Music Picks: Charli XCX, Polica, Esperanza Spalding and More

Sara Gazarek

VITELLO'S

PHOTO BY MICHAEL WILSON

Dr. John: See Saturday.

The Be Good Tanyas: See Friday.

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More About

• John Payne
• Sara Gazarek
• Liz Pappademas
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Latin Music

Possibly Seattle's best jazz singer since Diane Schuur, the Puget Sound native fled the rain and moved down to L.A. for college at USC (where she now teaches), becoming fast friends with what is now the core of the new straight-ahead jazz Risorgimento in this town, led by sublime pianist Josh Nelson. Gazarek puts a comely, clear and confident voice on the movement, along with a hint of sass. Her latest album, Blossom & Bee, featuring her longtime working band, was produced by pianist-organist Larry Goldings, the accompanist for James Taylor, who has assuredly solidified his legacy as among the best ever. Goldings will join Gazarek and her band for this two-night album-release show. —Gary Fukushima

Placido Domingo and Gustavo Dudamel

HOLLYWOOD BOWL

It's odd to think that this will be their first concert pairing, but yes: Tonight, Placido Domingo, the world's greatest tenor (let's not argue, OK?), joins conductor Gustavo Dudamel for an evening of what we hope will be the beginning of a beautiful musical partnership. We imagine each man having an affinity for the other's depth of feeling and mastery of his chosen repertoire. While we're told the night will feature a selection of Latin songs and operatic arias, the program will be announced from the stage. This concert is for a good cause: the L.A. Phil Musicians Pension Fund. But it's also for another good cause, which is to provide you with a night of pleasure under the stars at the Hollywood Bowl. 'Nuff said. —John Payne

mon 8/20

Pathology

COBALT CAFÉ

Formed by former The Locust and Cattle Decapitation drummer Dave Astor, these San Diegans spew sickeningly coagulated death metal, sandwiching churning, almost Wagnerian guitars between nail-gun kick drums and Jonathan Huber's bowel-flushing, wounded-bison gurgle. Bouncing back from a spectacular 2010 tour-van wreck (albeit sans original vocalist Matti Way), Pathology's near-death experience only seems to have brought them, well, nearer to death. Last year's Awaken to the Suffering was just as vehemently gore-drenched as their three prior albums, and teasers from follow-up The Time of Great Purification, due next month, suggest the suede-headed Huber will once again inject a fresh sense of decay into this already utterly putrid act. —Paul Rogers

tue 8/21

Poliça

ECHOPLEX

Along with Lianne La Havas and The Tallest Man on Earth, this Minneapolis outfit belongs to the expanding constellation of acts that benefited from the imprimatur of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon: After his Best New Artist win at the Grammys earlier this year, dude told Rolling Stone Poliça are the best band he's ever heard. That praise might have something to do with the fact that Vernon's pal Ryan Olson (with whom he's collaborated in Gayngs) oversaw Give Up the Ghost, Poliça's 2012 debut. But you can hear a bit of what Vernon does in smeared psych-soul cuts like the horn-enriched "Dark Star" and "Lay Your Cards Out," which kind of sounds like Sade's "By Your Side" as reimagined by, well, Bon Iver. With Chicago's dreamy Supreme Cuts. —Mikael Wood

wed 8/22

Liz Pappademas

WITZEND

When Liz Pappademas moved to L.A. a few years ago after a stint in Austin in the band Hurts to Purr, the San Francisco native reinvented herself as a singer-songwriter in the Fiona Apple mold, hammering her piano decisively and crafting pop tunes with unusually knotty and poetic lyrics on her solo album, 11 Songs. A few years later, the restless performer reinvented herself yet again, rounding up a full band called The Level to back her up on the ambitious 2010 song cycle Television City. Set against the backdrop of a fictional 1970s game show, she charts the course of two lovers whose intertwined heartbreak and loss mirror the action of the TV program. Most rock operas tend to be clumsy and pretentious, but Pappademas artfully brings her characters to life with real wit and inventiveness. —Falling James

Anita Baker, Esperanza Spalding

HOLLYWOOD BOWL

Soul-jazz veteran Anita Baker has a new studio album due out Oct. 23, her first non-holiday release since 2004's My Everything. It's preceded by a typically smooth lead single, "Lately," in which the 54-year-old makes a convincing case for the persistence of quiet-storm R&B. Baker may or may not play it for the sympathetic audience gathered to hear her headline the Hollywood Bowl tonight, but you can be sure she'll do old-school hits like "Sweet Love" and "Caught Up in the Rapture." Soul-jazz newcomer Esperanza Spalding opens the show with material from Radio Music Society, this year's funky follow-up to her breakthrough Chamber Music Society, with which she robbed poor little Justin Bieber of his rightful Best New Artist Grammy in 2011. —Mikael Wood

thu 8/23

Satan's Cheerleaders

THE REDWOOD

Like a dreadful virus bursting out of remission, this long-overdue return from Long Beach garage scum Satan's Cheerleaders is guaranteed to induce chills, fever and mass hysteria. Not to be confused with inferior, same-named units out of Austin and Australia, this gaggle of malefactors first crawled onto local bandstands in the mid-'80s and distinguished themselves as some of the most outrageously delinquent rock & rollers this side of the South Bay Surfers. These are really weird weirdos (who else would cover Red Krayola?), and founder Jeff Satan — now transformed into Jane Satan — deftly exploits a filthy, screamy, visionary cultural wherewithal. Exemplified by such grimy classics as "Black Dahlia" and "Genocide Utopia," the latter an epochal 45 rpm hairball with Vampira handling vocals, Satan's Cheerleaders ably represent the most glorious lows to which rock & roll can — and should — stoop. —Jonny Whiteside