Music Picks: FIDLAR, Muse and Lady Gaga

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Music Critics Thursday, Jan 17 2013

...continued from page 2

FIDLAR

AMOEBA MUSIC

PHOTO BY PATRICK FRASER

Baron Von Luxxury: See Monday.

More About

FIDLAR's Kuehn brothers are only now entering their 20s, but drummer Max and guitarist Elvis have already been in the punk-rock biz for more than 10 years, going back to their days in The Diffs. Yet the music on their recent single "No Waves" sounds as bratty and energetic as any band of preteens just starting out. If anything, there's even more of a subterranean garage-rock primitiveness to the single's equally negative flip side, "No Ass." Much of that insolence comes straight from Zac Carper, who sings as if he's always sneering — and trapped inside a beer bottle. A band of brothers hasn't been this properly wild and cranky since the early era of Redd Kross. Catch FIDLAR now at this early-evening in-store set before they grow up/sober up and start playing more dignified and mature forms of music. —Falling James

Nir Felder

BLUE WHALE

Plenty of guitarists graduate from Boston's Berklee College of Music, but those who end up at the top of the heap are to be commended. In the nine years since his graduation, all Nir Felder has done is become a phenomenon in New York, playing with everybody, most notably alto sax sage Greg Osby. Felder cites John Scofield as an early influence, as shown by a willingness to explore guitar palettes trending more toward rock and blues. He also shreds like a rocker, albeit with a harmonic savvy that divulges his jazz training. You'd think at this point, someone this good would have his own album; stay tuned. With Felder are a fellow New Yorker, drummer Zach Danziger, and two Angelenos, both Kneebody cognoscenti: Adam Benjamin on keys and bassist Kaveh Rastegar. —Gary Fukushima