins are ever evolving, even as they retain their traditional Appalachian harmonies mixed with gentle pop hooks. Craven does make a few songwriting contributions, and singer-guitarist Abigail is still the group's bedrock, but Lily — whose early songs were sometimes treacly and facile — surprises with a fuller, deeper range of emotions and melodies. New tracks like "I Can Feel," "Paradise" and "Sweet Light" are pastoral yet eerie, as the duo's searing voices echo through the woods like melancholic ghosts. (Falling James)

Also playing Thursday: PIGEON JOHN at the Echoplex.