The holiday weekend's top shows: Japandroids, Dum Dum Girls

Although Thanksgiving isn't traditionally a rock 'n' roll holiday -- Beyonce's ABC television special notwithstanding -- there are a couple of strong music options over the next few days, at least for those who can escape the family duties.

Japandroids at the Echo. "Let's get to France," the duo of Brian King and David Prowse holler in "Wet Hair," kicking up a racket of guitar-and-drum noise. The pounding rhythms and distortion-drenched riffs may hint at a garage-punk anthem about escaping their Vancouver, Canada, homes for Europe, but it's really just youthful longing that permeates the songs of the Japandroids. What's in France? "French girls." Loud and fast, the Japandroids at times recall the early '90s with their low-fi, scuzzy-sounding anthems, but once one adjusts to the rush, there's brisk hooks and sharp one-liners to be found beneath the thundering notes. On "Heart Sweats," for instance, King yowls, "You're such a mess," through gritted teeth, all while the song threatens to devolve into one. But his put-downs are researched. "I should know; I used to date a stylist." The Echo, 1822 W. Sunset Blvd. Tickets are $10. 

Lissie's alt-folk packs a bit of a fist

The young alt-folk singer Lissie Maurus might have recorded much of her debut EP,  "Why You Runnin'," at home on GarageBand, but that doesn't make the record any less rustic.

"It's funny, instead of it being like me and my horse, it's me and my laptop," Maurus said from her home in Ojai, where she decamped after a stint in L.A. to look for a quieter life. "I lived for five years in Beachwood Canyon, but I needed a yard and a house and space to do projects. Today, I'm drying pomegranates."

While fruit-craft is a perfectly adorable way to spend a weekend, don't dare mistake Maurus for domesticated. "Runnin'," now out on Fat Possum Records, is both as ethereal as a before-dawn walk up the canyons and as tough as old leather. 

Recorded with Band of Horses cohort Bill Reynolds, the EP opens with the jangly "Little Lovin'," before taking a sharp turn for the deliciously miserable on "Wedding Bells," a ballad of rueful singledom that nonetheless has a streak of resilience in it.

Slash brings his considerable Rolodex to LAYN benefit at Avalon

Onstage at the Avalon during Sunday night's benefit for the Los Angeles Youth Network, comedian George Lopez assured the audience that donations to the homeless-services organization worked promptly. "If you donate tonight, you can save Paula Abdul," Lopez said, to general snickering. "She was sleeping under the 101 last night."

The ex-"American Idol" host might be looking for work these days, but the real goal of the benefit -- a round-robin concert hosted by Slash with a bevy of classic-alt guests including Dave Navarro, Tom Morello, Chester Bennington and Billy Idol -- was to keep the organization's doors open in light of both tough financial straits and a big uptick in the need for its services.

The mix of a purposefully rowdy rock crowd (and open bar) with charitable impulses made for some unexpected moments of earnestness. At a rock-memorabilia auction in the adjoining Bardot nightclub, a young graduate of the program relayed how her life could have been derailed by drugs, prostitution or suicide, but that LAYN helped her pull though. A very blond woman in a clingy white ensemble adjacent to the stage offered encouragement- "But you did not commit suicide, and you are here tonight!"

A man donating $15,000 to fix the organization's roof earned respectful cheers, before he felt a need to clarify his bid to the crowd. "I'll fix the roof. I mean, not personally with a hammer," he said. "But I will pay for someone else to fix it."

Backstage, Slash held court among his assembled band mates, including former Guns N Roses players Duff McKagan and Steven Adler. Together, they know from the trials of youth homelessness -- Slash's self-titled biography offers plenty of firsthand detail on early GNR's world of squats, the temptations of drugs and alcohol, and the band befriending strippers to get cash for meals.

"When I was a kid, no adults knew how bad life was on the streets of Hollywood. Since I've gotten involved with LAYN, I've really related to the kids," Slash said. "They want to write and make music and be trapeze artists. Who else is going to give them a chance to do that?"

Slash came into the program through his wife, Perla, who is on LAYN's board. Introducing the show at the Avalon with her son Cash, she was far afield of a typically austere non-profit director, peppering her pleas for donations with endearingly salty language. She didn't so much as blush when her son chastised the audience -- "If you took a picture of my mom tonight, frickin' delete it!" 

The show opened with an appropriate cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song," with Slash backed by, among others, Navarro and Travis Barker. Throughout the cover-centric night, singers and instrumentalists rotated on and off stage -- one minute, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother was plowing through "Woman," then Idol would earn an unexpectedly rapturous response to "Rebel Yell." Bennington served as the de facto Axl for a take on "Paradise City," and by the time Ozzy Osbourne came out for the set's close, the show had become a perpetually giddy tour through the classic rock heyday by artists who, in the eyes many of the kids they were helping that night, might have to soon claim that genre for themselves. 

