fri 6/17
Pete Rock
PHOTO BY VICTOR ALONSO
The Love Me Nots' Nicole Laurenne: See Saturday.
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@KEY CLUB
What should a veritable hip-hop legend do after 40? In Rock's case, the answer is, "Never stop working, never stop evolving." The East Coast producer, known for perfect beats that used jazz-funk and soul samples and for his own trademark blend of moving and edgy, has lately been on a roll. After collaborating with Kanye West, DJ Premier (a long-rumored joint album) and former partner CL Smooth, he has just released a fantastic mixtape with Camp Lo, 80 Blocks From Tiffany's, and his production for Smif-N-Wessun, Monumental, is about to drop. Expect virtuosity and class. —Dave Parkman
D.O.A.
@ALEX'S BAR
Like so many other Canadian punks, the guys in D.O.A. are obsessed with beer and hockey, but their shout-along anthems are also about social change. Although they've worked with Jello Biafra and supported various environmental and antiwar causes, the Vancouver trio are too cynical to trust any authority figures. Singer Joey Shithead and his ever-changing crew revel in slaughtering such obvious sacred cows as George W. Bush and David Lee Roth, but they've also taken the piss out of unexpected targets, like the Clash. Their war cry, "Talk Minus Action Equals Zero," may seem a little corny, but Shithead (a former Green Party candidate in British Columbia) has used the phrase as the title of two separate albums, including D.O.A.'s latest. He still means it, man. —Falling James
Also playing:
PETER MURPHY at Pappy & Harriet's (Pioneertown); U2 at Angel Stadium; DITTY BOPS at McCabe's; DAEDELUS, NIT GRIT at Hummingbird Nest Ranch; AESOP ROCK, KIMYA DAWSON at the Troubadour; AYWKUB THE TRAIL OF DEAD, RINGO DEATHSTARR at the Echoplex: NICK WATERHOUSE, ALLAH LAS at Del Monte Speakeasy; GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS, SECTION QUARTET at Largo; FOLLOW THAT BIRD at the Echoplex; MARK SULTAN, LAMPS, TRMRS, DEATH HYMN NUMBER 9 at Blue Star; MY PET SADDLE, DIRT DRESS at the Smell.
sat 6/18
Graham Reynolds & the Golden Arm Trio
@BOOTLEG THEATER
[See Page Two.]
Baths, Mexicans With Guns, Shlohmo
@ECHOPLEX
The Friends of Friends label/collective brings three of the best in beats 'n' blends. L.A.-based producer Baths is the channeler of beat-driven orchestral meltdowns disguised as thumping pop ditties. His acclaimed debut, Cerulean (Anticon), was a dream-glitch wonderama boasting an assuredness that belied the classically trained artist's tender years. Mexicans With Guns is San Antonio's quasi-vato Ernest Gonzalez, musician, culture remixer, shaman, ace; his just-released album Ceremony finds the computer whiz hacking hip-hop, club stuff and Latin music — and it doesn't sound clichéd. L.A. boy Shlohmo's parents know him as Henry Laufer; his new kind of rhythm & blues is a sample-based, song-oriented style nicely mishmashing lo-fi, hip-hop, trip-hop and dubstep, plus some wickedly weird sound design. His Bad Vibes full-length debut is out in August. —John Payne
Odd Future
@HOUSE OF BLUES
Whetting appetites a couple months ahead of their flagship summer festival blowout, the dance-music dons at HARD bring Odd Future to the House of Blues for a one-off gig sure to put the upscale West Hollywood venue's crowd-control policy to the test. (The local hip-hop hell-raisers are scheduled to headline HARD Summer alongside Duck Sauce, Chromeo, Ratatat and plenty of others.) It's a testament to the accelerated pace of our always-on gossip culture that the mainstream media's obsession with Odd Future has diminished dramatically over the weeks since Tyler, the Creator's Goblin dropped. But these guys always seem like they're a single prank away from evening-news ubiquity. Rest assured, they're not done making trouble. —Mikael Wood
The Love Me Nots
@THE SAINT
"It could happen tomorrow," Nicole Laurenne warns between Michael Johnny Walker's window slams of guitar. "There will never be a guarantee that the end will come in an easy way." Her urgency is convincing, and not just because the stylishly mod Phoenix singer recently survived cancer. The Love Me Nots attack '60s garage tropes with a hard-rock drive on their latest album, The Demon & the Devotee, with Laurenne's circus-y Farfisa organ spinning circles around Walker's buzzing swarm of bees. The up-tempo collection lets up momentarily for "She's Nothing Like Me," whose spare, deceptively sweet verses camouflage the euphoric rush of the chorus and Laurenne's serene, above-it-all vocals. Later, her funereal keyboards and shadowy singing, under a blaze of bleary Morricone trumpet, transform "Trouble" into an exotically modern answer to "House of the Rising Sun." —Falling James
Hunx & His Punx
@nomad gallery
We already recommended this Girl Group Gone Gay punk outfit when they came to the Echo Park halls, but the vibe was a little off there (too indie). Nomad Gallery, also featuring Mexican wrestling, should be a much better venue to witness the fractured, glittery doo-wop of these Oakland retro fiends. Their recent album Too Young to Be in Love has been delighting Ramones and Shirelles freaks alike. If you think Best Coast and La Sera should grow a pair of (sweaty) balls, go check this out in deep, dark Frogtown. —Gustavo Turner
Also playing:
THE CHECKERS at the Redwood; BRETT DENNEN, DAWES at the Orpheum; MATTHEW SWEET at McCabe's; SIMA BINA & LIAN ENSEMBLE at UCLA; numerous bands at Make Music Pasadena; DENGUE FEVER at Getty Center; WARBRINGER at Cobalt Café (Canoga Park); DREAMTAPES at Origami Vinyl; HM157 SUMMER SOLSTICE FESTIVAL at HM157.
Hanson Still Writes the Soundtrack to Good Times 
Five Finger Death Punch 
The Monocle Band's debut 
