Pop and Rock Listings

The New York By Times

July 13, 2007

POP

Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music.

BESNARD LAKES, JEALOUS GIRLFRIENDS (Tonight and Sunday) The Besnard Lakes, from Montreal, build childlike, Brian Wilsonesque melodies into fuzz-drenched epics fraught with violence. The Jealous Girlfriends, one of the best new bands in New York, float through soft and erotic clouds of guitar and keyboards that can turn grungy and turbulent; the soft and erotic stuff is whatʼs gotten their music on “Greyʼs Anatomy.” Tonight at 8:30, with Dappled Cities and the Muggabears, at the Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700, mercuryloungenyc.com; $12. Sunday at 8:30 p.m., with Dirty on Purpose, at Maxwellʼs, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703, maxwellsnj.com; $10 in advance, $12 at the door. (Ben Sisario)

BLACK LIPS (Thursday) Sounding like a nightmarish variant of the 13th Floor Elevators or the Troggs, this Atlanta band plays a grisly version of 1960s garage rock, and its onstage antics have been known to descend into the scatological. With Turbo Fruits and the Coathangers. At 9 p.m., Maxwellʼs, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703, maxwellsnj.com; $12. (Sisario)

BOOK OF KNOTS (Tonight) A supergroup the way only a New York avant- garde band can be, the Book of Knots is an occasional project, with members from Skeleton Key, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tin Hat and Pere Ubu. Its second album, “Traineater” (Anti-), is an appropriately clangy elegy for rust- belt Americana; here the band plays what it says is its first and possibly only live performance, with friends Jon Langford of the Mekons and Carla Bozulich of the Geraldine Fibbers. At 8, Blender Theater at Gramercy, 127 East 23rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171; $20. (Sisario)

★ DECEMBERISTS, GRIZZLY BEAR, LAND OF TALK (Monday) He might not exactly have a lot of competition, but Colin Meloy, the Decemberistsʼ songwriter and strategist, can set old Irish epics and alliterative fables about Dickensian chimney sweeps to prog-folk like nobody else. Grizzly Bearʼs acoustic guitars and library voices say cozy folk, but the ambition of this Brooklyn band pushes its dreamlike, bewitching songs into uncharted realms. Land of Talk, from Montreal, recalls Dinosaur Jr. and P J Harvey with tangles of grungy guitar and opaque but affecting lyrics. At 6:30 p.m., Central Park SummerStage, Rumsey Playfield, midpark at 70th Street, (212) 307-7171, summerstage.org; $30 in advance, $35 at the door. (Sisario)

TOUMANI DIABATÉ’S SYMMETRIC ORCHESTRA (Wednesday and Thursday) Mr. Diabaté, the Malian kora master, plays regular gigs back home with his big band, mixing ancient songs with salsa-infused funk and lyrical improvisations on the kora, a harplike instrument that allows him to play three parts at once. Wednesday at 7 p.m., Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City, Lower Manhattan, (212) 945-0505, rivertorivernyc.com; Thursday at noon, BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival, MetroTech Commons Plaza, Flatbush Avenue and Myrtle Street, downtown Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100, bam.org; both free. (Sisario)

ANI DIFRANCO (Wednesday) Ms. DiFrancoʼs articulate, uninhibited songs and poems are about staying true to her complicated self: feisty and vulnerable, polysexual, uncompromising and politically engaged, but never humorless. She can strum a guitar and sling words at hyperspeed, or swerve toward jazz and funk. In business (she runs her own label, Righteous Babe Records) as in her music, sheʼs as independent as they come. At 7:30 p.m., Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West and Ninth Street, Park Slope, (212) 307-7171, brooklynx.org; $37. (Jon Pareles)

DISPATCH (Tonight through Sunday night) Less remarkable for its music — pedestrian college jam-rock — than for its phenomenal grass-roots popularity, this Vermont band attracted more than 100,000 fans to its farewell show in Boston three years ago and sold out this three-night reunion at Madison Square Garden in an instant, largely through MySpace. Proceeds from these shows will go to charities that fight famine and social injustice in Zimbabwe. At 8, (212) 465-6741, thegarden.com. (Sisario)

FRATELLIS (Wednesday) Like Sweet and Slade before it, this Scottish trio is not afraid to be both tough and silly, employing bubblegum shout-alongs in its stompy, completely catchy hard-rock tunes. At 7:30 p.m., Roseland Ballroom, 239 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800, roselandballroom.com; $22 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sisario)

COLIN HAY (Thursday) In the 1980s he was the voice and face of the Australian new-wave oddballs Men at Work, and recently he has been attracting new fans with gentle, ruminative acoustic songs. One, “I Just Donʼt Think Iʼll Ever Get Over You,” was a heartstopper in the film “Garden State.” At 8:30 p.m., Canal Room, 285 West Broadway, at Canal Street, TriBeCa, (212) 941-8100, canalroom.com; $28 in advance, $32 at the door. (Sisario)

