Music Picks: Matthew Sweet, Summer Darling, Billy Childs Quartet, Rusko,

fri 12/30

PHOTO COURTESY OF ASHER ROTH

Asher Roth: See Friday.

Location Info

Map

The Echoplex

1154 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Out of Town

Photos

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Key Club

9039 W. Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Out of Town

Blue Whale

123 Astronaut E S Onizuka St., No. 301
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Chinatown/ Elysian Park

Photos

Walt Disney Concert Hall

111 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

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• Michael Bowers
• Matthew Sweet
• Lupe Fiasco
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Matthew Sweet

THE ECHOPLEX

The semireclusive power-pop whiz recently released a solid, if misleadingly titled, studio album called Modern Art. (Sweet also co-produced the latest from the Bangles, another tuneful blast from the '60s-pop past.) At best, though, you'll probably hear only a few tunes from that new disc tonight, as this Echoplex show concludes a tour commemorating the 20th anniversary of Sweet's 1991 classic, Girlfriend. If it's been a while since you've spun that one, get thee to Spotify posthaste: Hook-crammed guitar jams like "I've Been Waiting" and "Divine Intervention" showcase the kind of emotion too many of today's indie guys hide behind layers of echo and reverb; "Winona," Sweet's ode to his "little movie star," remains almost unbearably vulnerable (and also a wee bit creepy). —Mikael Wood

Asher Roth

VIPER ROOM

At some point during repeat listens of Asher Roth's breakout hit, "I Love College," from his 2009 debut, Asleep in the Bread Aisle (probably between the frat-boy MC's in-depth descriptions of running the beer pong table and observing his reliance on rhyming "Donkey Kong" with "Hakeem Olajuwon"), it was concluded that the Pennsylvania rhymer's skills were limited to the adolescent trappings of a gimmicky one-and-done. While Roth, 26, has yet to score another smash single, his lyrical improvement, in both topic and taste, has been, well, surprising. Guest spots on tracks by Game and the Cool Kids hinted at development. Now, his recently released mixtape, Pabst and Jazz, with its funked-up beats, keyboard chimes and Roth's nasal narrative, showcases an MC finally shedding his sophomoric skin. —Dan Hyman

BulletBoys, Hotel Diablo

KEY CLUB

Multiple generations of metal meet in just these two bands tonight. Though BulletBoys' five minutes were at the tail end of the '80s, their anthemic four-on-the-floor signature (personified by the MTV-approved "Smooth Up in Ya") owes a load to genre godfathers AC/DC and Van Halen. For years, BB has been David Lee Roth–alike singer Marq Torien with a revolving backing band, but this show reunites its original lineup for the first time in more than a decade. Propelled by the paranormal dexterity of W.A.S.P. drummer Mike Dupke, Hotel Diablo are a new band comprising metal vets (bassist Mike Duda, also of W.A.S.P.; former Adler's Appetite singer Rick Stitch; and Quiet Riot guitarist Alex Grossi). Ho-Di's era-spanning sound, appropriate to its collective pedigree, includes a veritable metal jukebox of cover versions. —Paul Rogers

Also playing:

UNWRITTEN LAW at the Roxy; THE GROWLERS at the Echo; BEATS ANTIQUE at Club Nokia; MINI MANSIONS at Bootleg Bar.

sat 12/31

Billy Childs Quartet

BLUE WHALE

Billy Childs' maximal output of original music and arrangements has over the course of his career garnered the keyboardist-composer an impressive 10 Grammy nominations and three Grammy Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2003 grant from Chamber Music America, from which came his own brilliant Jazz-Chamber Ensemble. NPR is recognizing this uniquely talented maximus on New Year's Eve by featuring him on its live Toast of the Nation broadcast. With Bob Sheppard on sax, the suddenly ubiquitous Tim Lefebvre on bass and veteran Gary Novak on drums, the quartet will be ensconced in the refreshingly minimalist atmosphere of the Blue Whale. Seeing this show live will maximize your listening pleasure, but at the very minimum you should listen to it on the radio. —Gary Fukushima

Semi Precious Weapons

THE ROXY

Champagne. Disco balls. Glitter. All of the fizzy detritus we associate with New Year's Eve is the stuff of a regular old day in the life of Semi Precious Weapons. The high-heeled, heavily eyelined New York glam rockers were intensely fabulous even when they were broke. To wit, the sassed-out war cry from their self-titled 2010 breakout single: "I can't pay my rent, but I'm fucking gorgeous." To be sure, these boys have only gotten more flashy since spending the better part of the last two years opening for Lady Gaga's Monster Ball tour, so you'd be hard-pressed to find a better gang with whom to ring in 2012, assuming your idea of a successful NYE involves getting blasted with bubbly by a 6-foot-5-inch, pantyhose-rocking manimal. —Chris Martins

Cobra Starship, Lupe Fiasco

HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND

Hosted by Extra host (and former Saved by the Bell star) Mario Lopez, Big Bang New Year's Eve pairs the neon-clad, electro-emo outfit Cobra Starship with Lupe Fiasco, the skateboarding rapper who seems always to have something to complain about. Neither act is on the road in support of its strongest work: Though it finally delivered the pop breakthrough they'd been after for years, Cobra Starship's Night Shades is considerably less fun than the band's earlier records, written and recorded back when the Top 40 was but a dream. And Lupe Fiasco's Lasers contains one song that begins, "I really think the War on Terror is a bunch of bullshit." Still, New Year's Eve should bring out the best from these two: It's a perfect occasion for empty flash. —Mikael Wood

The Aggrolites

ALEX'S BAR

Though they look like the security detail at Hootenanny, the Aggrolites' organ-rinsed reggae exudes more than enough good-time vibes to fuel this New Year's Eve celebration. Ska-inflected and decidedly sunny, these L.A. lads should nonetheless never be lumped in with the many SoCal bands who adopted ska trappings as a fashion statement in the late 1990s. Formed as the backing band for reggae legend Derrick Morgan (a role they've reprised for the likes of Phyllis Dillon and Prince Buster), the Aggrolites are well-informed roots revivalists whose own tunes are richly grained with street-level Angeleno grit yet sufficiently hooky to be minor hits. If your head's not bobbing at midnight, you're already passed out drunk. —Paul Rogers