Also playing:
CHUCK DUKOWSKI SEXTET at the Prospector.
The Grouch and Eligh: See Wednesday.
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wed 7/6
Holly Miranda, Rachael Cantu
@BOOTLEG THEATER
Holly Miranda's enchanting vocals float through a shiny sea of swirling synth tones and layers of shimmering atmospherics on her latest album, The Magician's Private Library, which was produced by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek. The ethereal soundscapes often evoke the Cocteau Twins, but Miranda puts her own distinct stamp on such engrossing interludes as "Waves" and "Slow Burn Treason." A track like "Joints" comes off like a Pink Floyd reverie, but it's brightened by Miranda's airy vocals, thoughtful lyrics and compellingly feminine mystique. The O.C. native Rachael Cantu has a more straightforward pop-folk style, but her songs are more intelligent than most waiflike singer-songwriters, and her spare version of Tom Waits' "San Diego Serenade" is both intimate and haunting. —Falling James
Lucky Dragons, Ezra Buchla, Whitman, Cigarette
@THE SMELL
Folktale Records Night lands at the Smell with the record launch of the latest Whitman LP, I'll Be Waiting (200 on black vinyl and 100 on blue), co-released by olFactory, the Smell's in-house label; Am Discs; and Talking Helps. Lucky Dragons, who redefine touch tones, take a break from a solid year so far of touring, working on videos and other ways to break down the walls between artist and performer. Ezra Buchla, fresh off a trip to Rio de Janeiro, inhabits a kind of sonic head space where electronics are made from sunsets, imparting a warmth aligned with waves of heat simmering on the sidewalk in June. Cigarette, from Arlington, Va., round out the night with dusky and nostalgic takes on guitar music, a sound floating in over the horizon in such a subtle way that you'll feel like you woke up in a cloud instead of a puddle. —David Cotner
The Grouch & Eligh
@BORDERS THOUSAND OAKS
Knowing that the site of a former Borders bookstore was going to sit vacant until new tenants move in this fall, landlord Larry Janss decided to use the venue to host the summerlong Open Borders Festival as a way to raise funds for the nonprofit group Regenerate Films. A pleasingly diverse lineup of performers — including Ozomatli, Pinback, Daniel Johnston and Meiko — is scheduled to appear, and tonight Living Legends' Eligh and the Grouch wax poetic on everything from things that are "Chronic" to the pleasures of "Highwire Love." The Grouch's rapidfire rhymes are shrouded in multilayered beats that are otherworldly and yet also come back down to Earth with elaborate, confessional insights into relationships: "We need balance in life and hip-hop." —Falling James
Also playing:
NEW MASTERSOUNDS at the Troubadour.
thu 7/7
Darwin Deez, Dirty Gold
@THE ECHO
It's a big year for quirky pop-giant-in-the-making Darwin Deez, and he's here to show you how it's done. The Myrtle Beach, S.C., lad seems to have been born with the gift of — well, at least belief in himself, and his admittedly persuasive, unjaded enthusiasm probably does give him the ability to write such superpositive and goofily heartbreaking choons like "Radar Detector" and "Constellations," from his May self-titled debut album. His artfully constructed songs (with a lotta nicely weird chords, too) are one thing, but most likely it's his vibrant-to-the-10th-power stage persona that has caused all the critics and those who love them to grant the boy extremely loud clapping sounds and an effusion of praise now approaching the moon. —John Payne
Also playing:
COUNT FLEET, YELLOW RED SPARKS at Lot 1; BIXBY KNOLLS at the Viper Room; DEPARTURE LOUNGE with BEN MILSTEIN, VOLUM, TL SMITH at Medusa Lounge; JANET KLEIN & HER PARLOR BOYS at Steve Allen Theater.
