Music Picks: Matt & Kim, Partch, Booker T, Motley Crue,

fri 6/10

The Waldos, the Stitches

PHOTO BY YONI GOLDBERG

Saucy subversion: New York Dolls. See Tuesday.

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Alex's Bar

2913 E. Anaheim St.
Long Beach, CA 90804

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

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Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal CityWalk

100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608

Category: Attractions and Amusement Parks

Region: Out of Town

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Silverlake Lounge

2906 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Category: Bars and Clubs

Region: Out of Town

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REDCAT: Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

631 W. Second St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars and Clubs

Region: Downtown

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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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Hollywood Bowl

2301 N. Highland Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90068

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

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More About

• Mikael Wood
• Walter Lure
• Enanitos Verdes
• Punk Rock
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

@ALEX'S BAR

After the New York Dolls fell apart in the mid-1970s, singer-guitarist Johnny Thunders joined with ex-Demons lead guitarist Walter Lure to form a new band that was leaner, meaner, louder and grittier, with grimly unromantic back-alley anthems that would help usher in the new punk rock revolution. They called themselves the Heartbreakers (not to be confused with Tom Petty's band), and Thunders yowled most of the group's best-known antihits, including their signature song, "Born to Lose," and Dee Dee Ramone's seedily euphoric junkie tale "Chinese Rocks." But Lure was the more masterful guitarist, and he sang and composed many great Heartbreakers tunes, including "Get Off the Phone" and "One Track Mind." A stockbroker today, Lure still tours with his band the Waldos, who'll also perform twice on Saturday at the Redwood, with an all-ages matinee at 1 p.m. plus an evening show with O.C. punk stalwarts the Stitches. —Falling James

Enanitos Verdes

@GIBSON AMPHITHEATRE

Argentina has produced loads of megatalented bands and solo artists since the explosion of the Rock Nacional scene in the late 1960s, but by and large (and with a few very significant exceptions, like Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Soda Stereo), many of the best Argentine artists are not well known abroad, not even among Spanish speakers. Enanitos Verdes ("the little green midgets" — apparently a UFO reference) are an odd exception. Active since 1984 and steadily peddling a kind of basic, lite-Stones rock and lite-Beatles pop sound, they've never been an A-list act back home. In Mexico and the formerly Mexican regions of the United States, however, they are hugely popular with several generations of rock en español fans. (Fun trivia: Google "Coldplay" + "Satriani" + "Enanitos Verdes" and be amazed! ) Also, Spain's equally popular '80s pop group Hombres G. —Gustavo Turner

Partch: At the Edge of the World

@REDCAT

The composer/musical philosopher/hobo/inventor Harry Partch (1901-1974) was a defiantly anti-establishment outsider whose chief contribution to the contemporary canon was his lifelong pursuit of challenging ways to smash the rigid formalities of the Western 12-tone musical scale. His own 43-tone scale shaped the framework for a multitude of pieces composed for beautifully odd instruments that he designed and built in order to perform his works' intricate tonal deviltries. John Schneider's Partch ensemble performs using re-creations of these wonderfully strange wooden and metallic percussive and stringed contraptions, which are graced with names like Cloud Chamber Bowls, Blow Boy, the Harmonic Canon, Boo, the Marimba Eroica and Spoils of War. The program includes excerpts from Lyrics of Li Po and Ulysses at the Edge of the World, and a screening of a rare 1958 Partch documentary. Also Sat., June 11. —John Payne

The Slowmotions

@BLVD.

These Japanese re-enactors forever dwell in that turn-of-the-'80s era of Day-Glo drainpipe pants, thrift-store blazers and cheap plastic sunglasses. Their fizzy, compact punk is a playful wink and a theatrical slap rather than a grim, grunting uppercut, and they seem happier changing hairstyles than lives. Sounding like a belated sequel to The Incredible Shrinking Dickies (albeit sung in Japanese), maybe it takes these superenthused imports to remind us of the campy joys of pre-Reagan SoCal pop-punk. —Paul Rogers

Flash Bang Grenada, Open Mike Eagle, Co. Fee

@BOOTLEG BAR

Flash Bang Grenada combines the talents of two of the Los Angeles rap underground's most distinctive voices. Scene statesman Busdriver is famous for his rapid-fire singsong delivery, originally perfected at the world-famous open-mic nights hosted by Leimert Park's Project Blowed collective. His mix of dadaist poetry and ornately detailed observances is a marked contrast to the street-honed battle rhymes of Nocando, who represents a new generation of Angeleno art rap. He's the resident MC of the renowned Lincoln Heights club Low End Theory, so it's no surprise that the pair will be spitting over genre-warping electronic production from folks like Nosaj Thing and Free the Robots. Opening are smooth-voiced hip-hop crooner Open Mike Eagle (also from L.A.) and Orange County–based beatsmith Co. Fee. —Chris Martins

Ink-N-Iron Festival

@QUEEN MARY

This annual ritual celebrating the fine art of knitting ink into flesh features all of the roots, punk, rockabilly and burlesque performers one would typically expect at such an affair, but a couple of the headliners aren't traditional tattooed love boys. Garage-rock kingpins the Sonics are one of America's quintessential rock & roll bands, with Gerry Roslie snarling such classic blasts as "Strychnine" and "The Witch." After an absence of more than three decades, the reunited Sonics still sound powerfully elemental, although it's unclear when their planned collaboration with the White Stripes' Jack White will be released. The Buzzcocks also aren't heavily tatted up, but their deathless blend of punk-rock guitars and Pete Shelley's almost masochistically lovelorn melodies goes well with stabbing one's self with sharp needles. And don't miss those supreme soul-stirrers, the Detroit Cobras, whose raw garage-rock riffage is crowned by fireball diva Rachael Nagy's brassy R&B declarations. Also Sat.-Sun. —Falling James

Also playing:

DAX RIGGS at the Echo; BELLE BRIGADE at the Satellite; JOHN PRINE at the Orpheum; WISIN Y YANDEL at Nokia Theatre; DEFTONES at Hollywood Palladium; FRIENDLY FIRES, WISE BLOOD at Music Box; BARE WIRES, SHITTY LIMITS, COSMONAUTS at Blue Star; DJ NOBODY and TRACKSTAR THE DJ at Bootleg Theater; UPSALON ACRUX at the Smell; VARDAN OVSEPIAN CHAMBER ENSEMBLE at Blue Whale.