-- August Brown

Photo of Slash and host George Lopez, albeit at a recent Lakers game, by Lori Shepler / Associated Press

Live Review: The Big Pink at the El Rey Theater

 Of all the instruments and sounds in a rock band's arsenal, the most difficult one to use well might be sheer noise. For a band like The Big Pink -- a UK duo that brilliantly grafts the synth textures of Underworld and old rave to druggy, unshowered shoegaze -- the tension between the loveliness of its melodies and its nastier sonic impulses needs a sure pair of studio hands to keep the peace. On the band's debut album "A Brief History of Love," they pull it off gracefully. But at their L.A. debut at the El Rey last night, things got a little overheated.

A four-piece touring concern, Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze's project had plenty of options for making sense of the many ephemeral, textured elements of "History" onstage. But they need a certain fidelity to make it all translate, and for whatever the reason -- the in-house mixer, the band's live arrangements -- clarity just wasn't there at the El Rey. I tried standing in every corner of the room: two feet from the stage, in front of the central mixing board, the very back of the theater, but the mix kept me wondering if this is what an errant seagull last hears before it gets sucked into a passing jet engine.

That's not necessarily a bad thing -- I'm a glutton for punishment when the right situation arises -- but The Big Pink's pleasures aren't in volume and tumult alone. They have a soft touch on their record, and as it turns out, it's what makes the whole thing work.

Furze has a marvelous voice for this band -- a leering disaffection tempered by the occasional real sweetness of his lyrics. But it just couldn't compete with the redlining gain of just about everything else around him. Pairing the low-end gut punch of techno with the mids and highs of a rock band is never easy, but save for all but the quietest moments, Cordell's noise gadgets and samples were just filetted into hisses and grumbles.

Deftones, Slash, Pablove lead a weekend of worthy benefit shows

If concert-going is on your docket this weekend, consider steering your ticket budget toward any of three exceedingly worthwhile special fund-raising shows, all of which happen to be at the Avalon in Hollywood. On Thursday and Friday, Deftones will play two shows to raise money for bassist Chi Cheng, who's still in a semiconscious state after a 2008 car crash that left him with huge (and accumulating) medical bills. On Saturday, Band of Horses, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Sea Wolf, Shirley Manson and many others play one-off sets to benefit the Pablove Foundation, the childhood cancer research fund of Dangerbird Records founder Jeff Castelaz and his wife, Jo Ann Thrailkill. And on Sunday, Slash joins Ozzy Osbourne, Chester Bennington, Perry Farrell and a motley crew of other hard rockers for a set to fund the Los Angeles Youth Network, a homeless-services charity. Any one of them will be worth your time, money and eardrums this weekend.

-- August Brown

All shows at the Avalon, 1735 Vine St. Tickets available at avalonhollywood.net.

Deftones photo by Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times

Memorial for Masque founder Brendan Mullen set for Sunday

Friends of Masque founder Brendan Mullen, who died at age 60 on Oct. 12 after suffering a stroke,  are invited to a memorial service and wake Sunday at the Echoplex in Echo Park.

Mullen was one of Los Angeles’ early champions of punk rock, and when he opened the Masque in Hollywood in 1977, the disjointed punk community found a focal point. It provided a forum for bands such as the Nerves, the Germs, the Dils and X, and also was the flash point for countless fans who went on to form their own bands. After the Masque closed, Mullen continued with adventurous bookings of music, theater and other events at Club Lingerie and other venues

The site for the memorial and wake was chosen because “The Echoplex is where Brendan booked his last show, a reunion of Masque bands to celebrate the publication of his book 'Live at the Masque: Nightmare in Punk Alley',” said his longtime partner, Kateri Butler, who was celebrating Mullen's 60th birthday with him on a trip through Ventura County when he had the stroke. “Many thanks to Liz Garo, queen of the Echoplex and a booker extraordinaire whom Brendan mentored early in her career, for her graciousness and generosity.”

Doors will open at 4 p.m., the memorial begins at 5 p.m. and the wake will follow. The Echoplex is at 1154 Glendale Blvd., Echo Park.

“The memorial is open to everyone who would like to pay his or her respects to Brendan,” Butler said. “I hope I have reached all of Brendan's friends, but it's certainly possible I may have missed some folks….Also, musicians: Anyone who wants to jam unplugged during the wake is welcome to do so. We will have Brendan's drum kit there.”

-- Randy Lewis

Dave Alvin headlines Amy Farris memorial concert

Dave Alvin, Peter Case, Stan Ridgway and other members of the Southern California roots music community will play Nov. 8 at McCabe’s in Santa Monica in a memorial concert for Austin-bred, L.A.-based musician Amy Farris, who died Sept. 29 at age 40.

A multi-instrumentalist accomplished on several instruments in the violin family, Farris had most recently been on tour as a member of Alvin’s Guilty Women band. In Texas she had played alongside country veteran Ray Price as well as Kelly Willis, Alejandro Escovedo, Bruce and Charlie Robison and many others. After relocating to Los Angeles to pursue her solo career,  Farris also performed with a wide range of musicians, including Brian Wilson, Ridgway and I See Hawks in L.A. 

