Music Picks: Chino XL, Marissa Nadler, As Blood Runs Black

THREE CLUBS

If Mick Jones sometimes acted like the unapproachable rock-star guitar hero in The Clash — who can forget the night he memorably screamed at his own roadie, the irrepressible but harried Ray Gange, "Get off the fucking stage!" in the film Rude Boy? — lead singer Joe Strummer came off as the band's down-to-earth and friendly good cop. Strummer's bleary, Beat-inspired soul and ragged town-crier vocals had much to do with the enduring relevance of "The Only Band That Matters," and Clash fans are still in a state of shock over his premature death from a heart attack in 2002. At tonight's Trash City benefit for Strummerville (a charity run by his family), you can at least get a contact high and sense of Joe's spirit from Zander Schloss, who palled around and starred with Strummer in the gloriously misbegotten Alex Cox film Straight to Hell. Schloss has played in later lineups of The Circle Jerks and The Weirdos, but for the past few years he's dug down deeper in a rootsy-punky-trashy duo with Throw Rag's Sean Wheeler. Mike Watt's old band The Minutemen was heavily inspired by The Clash's blue-collar spirit, with the South Bay trio condensing Strummer-like bits of poetry into a punk-funk blur. Tonight's tribute also includes sets from Lenny Lashley and S.F.'s aptly named La Plebe, plus Bauhaus' Kevin Haskins playing DJ. —Falling James

PHOTO COURTESY OF BIGHASSLE.COM

Marissa Nadler: See Saturday.

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sun 12/23

Jesse Palter

PERCH

Detroit-born Jesse Palter is leading a musical double life. Much of the time she teams with keyboardist Sam Barsh in the duo Palter Ego. (PerezHilton.com recently featured their video remix of Adele's "Skyfall.") On Sundays, however, Palter can be found offering jazz standards for brunch at Perch, downtown L.A.'s 15th-floor restaurant and bar, which likely offers the best view of any music venue in Greater Los Angeles: Palter's quartet is tucked neatly into a patio corner backed by Pershing Square's seasonal ice rink 150 feet below, and framed by much of the rest of downtown. Palter's rotating quartet includes some of the area's best young players. If you're after a musical Sunday afternoon with an added wow factor, Perch is the place. —Tom Meek

tue 12/25

Cody Bryant

VIVA CANTINA

Believe it or not, a few clubs actually are open on Christmas. At Liquid Kitty in West Los Angeles, DJ Charlie X is spinning a no-cover mix of punk rock and various hits from that lost decade, the 1980s. Across town, at Viva Cantina in Burbank, the estimable Cody Bryant goes one better, performing a live set, which is also free. Whether backed by his full band, the Cody Bryant Experience, or strumming solo, the multi-instrumentalist can play a little bit of everything by just about everybody. Beyond dishing out his own "true-life originals ... and burning warp-speed steroidal bluegrass," Bryant is also a masterful interpreter of country and honky-tonk favorites. This would be a good deal any night of the year, but it's even better on an evening when most of the city is in holiday hibernation. —Falling James

wed 12/26

Speak!, Dr. Greenthumb

LOW END THEORY

Rapper Speak! is not only the guy who helped Kreayshawn write "Gucci Gucci." He's also a blunt-object-wielding smack-talker — "the Jew sent from hell," as he put it on his Inside Out Boy mixtape — with the kind of ferocious, tell-it-like-it-is perspective on the music industry you'd be tempted to call healthy, but for the riffs on drugs and fucking idiots up. Then again, that may well be the healthiest response to an entity that built a megabusiness with his concept for "Gucci Gucci," only to leave him behind, as he told our own Rebecca Haithcoat, "eating Spam for dinner." On his newest track "Hilfigers," he raps about how he's "still unsigned, pissed off and moody." ("Guess it runs in my bloodline," he explains.) But maybe there's no alternative: "What the fuck is normal? Just another word for passé." Tell it, Speak! —Chris Ziegler

Josh Nelson

BLUE WHALE

Those wanting to get out of the house after too much family and fruitcake should cheer up by heading over to Blue Whale to see the finale of pianist Josh Nelson's monthlong residency. The night features two trios so white-hot that listening to them should burn off any excessive holiday caloric intake. Along with Nelson, bassist Hamilton Price and drummer Kevin Kanner were the fast-and-furious rhythm section for years at the popular but bygone Monday session at the Mint. The complementary tandem of bassist Dave Robaire and drummer Dan Schnelle have been Nelson's go-to guys recently. Anchoring both bands is the pianist himself, who must be sprinkling pixie dust on the keys to work such magic on the instrument. —Gary Fukushima

Chino XL

WHISKY A GO GO

A most unique employer of simile, metaphor and pun, Chino XL rose to hip-hop primacy at the tender age of 16 with his critically acclaimed 1996 debut, Here to Save You All. His lyrical brilliance, owing at least in part to his status as a verified member of Mensa, has been consistently demonstrated on all subsequent releases. The muscle-clad veteran emcee also has enjoyed consistent work as an actor, appearing on Reno 911 and CSI: Miami, among others. After a four-year recording hiatus, Chino released the 35-track piece RICANstruction: The Black Rosary in September. The introspective effort (released on Immortal Technique's Viper Records) tackles heavy topics, including physical abuse, his daughter's battle with cancer and his own suicide attempt. —Jacqueline Michael Whatley