LA Weekly

Friday, November 23

John Fogerty at Nokia Theatre

John Fogerty seems to be having the last laugh with the title of his new CD, Revival. For several years now, two members of his former backup band have been attempting to pass themselves off as “Creedence Clearwater Revisited,” perhaps hoping that gullible fans won’t notice the deceptive wordplay — or that it was Fogerty who wrote, sang, produced and arranged all of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s classic original tunes. If any person has the right to reclaim the CCR name, it’s Fogerty, who was estranged from his former record company Fantasy for several decades in an often-absurd dispute with Saul Zaentz, the heavy-handed and litigious label exec who played Salieri to Fogerty’s Mozart before being bought out by Concord in 2005. Now Fogerty’s back with Fantasy, and his new album — the most consistently satisfying of his various solo releases — is a genuine revival on several levels. He playfully invokes his own legacy, scratching up his trademark swampy guitar jangle on “Creedence Song” and whipping out some stinging solos on “Summer of Love.” But he’s not just looking back; “Long Dark Night” is a bluesy warning about the incompetent “Fortunate Son” currently occupying the White House: “Georgie’s... come to get your children/wants to have a war/Lord, you’d better run.” (Falling James)




White Out, Charalambides, Alasdair Roberts at Spaceland

Just a heavy, heavy bill of the most far-reaching and skull-scratchingly best new non-genre music our grand old USA has to offer currently, plus a quieter but no less powerful foreign fella. White Out is Lin Culbertson and Tom Surgal’s free-sound screech-sonics funfest, with frequent collaborator Nels Cline of guitar-god infamy; they’ll be heard revealing the totally improvisational way of life. Charalambides is the semilegendary aggregation based in Texas led by noisy guitar player Tom Carter and his partner, Christina Carter; expect smart psychedelia with guitar sounds larger than the Empire State Building. Scottish singer-strummer Alasdair Roberts has this new The Amber Gatherers album out on Drag City, a rough-hewn, classic U.K.-style folk record of punky, poetic perfection — he’ll charm your socks off, assuming you’re wearing any. (John Payne)


Also playing Friday:

RAHSAAN PATTERSON at El Rey Theatre; COLD WAR KIDS, RICHARD SWIFT at the Wiltern; DOWN at Henry Fonda Theater; T.S.O.L., D.I. at the Echoplex; SOCIAL DISTORTION, THE HEDRONS at House of Blues; AZTLAN UNDERGROUND at the Knitting Factory; PONCHO SANCHEZ at the Mint; HEALTH CLUB at Relax Bar.


Saturday, November 24

Gram Rabbit at Safari Sam’s

Desert-baked rock provocateurs Gram Rabbit have scarcely broken their offbeat, loping stride since the band’s turn-of-the-century inception and, with their new Radio Angel & the Robot Beat CD, continue to avidly exploit a singular brand of krazy, mixed-up musical antics. Hippitty-hopping through a techno-psych playground, their sound — a wigged-out calico weave with tendencies toward heavy guitar rock and silky contemporary R&B — frames both a healthily cynical personal philosophy and a critical view of modern American life. Their gimlet third eye seems to take it all in, scatter the sociocultural data into a cosmic sifter and glean some remarkably peculiar, cutting perspectives. With a mixture of just enough aural strangeness, a pit-bull knack for locking down on a groove and, of course, the otherworldly allure of singer-keyboardist Jesika Von Rabbit, this unhinged threesome remains one of our most intriguing local forces. (Jonny Whiteside)




White Magic, Luke Top at the Echo

Dat Rosa Mel Apibus, the debut album from songwriter Mira Billotte and guitarist Doug Shaw (a.k.a. White Magic), quietly landed in 2006 with a sparkling cover befitting an illuminated manuscript. The songs are woozy hymnal swirls that are more like half-finished chalk-and-charcoal sketches than full, studio-sealed productions. As Billotte’s piano stirs, Shaw and the hired hands swarm it with scattered rhythms and fluid guitar tangents. There are jumbled passages when it seems every part is out of sync, and there are moments when the puzzle pieces lock into solid colors and distinct gestures. White Magic’s music is thoroughly human in its primitivism: a séance of sticks and bones instead of pedals and circuits. Luke Top remains a Los Angeles treasure buried in plain sight. Conscript to no tribe or fashion, this local alchemist composes wandering songs of gentle mystery. (Bernardo Rondeau)


Band of Horses, Tyler Ramsey at Avalon

This South Carolina indie band has been earning some pretty over-the-top praise lately from folks whose pot-smoking habits must have erased any memory of Built to Spill and My Morning Jacket: From what Internet types are saying about Band of Horses, you’d think no one had ever thought of using a shitload of reverb to suffuse his or her melancholy roots-pop jams with a hint of dreamy mystery! That said, front man Ben Bridwell and his bearded bandmates do have a way with this kind of stuff; their recent sophomore set, Cease to Begin, is as lovely and scruffy as indie rock gets. Extra cuteness: Bridwell’s still kind of bashful onstage. Warming up the Decemberists’ crowd a few months ago at the Hollywood Bowl, he threatened to barf right then and there. Opener Tyler Ramsey plays guitar in Band of Horses, but he also does his own sad-guy emo-folk thing. (Mikael Wood)


Also playing Saturday:

PONCHO SANCHEZ at Blue Cafe; JOEY ALTRUDA’S CRUCIAL RIDDIMS at the Bordello; KEATON SIMONS, KARL DENSON at Hotel Café; SOCIAL DISTORTION at House of Blues; UNI & HER UKULELE, NORA KEYES at Il Corral; KY-MANI MARLEY at Key Club; BANYAN at Malibu Inn; BACKBITER, MOTORCYCLE BLACK MADONNAS at Mr. T’s Bowl; THE FIXERS, DJ QUIK at Vault 350; ACEYALONE at Viper Room.


Sunday, November 25

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