fri 7/1
The Grouch and Eligh: See Wednesday.
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Paul Collins, Audacity, Garbo's Daughter, Pangaea
@BLUE STAR
[See Page Two.]
Jessica 6, Love Grenades, Vice Cooler
@THE ECHO
Named after the refugee heroine in Logan's Run, Brooklyn trio Jessica 6 deploy frothy pop melodies over bubbling disco rhythms. "Let me see you dance/Put me in a trance," former Hercules & Love Affair singer Nomi Ruiz implores on "White Horse," from the group's new album, See the Light. Such lyrics aren't the deepest philosophical statements, but her partners, Andrew Raposo (bass) and Morgan Wiley (keyboards), give Ruiz's pleas a sense of dance-floor urgency. The local tribe Love Grenades also pump up some infectiously danceable grooves, but singer Elizabeth Wight's clever lyrics are imbued with a wistful restlessness that's ultimately more ambitious. Don't miss Oakland electronic whiz Hawnay Troof in his Vice Cooler persona. —Falling James
Earthless, Joy, Green & Wood
@DARK HORSE
Earthless, the San Diego masters of long-form psych-metal that qualifies as either dirges or epics, haven't released an album since 2008, although they do have a split 12-inch with Danava and Lecherous Gaze that came out in February. In accordance with the alchemy of their spiky Tokyo-by-way-of-Berlin groove, the B-side of that 12-inch is the sound of a motor revving. That doesn't mean that revisiting "Cosmic Prayer" and "Rhythms From a Cosmic Sky" isn't a beautiful way to zone out, but you get a little antsy when you're cut off from the teat of transcendence. They're on the same bill — touring incessantly as they do — with Joy, another San Diego combo plowing the fertile fields of what they call "ectoplasmic rock." Green & Wood round out the bill, a Los Angeles quartet playing "hippie all-star apocalyptic acid grunge," so ignore them at your absolute peril. —David Cotner
The Growlers
@TROUBADOUR
The Growlers bring the party wherever they go, and tonight they go to the Troubadour with Some Days and TRMRS. They've been building a loyal following for the last few years, packing venues across L.A. and O.C. for quite a while with their dark psych-surf-rock tunes, bizarro stage props and hand-screened CD-Rs. 2009's psychedelic monster Are You In or Out? was followed by 2010's Hot Tropics, an EP full of what sounds like B-sides from their debut — but in a good way. See them live, because lead singer Brooks Nielsen puts on quite a captivating show. He's got energy like Jim Morrison meets Ian Curtis and he'll pull you under with him like a nighttime riptide. —Lainna Fader
Blonde Redhead
@THE ECHOPLEX
Amedeo and Simone Pace, identical twin brothers from Italy, frame a sort of mysterious woman from Kyoto, Kazu Makino. Amedeo on guitar or bass and vocals and Simone on very hard-rocking idiosyncratic drums weave around Makino's dramatized guitar shards and breathy, not-so-guileless sighs. Their sound keeps evolving, growing sleek, cinematic, exploding with new tone colors and curiously dense emotions, wrenching a formerly lonely and alienating sound into genuinely revelatory realms, where dark flowers brim with strangely sweet nectar. Their new album, Penny Sparkle, is, if possible, even more heartbreaking than their 2004 masterpiece, Misery Is a Butterfly. Also at El Rey Sat., July 2. —John Payne
NKOTBSB
@STAPLES CENTER
A nine-headed teen-pop hydra formed by the decidedly unteenage members of New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys, NKOTBSB is the summer's hottest ticket for mother-daughter duos looking for a night of cross-generational cheer. Reports from the road indicate a tag team–style revue, with a handful of joint performances interspersed among the likes of "Step by Step" and "I Want It That Way." (A combined greatest-hits album featuring several new collaborative tracks came out in May; one of the fresh cuts, "Don't Turn Out the Lights," sounds exactly like "In My Head" by Jason Derulo.) Whatever they play, though, expect to hear more squealing than at a Jonas Brothers show. With goody-goody American Idol champ Jordin Sparks. —Mikael Wood
Also playing:
DAN BERN at Bootleg Bar; OTHER LIVES, ROSEBUDS at Satellite; TAKING BACK SUNDAY and THURSDAY at House of Blues; SO MANY WIZARDS at the Smell; NEGATIVLAND (Symposium) at Cinefamily.
sat 7/2
The Bellrays
@SATELLITE
Like the true believers they apparently are, singer Lisa Kekaula and guitarist Bob Vennum have been pushing their singular, scorching brand of Stax-style soul and garage rock since the early '90s. With the addition of guitarist-songwriter Tony Fate, the band have further complexified their unholy brew of Detroit punk, R&B, psychedelic rock and gospel. All of which gets yanked outta the textbooks and hurled at the sun with the band's improv-jazz 'tude of making the music in the moment. It's called the sound of spontaneity, and it's hard to find. The Bellrays deliver on it with real brains, wicked chops and true passion, an ecstatic assault heard to thrilling effect on their new album, the appropriately titled Have a Little Faith. —John Payne
Moses Campbell, Zorch, Peter Pants, Batwings Catwings
@THE SMELL
Moses Campbell's debut, Who Are You? Who Is Anyone?, was one of the top releases of 2010, a fantastically conceived pop record the teenagers put out on the Smell's imprint olFactory. They're returning to the Smell for probably the 50th time since then, joined tonight by Zorch, Peter Pants and Batwings Catwings. Austin duo Zorch are synth experimentalists bending noise rock and building mind-shattering atmospherics. L.A.'s Batwings Catwings, a psychotic girl trio, and garage-punk Pehrspace staple Peter Pants round out the night. —Lainna Fader
