Federico Aubele
@ THE TROUBADOUR
PHOTO BY SHAWN BRACKBILL
The Kills: See Friday.
Kristeen Young: See Monday.
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Argentine moodscapist Aubele's new album, Berlin 13, offers a resonant, relaxing tension that feels very right for these sweet 'n' spooky times. The album's future-nostalgia might appear to belie the life-changing experiences Aubele had during his recent stay in Berlin, with his customary mix of folkie strains and sweetly sung melodies astride loping, dubby downbeats and spidery nylon-string guitar, astride lacy electronic ornamentations. His artful musique concrète samples pay homage to the classically trained Aubele's modern-music heroes — whose influence you might detect in the satisfyingly "composed" way Aubele brings his eclectic materials together in unified vision. By the way, the number 13 in the album title refers to the 13th tarot card, "Death"; Aubele figured that meant rebirth. —John Payne
Also playing Monday:
WHITE ARROWS at Bootleg Theater; HE'S MY BROTHER SHE'S MY SISTER at the Satellite.
tue 5/17
The Fiery Furnaces
@ LARGO
Siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger are a very smart coupla kids. Their records are chockablock with sundry stuff melted from a massive source supply of classic rock & pop (BOC and Carpenters), some "blues," operettas 'n' music hall and a whole lot more. But they're not eclectic as such — no, they're masher-uppers, and the results are lovely, plaintive, elliptical, genuinely literate, ironic in a friendly way, skronking-rocking, epic but not too, spellbindingly harmonized and jaw-droppingly arranged. Eleanor is way charismatic; Matt cannot contain the musical lava that pours from his ears. The pair are taking a break in between their last album, I'm Going Away, and their new one with these shows sans band, which feature radical reworkings of catalog faves. Yes, there will be a karaoke interlude. —John Payne
Also playing Tuesday:
THE ELECTED at the Troubadour; THE DEATH SET, WIN WIN at Bootleg Theater; BOSCO DELREY, DROP THE LIME at the Echoplex.
wed 5/18
Golden State
@ VIPER ROOM
James Grundler writes the sorts of robustly melodic, shamelessly cinematic rock songs that are enjoying a renewed lease of life in an era when TV placement (where music is required to add drama to images) is replacing radio as the medium through which new sounds get heard. His current quartet is essentially a continuation of his previous outfit, Paloalto (which sadly got lost somewhere between Radiohead and Coldplay), with that band's original bassist, Alex Parnell, now returned to the fold. Grundler's gorgeously melodramatic electric/acoustic mini epics have found appropriate births on TV's Deadliest Catch ("All Roads Lead Home") and the BBC's broadcast of last month's royal wedding ("Til the End"), yet even through earbuds alone they paint pictures unimaginable to lesser talents. —Paul Rogers
Also playing Wednesday:
WATKINS FAMILY HOUR at Largo; CITIZEN FISH at Cobalt Café; NIKOS SYROPOULOS GROUP at Blue Whale; JOHNNY FLYNN at the Echo.
thu 5/19
Vieux Farka Touré
@ THE SATELLITE
Malian singer Vieux Farka Touré might be the son of the legendary Ali Farka Touré, but his music has its own distinct style. He blends traditional West African grooves with a more modern array of influences, and the resulting combination is often entrancing, with soulful chanting over a bubbling brew of percussion and funky blues rhythms. As with such celebrated Malian performers as Mariam & Amadou and Tinariwen, Touré's songs are distinguished by the region's slippery, shiny, psychedelic guitars, which simultaneously root the music in the earth and also send the shimmering melodies soaring into the stratosphere. Elements of dub, reggae and hip-hop slip in and out of the music, adding to the trancelike, hypnotic spell that Touré masterfully weaves. —Falling James
Also playing Thursday:
WOLVERSPENT, WINO at Bordello; IBRAHIM MAALOUF & DANIEL ROSENBOOM at Blue Whale; RACHEL GOOD-RICH at the Echo.
