LA Weekly

Thursday, November 15

Playing Thursday:

H.I.M. at the Orpheum Theatre; ERYKAH BADU, THE ROOTS, TAJ MAHAL at the Wiltern; QUINCY COLEMAN, CORREATOWN, ABBY TRAVIS, JONNEINE ZAPATA at Hotel Café; VOLUMEN CERO at Knitting Factory; LYDIA LUNCH at Largo; AZTLAN UNDERGROUND at the Scene; ANAVAN, CALVIN JOHNSON at the Smell; KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW at Spaceland; ANNUALS, MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA, KEVIN DEVINE at the Troubadour; BINGES at Viper Room.


Friday, November 16

Six Organs of Admittance at Amoeba Music

Six Organs of Admittance is the brainchild of one very nimble-fingered guitarist and singer named Ben Chasny, a multihued musical sage who also heads up such rock-into-the-unknown combos as Comets on Fire, Current 93, Badgerlore, August Born and Plague League. His new Six Organs disc, Shelter From the Ash (Drag City), done in collaboration with the fertilely imaginative producer Tim Green of the Fucking Champs (and the glorious Concentrick), as well as the Magik Marker’s Elisa Ambrogio and Chasny’s Comets on Fire bandmate Noel Harmonson, reveals ever more of the darker implications of Chasny’s surreally misty dreams — or ruminations on war — in tightly structured yet often droney excursions flecked with flickering acoustic guitars or spikily soaring electrics and the studio band’s vast array of clanky percussion and plucked piano innards. These are deceptively lulling tales of mystery and imagination that tend to explode quite furiously in one’s face from time to time. Chasny brings a healthy tension to the sound of wonder. This free set starts at 6 p.m. (John Payne)


Ya Ho Wa 13, Sky Saxon & the Seeds at the Echoplex

Remember when it was still possible to change the world through music and good vibrations? Yeah, me neither. But in the early ’70s, the Source Family combined ’60s idealism and ages-old spirituality in setting up a commune in the Hollywood Hills, looking down on this modern Babylon. They ran the vegetarian restaurant the Source, and their late polygamist leader, Father Yod, fronted the psychedelic rock band Ya Ho Wa 13, giving them access to open-minded souls through two of the best passageways, the stomach and the ears. For a fuller account of these merry (and hardly brainwashed) pranksters’ history, check out Doug Harvey’s cover story in the August 31 issue of L.A. Weekly, which includes excerpts from Isis Aquarian & Electricity Aquarian’s fascinating memoir, The Source (Process). The book comes with a bonus CD of interviews and live recordings from Ya Ho Wa 13, whose music unfolds with primal chanting and Hendrixy/Doorsy expansiveness. Surviving members of the band reunite tonight following a set by fellow Source acolyte Sky Saxon, whose snarling garage rock with the Seeds eventually ventured into equally trippy territory. (Falling James)


Lyrics Born, Ryan Shaw at El Rey Theatre

One of the most amiable members of the Bay Area’s exceedingly gregarious Quannum Projects crew, Lyrics Born is the rare MC who understands (and cares about) what it takes to make live hip-hop work — namely, a mixture of spontaneity and polish that convinces you that you’re seeing something more than a for-pay rehearsal. (His equal-opportunity attitude toward the utility of DJs and bands doesn’t hurt either.) Tonight, expect Lyrics to preview material from a new studio album he’s readying for release early next year. On his recent debut, Brooklyn-based opener Ryan Shaw does an infectious retro-soul thing that’s much longer on spirit than originality. Warming up Joss Stone’s crowd at the Greek a few months ago, he proved that on the right night spirit can be enough. (Mikael Wood)


The B-52’s at the Roxy

In recent years the B-52’s have been little more than a glorified oldies band, apparently content to trot out their many goofy, giddy, insidiously danceable hits at the county fair and other not-necessarily-hip venues. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, since their early singles like “Rock Lobster” and “Private Idaho” have aged well, and later tunes such as “Roam” and “Love Shack” are always worth hearing, going beyond mere novelty status with their infectiously yearning melodies delivered via Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson’s sumptuously dreamy twined harmonies. Co-conspirator Fred Schneider did release a surprisingly punky solo album, Just Fred (produced by Steve Albini), but that was way back in 1996. And yet, believe it or not, these Athenians will issue Funplex — their first album of new material in 16 years — in February 2008. They describe it as “loud, sexy rock & roll pumped up to hot pink,” with tracks like “Pump” and “Juliet of the Spirits” alongside such quintessentially B-52’s-style titles as “Dancing Now” and “Keep This Party Going.” (Falling James)




Puffy AmiYumi at the Key Club

Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura are virtual cartoon characters come to life, and that’s not just because they starred in the animated series Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi on the Cartoon Network. The Japanese duo were originally named Puffy until the humorless Sean “Puffy” Combs huffed and puffed and threatened them with legal action, so they now call themselves Puffy AmiYumi when touring in the United States. Their new CD, Honeycreeper (Ki/oon Records), is a typically colorful, ebullient collision of joyous pop harmonies (sung in Japanese and English) and contrastingly heavy hard-rock guitars. “Ain’t Gonna Cut It” has a rousing glitter-rock drive that sounds like something Joan Jett might record in one of her poppier moments. “Walking down the street/with the boom boom beat/eating low-fat sweets,” they coo invitingly over David Myhr’s surging guitars on “Boom Boom Beat.” Amid the breezy pop of “Closet Full of Love,” they confess, “I’m the kinda girl who likes to run away/from everything that’s good that ever comes her way.” They even branch out with weird, arty tracks like “Youkai Puffy,” a seven-minute collage of whistling sound effects and ghostly Japanese voices. (Falling James)