LEVON HELM (Tomorrow) After a hiatus for recovery from throat cancer, Mr. Helm, the former drummer of the Band and a singer of hits like “The Weight,” has returned with a raspier but still powerfully expressive voice. He plays a “Ramble on the Road” at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, N.Y., with Leon Russell and Ollabelle, a rootsy five-piece vocal group featuring Mr. Helmʼs daughter, Amy. At 6:30 p.m., (866) 781-2922, bethelwoodslive.org; $35 to $59.50; lawn tickets, $25. (Sisario)

JAMES HUNTER (Wednesday) After years honing his style in London pubs, this dapper yet roguish British singer has emerged with “People Gonna Talk” (Go/Rounder), recreating with care and affection the smooth, slithery R&B of early-1960s American singers like Sam Cooke and Little Willie John. At 7 p.m., Madison Square Park, Madison Avenue at 24th Street, (212) 538-6667, madisonsquarepark.org; free. (Sisario)

TOBY KEITH, MIRANDA LAMBERT (Sunday) A multimillion-selling country star whose ever-present smirk is framed by a manicured stubble, Mr. Keith excels equally in salt-of-the-earth patriotic proclamations (“The American Soldier”) and salt-of-the-earth Saturday-night proclamations (“Get Drunk and Be Somebody”). With Miranda Lambert, who was robbed of a victory on “Nashville Star” a few years ago but triumphed with a hit album, “Kerosene.” At 7:30 p.m., PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, N.J., (732) 335-8698, artscenter.com; $69.75; lawn tickets, $34.75. (Sisario)

★ LATIN ALTERNATIVE MUSIC CONFERENCE (Tonight and tomorrow) “Rock en Español” may not have lived up to the next-big-thing hype that surrounded it at the start of the decade, but this series, now eight years old, consistently delivers music from the Spanish-speaking world that is vital and innovative but underappreciated by the mainstream (read: English-speaking) American audience. Tonight at Celebrate Brooklyn are Zoé and Chetes, two Mexican rock bands, and the Pinker Tones, a D.J. duo from Barcelona. Tomorrow at Central Park SummerStage is the festivalʼs big star, Café Tacuba, a brilliant and joyous art-rock band from Mexico City. Also on the bill: Pacha Massive, from the Bronx, and La Sista, from Puerto Rico. Tonight at 7:30, Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West and Ninth Street, Park Slope, (718) 855-7882, brooklynx.org; tomorrow at 3 p.m., Rumsey Playfield, midpark at 70th Street, (212) 360-2777, summerstage.org; both free, with suggested donation. (Sisario)

HUGH MASEKELA (Tonight) The South African fluegelhorn player Hugh Masekela has more to offer than his international hit “Grazing in the Grass.” For decades he has brought together the three-chord lope of South African pop with the zigzagging possibilities of jazz. He plays the NYC Rockinʼ the River cruise in celebration of a new album, “Live at the Market Theatre” (Times Square). At 8, Pier 83, 42nd Street at the Hudson River, (212) 630-8888, rtrcruises.com; $40 in advance, $45 at the door. (Pareles)

MENOMENA (Tonight) Menomena, from Portland, Ore., uses a homemade computer program to write songs, resulting in shufflings and reshufflings that keep otherwise standard indie-arty elements — meandering piano, sensual electronics, melancholy vocals — playful and fresh. With Beat the Devil. At 7, South Street Seaport, Pier 17, Fulton and South Streets, Lower Manhattan, (212) 835-2789, seaportmusicfestival.com; free. (Sisario)

MOONEY SUZUKI (Wednesday) One of the sharpest and loudest garage-rock bands in town — in sound as well as in dress — the Mooney Suzuki draws on the frantic energy of mid-ʼ60s British mod groups like the Who, as well as the bruising blues-rock of Led Zeppelin. With the Muldoons, Stylofone and the Shake. At 7:30 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700, mercuryloungenyc.com; $10. (Sisario)

★ OS MUTANTES (Tuesday) The oddest, most exuberant and most wonderfully innovative band of the late-1960s tropicália movement in Brazil — when there was no shortage of odd, exuberant and wonderfully innovative musicians — was Os Mutantes (the Mutants), who filtered psychedelic rock through bossa nova and a do-what-thou-wilt Pop Art philosophy. The band broke up in 1978, but reunited last year (minus one of its original singers, the inimitable Rita Lee). At 8 p.m., Rose Theater, Broadway at 60th Street, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $40 and $55. (Sisario)

OZRIC TENTACLES (Tonight) England has jam bands, too, and Ozric Tentacles may be the most well-traveled one of them. Its songs start with the suitelike complexities of progressive rock and take off from there. With Future Rock. At 9, Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th Street, Chelsea, (212) 414- 5994, highlineballroom.com; $22. (Pareles)

