Bands performing here this week
HOODOO GURUS “Purity of Essence”
Still alive and kickin’
Kindred spirits: Flamin’ Groovies, Ramones, Rolling Stones Show: Saturday at Iota. Show starts at 9 p.m. 703-522-8340.
www.iotaclubandcafe.com. $20.
Fans of mid-’80s Hoodoo Gurus hits
such as “Bittersweet” can be excused for thinking the band is defunct. The Australian quartet knocked off for six years (1998-2004) and didn’t tour the United States for more than a decade. But the garage-rockers don’t sound rusty on “Purity of Essence,” an album blessed with imagination, consistency and a good sense of humor. The Gurus, founded in 1981 by Dave
Faulkner, the original lineup’s only remaining member, were never forward looking. Their latest album includes an
BOOM BOOM SATELLITES “Over and Over”
Kindred spirits: Moby, Chemical Brothers, Atari Teenage Riot Show:Wednesday at the 9:30 Club. Doors open at 6 p.m. 202-265-0930.
www.930.com. $20.
Rock plus techno is a simple formula, but it yields a broad range of results on Boom Boom Satellites’ exuberant new album, “Over and Over.” True to its name, this Tokyo duo blasts rhythms and orbits riffs on its dance-oriented tracks. But singer-guitarist Michiyuki Kawashima and
bassist-programmer Masayuki Nakano also produce punky rock songs and complex sonic collages. Drawing from six of
the Satellites’ seven Japanese albums, this retrospective collects 17 tracks, all remixed and remastered. Some have not been officially released in the United States yet may sound familiar from their use in video games and animated movies that have American followings. Despite some gentle passages, this is not chill-out music. Whether playing straight synth-rock in “Easy Action” or melding live vocals with a disco-diva loop in “Kick It Out,” the band loves motion and clatter. (That’s why it supplements synthbeats with traditional drums.) Even “On the Painted Desert,” a midtempo eight-minute epic that features a string section and choir, includes heavy beats and such harsh noises as a sample from MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams.” That’s an apt reference for Boom Boom Satellites, whose version of house music has a garage-rock feel. — Mark Jenkins
ode to 1968, and any of these 16 tunes could have been penned that year. (Rap? Techno? Afrobeat? The Gurus have never heard of ’em.) Highlights such as “Burnt Orange” have a brand new energy but a well-worn style. The Gurus shift genres to underscore their mostly humorous themes. They switch to blues for the non-swaggering “Ashamed of Me,” turn to funk to consider illegal immigration in “Only in America” and go gospel for “I Hope You’re Happy,” a skeptical guide to spiritual questing. (Dismissing meditation, Faulkner notes that “when I navel-gaze, I only turn up lint.”) Folk-rockers such as “Are You Sleeping?” prove the Gurus can still do pretty, but the band’s essence is brash, catchy and comic.
— Mark Jenkins
THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE “Somewhere on the Golden Coast”
Kindred spirits: The Replacements, Drive-By Truckers, the Hold Steady Show: Thursday at the Black Cat. Show starts at 9 p.m. 202-667-4490.
www.blackcatdc.com. $10.
The Henry Clay People do not play indie
rock. They play indie rock-and-roll. Bands with a slide guitar, honky-tonk piano flourishes and an opening slot on the Drive-By Truckers summer tour are not normally the stomping grounds for young 20-something musicians, much less those from the L.A. music scene. But when singer-songwriter Joey Siara sings, “This ain’t a scene, it’s just a place to be / We won’t be settled down until we’ve seen everything” on the group’s new album, “Somewhere on the Golden Coast,” he sounds surprisingly grizzled. Don’t listen to the HCP for chillwave or synth-laden indie pop. This is blue-collar rock. The songs are short bursts of energy, most about three minutes. When keyboardist Jordan Hudock slides his hands down the length of the keyboard and Andy Siara, Joey’s brother, plays the slide on songs such as “End of an Empire,” it’s easy to see why the band has been compared to the early E Street Band. This is energized bar music that we’re used to from veterans of the scene like the Hold Steady.
— Benjamin Opipari
NewMusic
9
CARY BAKERS CONQUEROO The Hoodoo Gurus show they haven’t lost their sense of humor on their latest effort.
ÓLOF ARNALDS “Innundir Skinni”
Kindred spirits: Joanna Newsom, Bjork, Sigur Rós Show: Monday at Iota. Show starts at 8:30 p.m. 703-522-8340.
www.iotaclubandcafe.com. $15.
The Icelandic music scene seems
intimately interconnected: Folk singer Ólof Arnalds’s second album, “Innundir Skinni” (“Within Skin”), was co-produced by Sigur Rós multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson and features vocals by Bjork. Arnalds herself has toured with the Icelandic electronic group Múm.
But this dreamy folk album more closely resembles Joanna Newsom’s delicate plucking and girlish vocals than any of those musicians from Arnalds’s native country. The opening track, “Vinur Minn,” finds Arnalds singing a cappella with an enchanting warble before being joined by instruments — and a choir — for a minute and a half of expressive “la la la la’s.” Most of the songs are in Icelandic, but the language hardly matters. The simplicity and sorrowful sound of “Madrid” convey its somber mood, while “Vinkonur” has a plaintive, pressing feel. Arnalds sings a few songs in English, to
varied effect. The lyrics to “Crazy Car” are a bit clunky, but “Surrender” is one of the most intriguing tracks. As Arnalds chants with a trancelike murmur, Bjork warbles and wails in the background as only she can. But Arnalds never lets her vocals be overpowered, proving she can hold her own against even Iceland’s most illustrious illuminati.
— Catherine P. Lewis What can you expect when jazz pianist
Kenny Werner brings a quartet to town that features renowned Danish reedman Benjamin Koppel? Original tunes aplenty —intriguing, evocative and stirring by turns. You can bet the house on it if the ensemble revisits “A Way With Words,” a double CD entirely devoted to 16 pieces composed by Koppel. The quartet’s sound, crafted in part by bassist Thommy Andersson and drummer Alex Riel, is so neatly balanced and subtly integrated that it could be described as “leaderless.” But no one would call it rudderless, and you can credit Koppel for that. Playing alto and mezzo soprano sax,
Koppel has charted a colorful journey that begins with the soulful, minor-key excursion “What Seas, What Shores” and concludes with the brash and swinging “End of Discussion.” Along the way there are curiously plotted and skittishly animated performances — “Atomic Alto” and “Free Bop-a-lula” — as well as arrangements that take advantage of the gift these musicians share for creating hauntingly atmospheric interludes. Witness the ballads “Quietness” and “The Eloquence . . . .” Though recorded at a Copenhagen concert last year, “A Way With Words” isn’t marred by crowd noise or punctuated by long improvisations. As a result, the music is all the more absorbing. —Mike Joyce
BENJAMIN KOPPEL, KENNY WERNER, THOMMY ANDERSSON AND ALEX RIEL “A Way With Words”
Kindred spirits: Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, Charles Mingus Show: Friday and Saturday at Twins Jazz. Shows start at 9 and 11 p.m. 202-234-0072
www.twinsjazz.com. $20.
THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010
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