LA WeeklyFrom fast food Sabbath tribute Mac Sabbath and the music/art goodness of Creature Feature Fest to Australian indie-rock singer Julie Jacklin and punk vets Flipper, here are 12 of the best music shows in Los Angeles this week.
fri 11/22
Mac Sabbath (Jeremy Saffer)
Mac Sabbath, 45 Grave
THE OBSERVATORY
There’s no doubt about it — this is an incredibly intriguing double bill. Dinah Cancer’s 45 Grave are considered pioneers in deathrock and horror punk — dark and dastardly purveyors of the macabre, with a charismatic frontwoman and decades of amazing music. They’re sharing a bill with Mac Sabbath, the McDonalds-themed Black Sabbath tribute. And, by the looks of it, Mac Sabbath are playing last! We doubt that 45 Grave gives a crap — they’ll relish the chance to perform in front of some new potential fans, possibly a younger crowd than they generally draw. Meanwhile, Mac Sabbath can throw out their silly ditties at some old punks. It’s a win-win. Mormon punks Tartar Control, straight outta Utah, also play. —Brett Callwood
Pearl Charles
ZEBULON
“Sometimes the softest touch is enough to drive you the wildest/Caught in between another sleepless dream,” Pearl Charles coos invitingly on the title track of her 2018 album, Sleepless Dreamer. The native Los Angeles vocalist uses a soft touch as she wanders through a set of original pop, country and soul tunes such as “Long Hair” and the funky idyll “Night Tides” and occasionally picks up her heels on more rocking tracks like “Beginner’s Luck.” On her new single, “Sweet Sunshine Wine,” Charles joyfully effuses about a lover over a country-rock backing infused with soul/R&B keyboards that shifts into an electronica-laced new-wave break. “There’s just somethin’ about a new lover,” she gushes. “All the flowers are in full bloom gettin’ drunk off the mornin’ dew.” —Falling James
sat 11/23
Young Creatures (Isaiah Ryan)
Creature Feature Fest
BOOTLEG THEATER
L.A. rockers the Young Creatures have joined forces with Nomad Eel Records to put on this, the second Creature Feature Festival. A stunning combination of music and art, top billing goes to Minutemen/Stooges/Firehose man Mike Watt who will be celebrating the release of his single. Ditto local surf-psych-rock troupe The Blank Tapes — this serves as their record release show too. Naturally, the Young Creatures are on the bill, as are Soft Palms, Imaad Wasif, Brandon Graham of Dream Phases, Junaco and Early Evil. That’s a lot of wonderful underground punk and indie rock to get your teeth into. Add visuals from the Slim Reaper Lightshow, and a ton of amazing artists and vendors, and there’s much to love. —Brett Callwood
Dime Box Band
JOE’S GREAT AMERICAN BAR & GRILL
Dime Box Band are a local country-rock group led by singer-guitarist Kristi Callan. In the late ’80s, she fronted the beloved power-pop combo Wednesday Week, setting the template for numerous thoughtful-but-tuneful indie-pop bands who followed. With Dime Box Band, Callan revels more in her country-folk side in a family act that features her son James Nolte on guitar, as well as fiddler/mandolinist Lyn Bertles and her drummer-husband, Nick Vincent, and their son, bassist Alex. On the group’s new album, Happy, Callan muses about “What Went Wrong” as her lamentations are draped with Bertles’ streaks of fiddle. “All or Nothing” rocks harder and evokes Wednesday Week’s melodicism, whereas “Close Your Eyes” is a more dramatic country-ballad weeper distinguished by Callan’s rueful, unfurling vocals. “They tore a hole through my daddy’s land,” she laments on the bluesy and politically defiant anti–oil pipeline anthem “Keystone.” The free afternoon set at the power-pop roundup Big Stir also includes Plasticsoul, The Test Pressings and the charmingly strange British folkies 13 Frightened Girls. —Falling James
sun 11/24
Jozef Van Wissem
ZEBULON
Jozef Van Wissem is proof positive, beyond a shadow of a fucking doubt, that there is room for any voice in the modern pop landscape. The Dutch lutenist — who’s collaborated most notably with the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, cf. e.g. i.e. on their 2012 The Mystery of Heaven album on Sacred Bones, as well as Van Wissem’s dizzying and stark soundtrack for Jarmusch’s vampire opus Only Lovers Left Alive — is also a tireless composer, pulsing out album after album almost yearly for the past two decades. Think of it: you are going tonight to see a man play a musical instrument the heyday of which was in the Renaissance. Maybe the lute itself will enjoy a renaissance for your being there tonight. You have only yourself to blame — and Van Wissem to thank — if that particular beautiful surreality comes to pass. —David Cotner
Julia Jacklin
EL REY THEATRE
Julia Jacklin is an Australian indie-rock singer who first came to attention with the moody song “Pool Party,” in which she belied its seemingly festive title with a measured and mournful delivery. On her latest album, Crushing, she wanders through a series of pop-rock settings imbued with countrified melancholia. “Body” is a strangely subdued and glassy song about a kid who gets busted for smoking on an airplane. Other tracks range from the delicate ballads “Head, Alone” and “Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You” to the more energetic and rocking urgency of “Pressure to Party.” Jacklin strips things down further on the stark, intimate acoustic ballad “Convention.” She also fronts the indie-rock band Phantastic Ferniture, who have released such hazy anthems as “Fuckin ’n’ Rollin.” —Falling James
