Music Picks: Bloc Party, Metric, KROQ Acoustic Xmas

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Music Critics Thursday, Dec 6 2012

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A Country Christmas

THE SATELLITE

PHOTO BY MARLEY KATE

Bloc Party: See Friday.

PHOTO BY VALERIE DOMINGUEZ

The Shag Rats: See Saturday.

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Holiday music can be so depressingly sappy, but the Satellite has rounded up an unusual bill of local musicians who ostensibly work within the confines of alt-country but also can take off in all sorts of unexpected directions. Former Rentals singer Sara Radle exudes an endearing sense of joy in her straightforward pop songs, while Jillinda Palmer wanders freely from New Orleans–style jazz to rustic country reveries with similarly appealing results. Dirt Bird's Claire McKeown, meanwhile, comes from a more classically inspired formality. Leslie Stevens, from Leslie & the Badgers, might be the purest country singer in tonight's lineup. It's not just that Stevens often sounds like a young version of Dolly Parton; she is also a skillful songwriter who can twist your heart with little more than a few acoustic guitar chords and her sweetly personal, birdlike trilling on songs like "Los Angeles" (where she coos sadly about "so many nights in bars like these"). Plus Maria DeLuca, Brittney Westover, Adeline Dante, Angela Correa, Mary Verplank and others. —Falling James

Ferenc Nemeth (featuring Lionel Loueke)

VITELLO'S

His new album is called Triumph, which is risky because, well, what if it isn't? Fortunately for the Hungarian-born drummer, it cannot be considered anything but, thanks to the help of luminaries like Joshua Redman, Kenny Werner and the excellent Lionel Loueke on guitar. In fact, the record is so good Nemeth can ride into L.A. on the back of a donkey, all the way to the upper room at Vitello's, to have a last supper before tearing it up with Loueke, pianist Daniel Szabo and saxist Bob Sheppard. About Loueke, his other bandleader, Herbie Hancock, said, "I've never heard any guitar player play anything close to what I was hearing. ..." In other Triumphant news, Nemeth has made a drum instructional app for iPod/iPad, which means he can afford to play jazz now. —Gary Fukushima