Music Picks: Tame Impala, Deftones, DJ Quik

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Music Critics Thursday, Nov 15 2012

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DJ Quik featuring Suga Free, Too Short, and Tha Dogg Pound

PHOTO BY JIM HERSHLEDER

Lyris Quartet

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Club Nokia

A colossal constituent of West Coast hip-hop, the multitalented DJ Quik achieved unlikely prevalence in 1991 with his memorable debut, Quik Is the Name. A self-taught deejay, rapper, producer and engineer, the Compton native generated a bevy of such decade-defining hits as "Tonite," "Hand in Hand," "Pitch in on a Party" and "Down, Down, Down" — all of which continue to receive heavy rotation in today's national urban radio format. His signature synth-laden production style can be heard on an array of classic hip-hop albums, including Tupac's All Eyez On Me and Jay-Z's The Black Album. Tonight's show features fellow West Coast rap legends and longtime collaborators Suga Free, Too $hort, and Tha Dogg Pound. —Jacqueline Michael Whatley

Deftones, Scars on Broadway

HOLLYWOOD PALLADIUM

Authors of alt-metal's high-water mark, 2000's White Pony, Sacramento's Deftones promptly lost focus on their namesake follow-up. But, perhaps galvanized by bassist Chi Cheng's catastrophic '08 car accident (Cheng remains in a partially conscious state, his role temporarily filled by Quicksand's Sergio Vega), the band rediscovered its nuanced sonic alchemy with Diamond Eyes two years ago and on newbie Koi No Yokan. Like all of Deftones' most resonant work, these records suggest rather than spell out. Vocalist Chino Moreno almost sleep-mutters his way through their mellower moments but convulses into disarmingly lucid (if oft lyrically unintelligible) emotional bloodletting when a riff demands it. Scars on Broadway, the solo expression of System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian, echo that band's impish exotica, only with more massaged dynamics and wafts of Beatles-like melody. —Paul Rogers