mon 11/25
Violent Vickie (Paolo Bascon)
Violent Vickie
4th STREET VINE
Long Beach’s Violent Vickie describes her style as “synth riot” on social media, presumably a blend of synthpunk/pop and riot grrrl. That makes complete sense; this violent femme has a voice reminiscent of Poly Styrene and Shirley Manson between her moments of crooning and yelling, with a bit of Siouxsie darkness thrown in. The music is all mood — pulsating and dark with sensual melodies buried in the broken glass. She’s a bit of a SoCal hidden treasure, and maybe that’s the way it should be. Her online bio describes her as, “a rebellious pit of energy that has the ability to make you feel dirty and gritty, but in a naughty-feel-good way.” Perfect. —Brett Callwood
Lingua Ignota
ZEBULON
With such song titles as “May Failure Be Your Noose” and “Butcher of the World,” Kristin Hayter’s new album as Lingua Ignota, Caligula, is anything but a cheery and escapist pop album. The Del Mar native is at the center of a furious storm of noise on “If the Poison Won’t Take You, My Dogs Will,” but she also crafts a disturbing, strange sound amid the funereal organ strains of “Days of Tears and Mourning” (which is soon crushed under an avalanche of distortion) and the muted, melancholic passages of “Sorrow! Sorrow! Sorrow!” Elements of atmospheric new music collide with jagged thrusts of volume and chaos, interspersed with dark, piano-laden interludes lit up by Hayter’s somberly moving vocals. Expect plenty of sound and fury as Hayter constructs her own poetically chilling chamber of real-life horror. —Falling James
tue 11/26
Sondra Sun-Odeon
ZEBULON
Sondra Sun-Odeon descends on Zebulon, riding on the cloud of sound and light that infuses her new album, Desyre (Graveface Records). Her wailing voice emerges from the desolate landscape of “Vision,” the six-minute-plus song that starts the album and shifts through atmospheric haziness into a somber acoustic reverie. Foreboding, towering chords loom over the title track as Sun-Odeon’s eerie vocals slither within the shadows. “Roses in the Snow” unfolds in a series of shimmers that eventually subside into a glassy sequence framing the Brooklyn/L.A. composer’s disembodied singing. The strangely beautiful album features such guests as Zola Jesus guitarist Alex De Groot (who also produced the record), harpist Mary Lattimore and Swans’ Thor Harris. Alternating between light and darkness, the album is graced by Sun-Odeon’s melodic vocals before everything disappears into a wash of echoes. With Secret Flowers and Nico Turner. —Falling James
wed 11/27
Kevin Gates
THE NOVO
Kevin Gates is a walking testimony that anybody can push through adversity to reach their biggest goals and dreams. The Baton Rouge rapper solidified his name in the rap game with standout singles “2 Phones” and “I Don’t Get Tired,” the latter a mantra he’s been carrying with him since the streets. Whether you’re working toward your passion or simply working in general, this mentality proves hard work brings outcomes. Most recently, Gates unleashed his new album I’m Him, featuring standout singles “Push It” and “Facts.” It’s crazy to think this is just his second studio album but fans can’t get enough of his Luca Brasi mixtapes. Regardless, it’s Kevin’s ability to turn street anthems into hard-hitting bangers that audiences can’t help but get motivated upon hearing. —Shirley Ju
Flipper (Nick Sternberg)
Flipper
THE ROXY
San Fran punk vets Flipper are apparently coming to the end of their period with David Yow of the Jesus Lizard fronting them. It’s been a fascinating collaboration from the off — Flipper have seen members come and go over the years (notably Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic), but this saw them working with a guy with a lengthy and impressive legacy of his own. It’s the punk equivalent of Queen & Paul Rodgers. What the future holds for Flipper, we’ll have to wait and see. They’ve assembled a great bill — Nick Oliveri’s Mondo Generator play, as do Angry Samoan Later Years (Bill Vockeroth of the original Angry Samoans and some later-era dudes). Total Massacre opens. —Brett Callwood
thu 11/28
Lulu Be.
UNSEEN CONTEMPORARY GALLERY
According to her biography, Lulu Be. was born in Ethiopia and raised in Chicago, so her music is deeply influenced by Ethiopian culture as well as that of urban America. That translates to hypnotic afrobeat blended with Chi-town house, all dressed up with hip-hop vocals and a trip-hop vibe. It all works beautifully. This show at the Unseen Contemporary Gallery is a listening party for her new EP Bombshelter, and it’s a free show so you have no excuses. GXXD Stress, SEVYN, YZpaid and ScrollGenetics also play. —Brett Callwood
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.