Music Picks: X, Lucinda Williams, Jackie DeShannon, Fujiya & Miyagi

Mint Condition

CLUB NOKIA

Jackie DeShannon: See Monday.

PHOTO BY NELLERY HILL

Penelope Houston and the Avengers: See Saturday.

Location Info

Map

El Rey Theatre

5515 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Mid-Wilshire/ Hancock Park

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The Redwood Bar & Grill

316 W. Second St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown

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The Baked Potato

3787 Cahuenga Blvd. W.
Studio City, CA 91604

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: San Fernando Valley

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Walt Disney Concert Hall

111 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

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More About

• Mint Condition (Band)
• Dengue Fever Rey
• Jackie DeShannon
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Punk Rock

We could wax nostalgic about this Twin Cities band's considerable legacy. About how, formed in 1984, Mint Condition foreshadowed the arrival of New Jack Swing, and hence became the only group associated with that movement whose members played all of their own instruments. About its famous musical breadth live, where R&B takes on elements of jazz, funk, rock, reggae and Latin. About those timeless classics, the slowly burning "Breakin' My Heart" or the upbeat pop-soul hybrid "Nobody Does It Betta." But the real story is the quintet's 2011 album, 7... . In addition to racking up a pair of Grammy nods, Stokley Williams and Co. delivered a record as apt to satisfy millennials after a retro fix as noobs who don't know that Ne-Yo stole that thing he does with his feet from Michael Jackson. In fact, it might be Mint Condition's best yet. —Chris Martins

Reigning Sound

ALEX'S BAR

Reigning Sound's Greg Cartwright is a rock & roll & soul true believer who knows if you tell a good story and put in a good hook, you make a song with a good chance of living forever. He's got a lot of songs like that — "Straight Shooter" or "If You Can't Give Me Everything," which hit some heartbroken spot between the Rolling Stones, the Flamin' Groovies and Stax soul. He once was part of caveman rockers the Oblivians, historic in their own right, but Reigning Sound are animated by a different spirit — that of old-school songwriters like Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, battling their way to a humble kind of musical perfection. This is the strong stuff, so get one beer to guzzle and another to cry in. With the Strange Boys. —Chris Ziegler

Also playing:

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS at UCLA; SIMPLEXITY at the Blue Whale; MATT SKIBA at Troubadour; SKRILLEX at the Palladium; BOB MINTZER TRIO at Vitello's.

sun 1/29

Arrington de Dionyso, Larkin Grimm, Anna Oxygen

THE SMELL

Nice, weird, mixed bag of stuff: A. de Dionyso is the chameleonlike former Old Time Relijun guy. With his new band, Malaikat Dan Singa, he purveys a rudimentarily psychedelic dance-hall thump highlighted by his rather exploratory art warblings, sung in intentionally bogus Indonesian. Anna Oxygen is Olympia, Wash.'s, Anna Jordan Huff, who did a really great solo record called This Is an Exercise on the Kill Rock Stars label in 2006, later singing on records by the Microphones. In a removed way, the vagabond Larkin Grimm channels magic from the Appalachian folk tradition, but that somehow has nothing at all to do with it; she's just Larkin Grimm. Search for her new Soul Retrieval album on Bad Bitch Records; it was produced by the legendary Tony Visconti (David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Sparks). —John Payne

Also playing:

SIOUX CITY PETE AND THE BEGGARS at Redwood Bar & Grill; RAY WYLIE HUBBARD at McCabe's; LA FONT, ROSS SEA PARTY, ROGUE VALLEY at Bootleg Bar.

mon 1/30

Jackie DeShannon

THE GRAMMY MUSEUM

It's a shame that the great songwriter Jackie DeShannon is playing here rather than at a bigger venue. Shows in the Grammy Museum's relatively small performance area tend to sell out quickly, making it hard for true fans to attend, and the room's bright lights and the moderator's overly obvious explanations tend to demystify the whole spirit of creativity and making music. On the other hand, even in this antiseptic, bookish environment, the intimacy encourages performers to answer questions, tell stories and play a few songs, as DeShannon will do tonight with stripped-down remakes of "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" and "Bette Davis Eyes," from her new album, When You Walk in the Room. —Falling James

Also playing:

MO-ODDS with RESTAVRANT at Redwood Bar & Grill.

tue 1/31

Merry Clayton

THE MINT

The 1969 song "Gimme Shelter" unwinds with four and a half of the most powerfully mesmerizing minutes in the long and winding musical career of the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards conjured trembling waves of unusually pretty, shimmering guitar chords, which were shadowed with a solemn grandeur by the late pianist Nicky Hopkins until drummer Charlie Watts rudely smacked everything back to reality with an iconic double shot of snare and that ensuing resigned shrug of shoulders on the tom-toms. Singing forcefully about love and war, Mick Jagger was never in finer voice, but what really made the recording stand out was the participation of previously unknown gospel singer Merry Clayton. Her wraithlike backup vocals burned through the haze with a stirringly eerie passion, and the native Louisianan's subsequent solo albums have further revealed the reach of her soulful delivery and that warm fire of a voice. —Falling James

Jessie Baylin

TROUBADOUR

If you've read anything about this onetime Hotel Café regular, it's probably that she's married to Nathan Followill of Kings of Leon. But on her third album, this month's Little Spark, Jessie Baylin actually busts out connections to loads of other impressive folks, not the least of whom is Stevie Nicks' longtime guitarist, Waddy Wachtel. (With his flowing locks and sleeveless tees, dude is always a delight to see. Maybe he'll show up here?) Music's nice, too: strummy, tuneful folk-rock stuff with cool studio-pop touches like the tubular bells in "The Greatest Thing That Never Happened." L.A.'s Watson Twins contribute backing vocals (as they did a few years ago on Jenny Lewis' Rabbit Fur Coat), and they're set to open for Baylin tonight. —Mikael Wood