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PHOTO BY JASON CREPS
Teddybears: See Thursday.
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SebastiAn
AVALON
After a string of EPs, a compilation of remixes for Daft Punk, Uffie and Kelis, among others, and a soundtrack co-produced by Sebastien Tellier for Mr. Oizo's Steak — a sci-fi comedy about a gang of milk-drinking kids wreaking havoc by performing extreme face-lifts — French electro-house producer and Ed Banger affiliate SebastiAn finally released his long-awaited debut album, Total, this past June. Yes, that album cover is indeed an image of SebastiAn kissing himself, a photo by Jean-Baptiste Mondino that SebastiAn claims represents his vision of artistic posture: "When you play a game, you should play it all the way or not at all." Tonight he performs with Sharooz. —Lainna Fader
Hello Seahorse!
ECHOPLEX
Winning over American audiences while singing in a foreign language has never been an easy feat, but Hello Seahorse! is poised to do just that. The Mexico City band is part of a generation of young Mexican musicians that increasingly draws on international influences to great effect while still singing in Spanish. Hints of the Jesus and Mary Chain and Asobi Seksu shine through in Hello Seahorse!'s lush, dark soundscapes, swirling synths and singer Lo Blondo's ethereal vocals. Interestingly, the band recorded much of their latest album, Lejos. No Tan Lejos, at the Silver Lake studio of Beastie Boys collaborator Money Mark, who produced a handful of the album's tracks. Here's hoping Hello Seahorse! can obliterate the language barrier that typically prevents indie kids from venturing across musical borders. —Laura Ferreiro
Miles Evans Band
CATALINA
Miles Evans is the son of the late, great arranger Gil Evans, with whom Miles Davis did some of his most notable recordings of the 1960s and for whom the younger Evans is named. Miles has continued in their footsteps in playing his father's music and arranging new songs for his own band for the last several years here in Los Angeles. Bassist Darryl Jones (the Rolling Stones) worked with Miles Davis in the 1980s, and serves as the foundation here, joined for the first time by longtime Stones backing vocalist Bernard Fowler. Other notable members include Doug Webb, Steve Ferrone, Mike Blumberg, Carol Chaikin and newcomers Dean Brown on guitar and the supersoulful Deron Johnson on keys, the last keyboardist Davis recruited for his own band. Also Sat. —Tom Meek
Thievery Corporation
GREEK THEATRE
Few outfits marry easy-listening sounds to uneasy sentiments like Thievery Corporation, the long-running Washington, D.C., electro-lounge project spearheaded by conspiracy-minded mixmasters Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. On the group's latest, the semi-Orwellian Culture of Fear, guest vocalists such as Boston rapper Mr. Lif and singer Shana Halligan (of L.A.'s Bitter:Sweet) ponder the intersection of personal freedom and Homeland Security over sleek, globe-tripping soundscapes that pull from bossa nova, dub reggae and vocal jazz; it's sweet stuff with a sour center. Here they're joined by local retro-soulsters Fitz and the Tantrums (whose taste in formalwear may well have scored them the opening gig) and AM & Shawn Lee, whose Air-like Celestial Electric is out now on Thievery Corporation's ESL Music. —Mikael Wood
En Vogue, Salt-n-Pepa
L.A. COUNTY FAIR
The funky divas of En Vogue have been promising a new studio album since at least 2008, when Dawn Robinson rejoined the Bay Area–born R&B girl group for a tour commemorating their 20th anniversary in (and out of) the business. Three years later, the album has yet to materialize. And yet! En Vogue's original-issue hits — "Hold On," "Free Your Mind," "My Lovin'," and let's not forget their sumptuous remake of "Something He Can Feel" — retain so much charm that it might well be worth the drive out to Pomona this weekend to hear 'em again. That's doubly true given En Vogue's booking with Salt-n-Pepa, the groundbreaking rap act whose presence here more or less guarantees a performance of "Whatta Man," their joint 1994 single. Great song, that one. —Mikael Wood
The Ruby Friedman Orchestra
HOUSE OF BLUES
Despite their name, the Ruby Orchestra is really a six-piece bar band instead of a large jazz combo. When they first came to attention a couple of years ago, they impressed with a note-for-note yet passionately stylized remake of the Beatles' "I Want You." A subsequent cover of AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top" was less convincing, if only because leader Ruby Friedman's brassy vocals are better suited to Broadway artifice than to rock & roll. That said, Friedman is a captivating and charismatic performer, and her deft backup band is starting to develop its own sound. Although such bombastic power ballads as "Montmartre" come off as generically overwrought, other weirder glam-pop originals like "Sex With Tod Browning" and the folksy "Want My Life to Testify" hint at the RFO's boundless commercial potential. —Falling James
Also playing:
FANG at Cobalt Café; RANCID at Fox Theatre (Pomona); LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES, BOSTICH & FUSSIBLE, ANA TIJOUX at Music Box; BASSNECTAR at Hollywood Palladium; DALE EARNHARDT JR. JR. at Troubadour; GOBBLE GOBBLE at the Echo; PONCHO SANCHEZ at Culver Club, DoubleTree Westside; WAR TAPES at Hotel Café; ATARI TEENAGE RIOT at Key Club.
