Music Picks: No Doubt, Nikki Hill, Alice Cooper

fri 11/23

PHOTO BY CRYSTAL ROLFE

Nikki Hill: See Thursday.

PHOTO BY AMELIA HANDSCOMB

Delicate Steve: See Saturday.

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Tamaryn

THE ECHO

Kicking off with a barrage of ringing guitars, "The Garden" blooms vibrantly on Tamaryn's second album, Tender New Signs. The New Zealand native croons in a contrastingly soft and somnolent voice as the loud guitars and bass fuse into a golden, molten lava that washes over her fragile melody. Her musical partner, Rex John Shelverton, cranks out a blurry storm of shoegazer (although they prefer the term "skygazer") atmosphere on similarly hazy reveries like "Heavenly Bodies." The San Francisco duo's self-described "impressionistic sketches of once well-guarded emotions" are often entrancing, rarely moving faster than at a midtempo but gradually building into a woozy state of hypnosis that's more real than reality. —Falling James

Moris Tepper, Jon Wahl & the Amadans

TAIX

Moris Tepper is a magic man, and not just because he used to be a part of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. He's a veritable magician onstage, turning simple chords into rabbits and doves that hop and flutter with the barest sleight of hand. Tepper's the guitarist responsible for much of the arty sounds on Tom Waits' Frank's Wild Years album, and he's also twisted up strange shimmers for PJ Harvey and Frank Black. His own solo recordings are less overtly freaky, with Tepper drawling in an easygoing voice over amiable, Dylan-esque blues-folk rockers like "How Many Ways Can a Rich Man Die?" from his most recent solo album, A Singer Named Shotgun Throat. Speaking of shotguns, former Claw Hammer mastermind Jon Wahl has a scattershot approach to country, jazz and rock, blasting them together into a bitchin' brew while he rants over it all. —Falling James

Dom Kennedy

CLUB NOKIA

Leimert Park native Dom Kennedy joins West Coast compatriots TY Dolla $ign, Niko-G4 and Audio Push for what is sure to be an energy-packed performance at Club Nokia. Greatly influenced by the likes of the Notorious B.I.G., Ice Cube and DJ Quik, Dom chose to pursue rap full-time in the late 2000s after a brief stint at junior college. His witty and braggadocious rhymes were unforgettably showcased on his 2008 debut, 25th Hour, which yielded the locally lauded jam "Watermelon Sundae." In later years, his mixtapes From the Westside With Love and From the Westside With Love II acquired international hip-hop renown, scoring co-signs from rap stars Rick Ross and Kanye West. —Jacqueline Michael Whatley

Bobby Bland

HOLLYWOOD PARK CASINO

A real gasser of an authentic, deep-in-the-hood blues party headlined by no less an R&B god than the redoubtable 82-year-old thriller Bobby "Blue" Bland. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer made his bones as one of Memphis' Beale Streeters (a gang including Johnny Ace, Roscoe Gordon and Junior Parker) and made history with such gospel-tinged, soulful and all-around incomparable R&B masterpieces as "Turn On Your Love Light" and "Farther Up the Road." Whenever Bland comes to town, it's a major event. Tonight's extravaganza also features vocalist Willie Clayton (an associate of Bobby Womack, Sam Cook and Marvin Gaye), local blues guitar star Gregg Wright, and sizzling soul sister Sue Ann Carwell, plus comedian Luenell. Seriously sublime. -- Jonny Whiteside

sat 11/24

Sara Petite

PAPPY & HARRIET'S PIONEERTOWN PALACE

San Diego singer Sara Petite was raised in the sticks of the state of Washington, and, not surprisingly, a country-rocking spirit runs through her rootsy tunes. Bluegrass rhythms and fiddles adorn homey songs like "Little House." While it might seem strange that such a young performer would sing traditional songs about bootlegging and making moonshine (does anyone really make moonshine anymore?), the charming Petite comes off with plenty of rural authenticity. She's even more appealing when she slows it down a bit and reveals her heart on such gentle ballads as "I Shouldn't Be Doing This" and "Circus Comes to Town." —Falling James

Delicate Steve, Dana Buoy

THE SATELLITE

With his hyper-musical second album, Positive Force, New Jersey wonderlad Delicate Steve weaves a not-so-crazy quilt of superbly melodic everything-pop, mellifluously laid out in his bedroom studio with many, many guitars and even more effects boxes. Head-spinningly eclectic, with classic-rock/vintage R&B/electro/tropicalia/Afrobeat flavors, the record's glorious haze of lovingly layered loudness cannot hide the hummable pop structures that dart out of the fray and fly into the sky. Delicate Steve is a joyful type who makes addictively catchy yet sonically complex tunes with one clear goal in mind: liberating rock & roll ecstasy. A nicely psychedelic post-post-rock comes courtesy of opener Dana Buoy, better known as percussionist Dana Janssen of Akron/Family. —John Payne

No Doubt

GIBSON AMPHITHEATRE

With six albums of solid, genre-hopping pop and, in Gwen Stefani, one of the most magnetic figureheads of its generation, Anaheim's No Doubt could play to the exact same crowd for this entire seven-night stand and still leave every fan satiated, every night. The epitome of a sum transcending its parts, No Doubt boast no single songwriting genius but collectively conjure singable ditties kept interesting by variously incorporating ska, punk-lite and '80s New Wave (their first three albums), quasi-Caribbean dancehall (2001's Rock Steady) and, on newbie Push and Shove, even pangs of country. But the band's enormous connection, which appears as much emotional as sonic, centers around Stefani, who augments her tremulous Cyndi Lauper timbre with an easy-to-identify-with palette of neuroses, still raw even after a decade-plus of A-list adoration. (Also Nov. 26, 28 & 30; Dec. 2, 4 & 6.) —Paul Rogers