Jenny Lewis, Ab-Soul, Céu

Also playing:

MATTHEW DEAR, GUI BORATTO at Avalon; SCISSOR SISTERS at Hollywood Palladium; SARAH JAFFE at the Satellite; WHITE ARROWS at the Troubadour; HI-STRUNG RAMBLERS, ALEX VARGAS at Viva Cantina; INDIGO GIRLS at Wiltern.

PHOTO BY NEKO CASE

Kelly Hogan: See Wednesday.

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sun 6/17

One Direction

HONDA CENTER

In the battle of the new U.K. boy bands, One Direction haven't yet come up with a tune as good as The Wanted's "Glad You Came," which sports an even perv-ier double entendre than the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way." ("Tell Me a Lie," a zippy Kelly Clarkson co-write from 1D's Up All Night, comes the closest.) Still, judging by reports from the road, these fresh-faced, X Factor alums already know all about working a crowd, which might be more important than music when it comes to the kind of shriek-fest this show will most certainly turn out to be. Also Sat. at Gibson Amphitheatre and — get this — Aug. 7-8, 2013. —Mikael Wood

mon 6/18

House Shoes

DEL MONTE SPEAKEASY

"Everybody loves House Shoes out here," said House Shoes to one interviewer, and if that sounds bold, well, what can be said? He's right. This Detroit transplant is a producer of the highest order and a righteous philosophizer who tells it like it is regarding history, culture and, probably most importantly, music. Dilla famously taught him how to sample on an MPC 3000, and collectors of both the All City and Do-Over 10-inch series know well the earthquake rumble that comes when House Shoes walks across the turntable. Now he's following his recent (and punishing) EP The Time with a full-length called Let It Go on storied Los Angeles label Tres, also home to People Under the Stairs and the underrated Johnson&Jonson project. Prepare for a step forward. —Chris Ziegler

tue 6/19

Michael Mull Octet, BlockRad

BLUE WHALE

Alien music is being promulgated by the mad scientists at CalArts, from which scores of deviant agents have begun to infect the L.A. music-industry organism with a new strain of creativity. The new morphon is incubating, poised to gnaw through the host's fleshy abdomen and announce its birth with a primal scream of defiance and atonality. One such species would be reedman-composer Michael Mull (his analysis of Meshuggah guitar riffs is a must-read), whose octet explores everything from Balkan rhythms and electronica to metal. Blockrad is another breed, consisting of pianist Steve Blum, drummer Mike Lockwood and saxist Andrew Conrad, a strange and otherworldly trio. Both groups represent the evolution of jazz in L.A. to a higher life form. Audiences beware, for these monsters are killin'. —Gary Fukushima

Delta Rae

TROUBADOUR

With a name like Delta Rae, you expect some down-home, folksy Americana, and the North Carolina band (none of whose members are actually named Delta or Rae) indeed purveys tunes that sound like they were cooked up on a rural back porch. Actually the sextet — which divides the vocal chores among siblings Brittany Holljes, Ian Holljes and Eric Holljes and pal Elizabeth Hopkins — is at its best on new album Carry the Fire when it traffics in traditional styles like folk, country and gospel. The group is much less interesting on such tracks as "Holding on to Good," which come off as generic pop-rock. With a soulful Greek chorus of haunted harmonies, eerily tinkling piano and foreboding percussion, "Bottom of the River" is by far the album's most beguiling and captivating song, even though it's also the most firmly rooted in ancient styles. —Falling James

Also playing:

KATE MILLER-HEIDKE at the Hotel Cafe.

wed 6/20

Mary Anne Hobbs

THE AIRLINER

Back when random so-and-so's would dismiss the now-legendary Low End Theory — "Nobody cares about hip-hop on the Eastside," went one memorable blow-off — there was always someone who believed, and luckily she had the might of the entire BBC behind her. Once, she was a bikini-sporting, motorcycle-riding, "fully paid-up rock chick" covering Mötley Crüe and Jane's Addiction in L.A., but a generation later Mary Anne Hobbs' Radio 1 show beamed key L.A. beatmakers like Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer, Teebs, Take and more to the whole wide world. Now TED taps her for insight and instruction and Low End Theory is known worldwide as one of the most dynamic intersections of beats, rhymes (sometimes) and life. And when Mary Anne comes to visit for a mind-rattling deejay set, it's like a long-lost family member coming home. —Chris Ziegler

Vinny Golia Sextet, Daniel Rosenboom Septet

BLUE WHALE

Multi-instrumentalist-composer-bandleader Vinny Golia is a priceless presence on the West Coast new jazz/other-music scene. Performing on a variety of woodwinds and saxes, Golia treks a wide expanse of that strange new terrain where progressive/avant jazz spills into contemporary classical, improvised music and world-music hybrids/meltdowns. His critically hailed solo and sideman work with Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, John Carter, Horace Tapscott and others has earned him copious honors internationally, including Jazziz magazine's proclamation that Golia is one of the 100 people who have influenced the course of jazz in our century. Golia's own Nine Winds' catalog is a reflection of his prophetic taste in things, pushing heavy hitters like pianists Richard Grossman and Wayne Peet, percussionists Brad Dutz and Alex Cline, guitarist Nels Cline and eclectic electric groups like Quartetto Stig, the New Klezmer Trio and Wadada Leo Smith's ensembles. —John Payne