PONDEROSA STOMP (Tomorrow and Sunday) This New Orleans roots-music festival comes to Hoboken and Brooklyn with Roy Head, Bobby Patterson, Willy Tee, Ray Sharpe and Tommy McClain. Tomorrow at 9 p.m., Maxwellʼs, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703, maxwellsnj.com; $15. Sunday at 2 p.m., McCarren Park Pool, Lorimer Street, between Driggs Avenue and Bayard Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, thepoolparties.com; free. (Sisario)

MARC RIBOT (Tuesday) He has played with everybody from John Zorn to Teddy Thompson, but Mr. Ribot remains the rare guitar-for-hire with not only a distinct sound — twangy, earthy, sensual — but a vision as well. At this free concert, he plays solo and with two of his bands, Spiritual Unity and Ceramic Dog. At 7 p.m., World Financial Center Plaza, West Street, south of Vesey Street, Lower Manhattan, (212) 945-0505, rivertorivernyc.com. (Sisario)

★ ST. VINCENT (Tuesday) St. Vincent is Annie Clark, a 24-year-old songwriter whose time as a collaborator of Sufjan Stevens and the Polyphonic Spree did not prepare the world for the brilliance and grandeur of her debut album, “Marry Me” (Beggars Banquet), a small universe of romance that recalls the prime of Kate Bush. With Scout Niblett. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; $13 in advance, $15 at the door. (Sisario)

MICHELLE SHOCKED (Tonight) The peripatetic Ms. Shocked has ambled at whim through folk-rock, reggae, Appalachian songs, punk, swing, blues, and Mexican and Irish music. She adds her unpretentious insights to any music with roots, and sheʼs always adding more styles to the list. At 7, Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, Chelsea, (212) 620-5000, rmanyc.org; $45. (Pareles)

SHOUT OUT LOUDS (Monday and Tuesday) The Shout Out Louds, from Stockholm, are a record-collection band: you listen to them and check off in your mind which now-fashionable 1980s bands they borrow from, and then you go home and dig out those bandsʼ albums. In the Shout Out Loudsʼ case, youʼll be thumbing through the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Cure. Monday at 11:30 p.m., Spiegeltent, Pier 17, South Street, under the Brooklyn Bridge, (212) 279-4200, spiegelworld.com; $25 to $30. Tuesday at 8:30 p.m., with Saturday Looks Good to Me, at Luna Lounge, 361 Metropolitan Avenue, at Havemeyer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, lunalounge.com; $15. (Sisario)

★ SLINT (Tuesday) With its album “Spiderland” in 1991, this band from Louisville, Ky., virtually created the genre that has come to be known (unwelcomely, of course) as post-rock: spindly guitars twisting like ivy around starkly syncopated beats, now and then erupting in spasms of violence. The band broke up before it could exploit the enormous influence it had on ʼ90s underground rock, but reunited two years ago and this summer is on tour performing “Spiderland” in its entirety. At 8 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; $30 in advance, $35 at the door. (Sisario)

SOUNDS OF THE UNDERGROUND TOUR (Tomorrow) An afternoon of fast, pummeling heavy metal characterized by lots of death-and-gore-obsessed lyrics, with Shadows Fall, Testament, Chimaira, Every Time I Die, Necro, Amon Amarth, the Acacia Strain and Goatwhore. And since the vaudevillian horror- metal band Gwar is on the bill, expect a fair complement of rubber monsters with ripped limbs spurting multicolored blood. At 11 a.m., Starland Ballroom, 570 Jernee Mill Road, Sayreville, N.J., (732) 238-5500, starlandballroom.com; $29 in advance, $33 at the door. (Sisario)

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS (Wednesday) A few things you can count on at a They Might Be Giants show: There will be accordion. There will be two guys with nasal voices singing songs that are almost too silly even for children. There will be gimmick songs about geography. And everyone there will know all the words. With Corn Mo. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; $22 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sisario)

TEDDY THOMPSON (Tuesday) The son of the great British folk-pop singers Richard and Linda Thompson, Teddy Thompson absorbed some of his parentsʼ pithy melancholy, and his new album, “Up Front and Down Low” (Verve Forecast), has beautifully finessed chamber-pop versions of weepy country standards like “All My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers” and “Walking the Floor Over You.” At 7 p.m., Mo Pitkinʼs, 34 Avenue A, near Third Street, East Village, (212) 777-5660, mopitkins.com; $15. (Sisario)

TOOL (Wednesday) On its latest album, “10,000 Days” (Volcano/Zomba), Tool sticks to a dark, seductive prog-grunge formula, with long, cryptic songs that grow steadily from a bass-heavy lurch to heroic bolts of pure guitar. At 8 p.m., PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, N.J., (732) 335-8698, artscenter.com; $69.25; lawn tickets, $35.25. (Sisario)

TRAVIS (Tomorrow and Sunday) Coldplay before there was Coldplay, the Glasgow band Travis turns lovesickness into anthemic bombast. At 8 p.m., Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800, irvingplaza.com; sold out. (Sisario)

NYTCo Contact Us Accessibility Work with us Advertise T Brand Studio Your Ad Choices Privacy Policy Terms of Service Terms of Sale Site Map Canada International Help Subscriptions