Sun Araw, Eagles of Death Metal, Lil' Kim

Pianist Alan Pasqua first came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the late drummer Tony Williams' highly regarded New Lifetime band. Pasqua came to L.A. shortly thereafter and began touring with major rock and pop acts such as Bob Dylan and Santana, as well as doing studio and soundtrack work, including Adam Sandler's film The Waterboy. He also began teaching at USC, rising to become chairman of the Trojans' jazz studies program. More than a decade ago, he joined with superstar drummer Peter Erskine and bassist Dave Carpenter in a trio that in 2008 received a Grammy nomination for its album Standards. After Carpenter's untimely death that same year, the trio eventually re-formed with bassist Darek Oles, continuing to showcase the considerable composing and arranging skills of both Pasqua and Erskine. —Tom Meek

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JACKSON BROWNE at the Orpheum; GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW, DUDLEY PERKINS at Key Club; COCOROSIE at Luckman Fine Arts Center; BRANDON FIELDS at the Baked Potato.

sun 6/10

Casino Madrid

COBALT CAFÉ

Convincingly lacing the visceral thrust of brutal guitars with electronica's escapist tones and booty-movin' beats has become one of rock's more elusive alchemies. Though more metal than trance (and despite their screamo-requisite wing-haired façade), San Diego's Casino Madrid might be close to a genre-bending "eureka!" moment in a post-hardcore scene just gasping for one. The 808-mated "Robots" wanders from rave-ready head trip into Lord of the Rings–y battle anthem. The multivoiced "4:42 Reminds Me of You" delivers an album's worth of gateway-to-hell gurgling, Auto-Tune–y "cleans" and belt-fed kick drums with a demonic spite matched only by its sheer restless craft. If Casino Madrid have arrived too late in a genre already doomed by mimicry, then metalcore saved some of its best for last. —Paul Rogers

Eagles of Death Metal

ALEX'S BAR

It's been many years since Van Halen pulled a hissy fit when introduced to Spinal Tap at an '80s awards show. (Apparently, the comedians' mildly wicked parody of heavy metal hit a little too close to home for several of the surprisingly thin-skinned members of Van Halen.) Nowadays, such a culture clash would be unimaginable, as many modern metal bands come fully equipped with a built-in sense of irony and sarcasm, obliterating the need for outside criticism and imitation. Chief among these groups are Eagles of Death Metal, who are, of course, a "joke" band with their zippy odes to tight pants, cherry cola and the mean ol' devil. Despite their name, EODM rarely sound like a death-metal combo, and breezy broadsides like "I Want You So Hard" are more punk rock in spirit than dogmatically metallic. Still, the jokes are only funny when the tunes are also so stubbornly catchy. —Falling James

Also playing:

DORIAN WOOD, NOAH & MEGAFAUNA at Hotel Café; DREDG at the Roxy; BALLERINA BLACK, PEELING GREY, FLAAMINGOS at the Echo; CAROL WELSMAN at Alvas Showroom.

mon 6/11

Jonneine Zapata, Darin Bennett & the Requiem

LOS GLOBOS

Few performers are as intense as Jonneine Zapata. The local singer doesn't sing songs so much as she casts spells. Her music can't be contained in neat, three-minute pop songs. Instead, her sprawling, somber ballads need time to unwind, building momentum slowly as she croons with a powerfully engrossing, bluesy yearning. Holding her microphone like it's a gun, she's a captivating presence as she stalks the stage restlessly, gazing over the audience with a shell-shocked, thousand-yard stare. Every Monday in June, Zapata is billed here with Darin Bennett & the Requiem, who stir up soulfully stormy rambles like "Blow, Wind, Blow" and "Dead Where I Stand." Bennett's tunes are flecked with traces of Americana and the blues, and he howls in a craggy voice that sometimes evokes Tom Waits. —Falling James

Also playing:

JJAMZ at the Satellite; TOM SCOTT & THE CALIFORNIA EXPRESS at Vitello's.

tue 6/12

The Tallest Man on Earth

WILTERN

Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson has toured North America with both Bon Iver and that band's S. Carey, and you can hear a bit of what might be their influence on There's No Leaving Now, Matsson's brand-new album as The Tallest Man on Earth. Streaked with keys and lap steel (if not quite the squishy, soft-rock stylings of last year's Bon Iver), it presents a slightly more expansive sound than the stripped-down, early-Dylan approach Matsson took on previous Tallest Man records. Tonight he plays a reserved-seating gig at the Wiltern, which we must admit is a much larger room than we'd expect to find Matsson in at this point. Did we miss where he hooked up with Flo Rida or something? —Mikael Wood

Also playing:

NITE JEWEL at the Echo; SHAWN COLVIN at El Rey Theatre; COLLECTIVE SOUL at House of Blues.

wed 6/13

DNTEL, Baths

AIRLINER

Though Jimmy Tamborello brushed up against the mainstream when he teamed up with Ben Gibbard as the Postal Service, he's kept his head down for the majority of his rich and prolific career. His work in the mid-'90s (while he was also KXLU's music director) established Dntel as a pioneering name in glitch and electronica and led to the 2001 full-length classic Life Is Full of Possibilities, which was gilded on its 10th anniversary via a remastered Sub Pop reissue. He has a new LP out now, Aimlessness, a lushly composed collection of songs that fuses Tamborello's lifelong love of Eno atmospherics with the dark pulse of deep house and the warm, experimental swirl of the Low End Theory tribe. Guesting on moody album highlight "Still" is this show's opener, Baths. Arrive early, as the Chatsworth-hailing beat-genius and songbird is expected to test out new material. —Chris Martins