Music Picks: Demdike Stare, A Musical Tribute to Gil Scott-Heron, Natalie Merchant

Meshuggah

HOUSE OF BLUES

PHOTO BY MARION ETTLINGER

Natalie Merchant: See Wednesday.

PHOTO BY DREW REYNOLDS

Los Lobos: See Saturday.

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• Claude VonStroke
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Somewhere between Tool and death metal lurk these progressive, often polyrhythmic Swedes. For 25 years they've been weaving mind-bending, mathy webs of odd-signature riffs and dual-time beats around deceptively solid 4/4 cores. The result is music you can hypnotically bang your head to while leaving other parts of your body and brain to keep track of (or get lost in) its more elaborate, sometimes jazzy adventures. The deathly bellows of Finnish frontman Jens Kidman — which sounded comically extreme at the turn of the 1990s — seem almost crystalline next to today's crop of metalcore gurglers. One of the biggest cult bands on the planet, Meshuggah are the sound of intelligent men playing metal with little regard for commercial reward. —Paul Rogers

Vatican Shadow

Los Globos

Even if you're going to the screening of Jean Rollin's Le Vampire Nue (see Monday) to hear the live soundtrack provided by cult (in all senses of the word) U.K. horror ambient warlocks Demdike Stare, you also wanna catch their rare live appearance tonight. In addition to DS, you get an even rarer live outing for the mysterious Vatican Shadow, known to many fans of Hospital Productions as one of the most elusive incarnations of Dominick Fernow (he of Prurient and Cold Cave). How rare, you ask? Well, Fernow is billing it as "the first ever Vatican Shadow performance," and there's a rumor that it might also be the last. Think about it: Twenty years from now, you'll be able to tell people you saw Vatican Shadow in the flesh and, for once, you won't be lying. —Rebecca Haithcoat

Cuddle Magic

ECHO COUNTRY OUTPOST

If you can get past Cuddle Magic's cloying name — and no one would blame you if you can't — you might find some charming moments on the Philadelphia/Brooklyn outfit's new album, Info Nympho. Their press kit insists that their music is delivered with a "Steve Reich–inspired rhythmic complexity," if only because the use of cello and violin adds a semiclassical veneer to their relatively simple, lo-fi, indie-pop tunes. In truth, Cuddle Magic sound like a more accessible mutation of the old L.A. band W.A.C.O., with the candied, repetitive tones of vibraphone cycling in a mesmerizing way around Kristin Slipp's airy vocals on tracks like "Hoarders." When the horns enter the song in a sweetly sour haze, the combination of solemn cello, low-key drum slaps and Slipp's ethereal exhalations is positively enchanting. —Falling James

Also playing:

DEER TICK at El Rey Theatre; KROQ WEENIE ROAST at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre; RUINS, HATERS at the Smell; NIGHT BEATS at Satellite; SONY HOLLAND at Vitello's; ALLO DARLIN' at Echo.

sun 5/6

A Musical Tribute to Gil Scott-Heron

CLUB NOKIA

Usually when they get around to putting together a tribute to a musician, it means that they're no longer relevant and their once-radical work has been safely digested by the mainstream. With the late Gil Scott-Heron, however, his spoken-word declamations continue to inspire. His best-known piece, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," has been co-opted, corrupted, lifted, mangled and misused for several decades — not to mention that it was a clarion call that single-handedly influenced much of what we call rap today — yet it still retains a startling power, with its iconic and searing clarity. In the decades since he released the track in 1971, the revolution still isn't being televised. See how many so-called minorities you can find on modern network TV shows, for instance. Tonight's KPFK event features appearances by Charlie Haden, John Densmore, Nailah Porter, Jackson Browne, Lili Haydn, John Trudell, Spain, Richard Montoya and Billy Childs. —Falling James

Also playing:

DOUG WEBB ALL-STARS at the Baked Potato.

mon 5/7

Demdike Stare

CINEFAMILY

We could call it a match made in heaven but the heaven part ... that's not exactly where Demdike Stare are coming from, is it? Still, after study and eventual suffocation beneath track after bottomlessly dark track — this is music by Keith Hudson and La Monte Young for films by Tarkovsky or Jodorowsky, after excavation from the same stretch of motorway where the reels for the original Wicker Man are buried — there is revealed no better adjective to attach to this duo than "cinematic." And there's no better deployment for the truly cinematic than Cinefamily. Here Demdike (at only their second live West Coast show ever) will soundtrack the necrodelic French film La Vampire Nue, and here in the middle of the night will the word ambience flower and bloom. —Chris Ziegler

Also playing:

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

tue 5/8

Drake

VERIZON WIRELESS AMPHITHEATER

Drake is calling his current U.S. road trip the Club Paradise Tour, and if that handle seems a little grandiose, well, check out the guest list: J. Cole, Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill, 2 Chainz and French Montana are scheduled to appear with the Canadian emo-rap star, whose recent relocation to L.A. means there's a good chance some other folks might turn up as well. ("There's a new atmosphere," he said of the move in a recent conference call with reporters. "I'm getting to know new people.") You've no doubt formed an opinion on Drake by this point, one that his live show is only likely to reinforce. So we'll just take this moment to encourage your early arrival tonight: Waka are a good time not to be missed. —Mikael Wood