A donation of $10 is being requested for admission to the Nov. 8 performance, and proceeds will go to Farris’ favorite charity, Hungry for Music, which provides musical instruments to underprivileged children.   A cause of death has still not been determined. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office said it is being investigated as a possible suicide. Information on the memorial concert is available at McCabe’s website.

--Randy Lewis

Photo credit: Loren Minnick
 

The dark edges of Mika's deceptively sunny pop

As far as Oedipal odes to obsessively consuming every shred of a new lover’s individual identity go, Mika’s song “Touches You” from his new album “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” is actually pretty charming. It's a rollicking, vampy piano-pop burner with a seriously creepy chorus:  “I want to be your sister, and your mother too / I want to be whatever else that touches you.”

Nick Cave could be jealous of a lyric like that. But for the young singer-songwriter, it’s a prime example of the power of pop music to make uncomfortable truths go down easily.

“Pop enables you to hoodwink people,” Mika said. “If you follow certain formulas and structures, people gravitate to a song and attach themselves to it, they instantly ‘get’ it. And once you’ve got them, you can get them to sing along to something bitterly sad.”

Billy Corgan pitches in for Nov. 8 benefit

A Billy Corgan show for $12? True — and for a good cause at that.

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman will headline a benefit show, under the name Backwards Clock Society,  with Ancient Chinese Secrets’ Kerry Brown and the Electric Prunes' Mark Tulin, on Nov. 8 at the Echoplex as a benefit for Corgan’s friend and fellow Chicagoan, Laura Ann Masura.

Masura was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in September and Corgan and other musicians are pitching in to try to help raise money toward the cost of foot surgery that's not covered by her insurance, estimated at $15,000. She is scheduled for surgery on Oct. 29, and is planning to attend the show.

In addition to Corgan’s ad hoc band, the concert will include performances by Syd Straw, members of Fountains of Wayne and several other acts. Masura has played in such bands as the Evil Beaver, the Prescriptions, Motorhome and Dime Box Band and has befriended many other musicians in her other job as a bartender at the Redwood in downtown L.A.

A couple of noteworthy pieces of Pumpkins' history also are being auctioned off, with proceeds going to Masura: Corgan is donating the drum kit that Jimmy Chamberlin used for recording the 1991 album “Gish,” and the band’s subsequent tour. He and Chamberlin have autographed the drum kit. Corgan also is donating the bass he played at the Pumpkins' first public performance as well as on many of the group’s demo recordings.

Tickets for the show are $12. Doors open at 4:30 and the music starts at 5 p.m. The drum kit and bass are being auctioned on the Pumpkins' official memorabilia site. A recovery fund website also has been established to handle donations.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo of Corgan performing last year: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

Live review: John Doe and Exene Cervenka, at home onstage at the Echoplex

In their duo set Friday night at the Echoplex, John Doe and Exene Cervenka dipped into the X songbook several times, including  the title track from the group’s 1987 album “See How We Are,” their brutal and unflinching castigation of a world whose priorities had spun out of control.

How they were was an entirely different story: The founding members of X and the Knitters, and erstwhile husband-wife king and queen of L.A. punk music, were inordinately charming in this exceedingly casual outing, which also touched on their various collaborative and solo musical identities.

That led to a lively post-concert discussion I got into about trying to see who they are. With their long and storied personal history -- together and apart -- synchronous musical vision and disarmingly open, good-naturedly combative banter, it was hard to decide whether 30 years down the pike they have become alternative music’s Louis Prima and Keely Smith, Sonny and Cher or maybe Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.

The punk edge is still there, but there’s also a latter-day sweetness in their interactions. Doe started to introduce a song they’d recently written together, and Cervenka interrupted him. “You’re going to talk about that -- in mixed company?” He just smiled and went on to share with the packed house the inspiration for a song about someone who wakes up to find a longtime partner gone, only to feel surprise at the relief that washes over in realizing that the lover has departed.

Vocally, they were in such impressive sync with those dissonant harmonies they came off as musical siblings of the Everly or Louvin brothers.

Cervenka also offered a couple of songs from her new solo album, “Somewhere Gone,” but had to apologize for not having any copies available for sale “because FedEx didn’t get to my house before I had to leave for this show.”

The first of the new ones she sang was “Surface of the Sun,” an exquisitely sketched plea to a lover who she knows instinctively won’t be around forever. “Please write your name/In fire/On my forehead/So I’ll remember.” She also offered a sweet tribute to her friend and musical collaborator Amy Farris, who died unexpectedly last month.

Despite the stripped-down instrumental accompaniment -- Cervenka’s acoustic guitar, Doe mostly on acoustic, occasionally adding electric guitar to the mix -- there was no loss of the emotional intensity that’s always been part of their best work, just less sonic energy to go with it.

She’ll do a solo show Nov. 10 at Largo at the Coronet, and then X will do its annual “X-mas” holiday concert Dec. 19 at the Wiltern.

-- Randy Lewis