The Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

By LA Weekly Mon., Jan. 14 2013 at 3:30 AM

Categories: Los Angeles Concerts

Bombon -- See Thursday

Monday, January 14

C.R.A.S.H., Regal Degal
THE SMELL
You know what hurt when Mika Miko broke up? That Michelle Suarez's mind-grinding guitar tone would never again make a bunch of revved-up weirdos flop around in a puddle of beer on a cold, concrete floor. But the universe must have heard those flopping weirdos cry out in loss and pain. And so was formed the formidable band C.R.A.S.H., a fukkin' punk foursome with Suarez, No Age's Dean Spunt and mighty WRANGLER BRUTES (all-caps completely deserved) members Brooks Headley and Cundo Bermudez. C.R.A.S.H. did one go-for-the-throat 45 appropriately called A War on All Fronts and then dissolved into the back of the C section at the record store -- until NOW! (All-caps again completely deserved.) Also on this show: the promising messtheticians of Regal Degal, who bring a Homosexuals/Chairs Missing-era Wire/Subway Sect DIY vibe to L.A. --Chris Ziegler

Tuesday, January 15

Cotillon
HARVARD & STONE
Jordan Corso of Cotillon calls his music "flower-punk," but this is really power-pop like it's supposed to be -- hooky, raw and cheerfully bitter beneath the cuteness, just like Alex Chilton used to make. A Corso lyric such as "I don't have much, but I have a true heart" may sound like something Jonathan Richman would sing very sincerely, but Cotillon's recent Votive Flower EP is soaked in plenty of sarcasm, too. Corso's got a voice somewhere between Daniel Johnston and The Only Ones' super-sneerer Peter Perrett. In songs like "I Wanna Move to Paris" or "Dream Girl/Infection Suite," he pours a bottle of drain cleaner into the human heart: "You gave me an infection, just like you meant to," goes one opening line. That's not love, but it sounds true nonetheless. --Chris Ziegler

Wednesday, January 16

John Beasley
BLUE WHALE
Former Miles Davis pianist and 2010 Grammy nominee John Beasley is right in the middle of a Wednesday January residency at Little Tokyo's Blue Whale. Tonight Beasley offers up an evening of Brazilian music, backed by Cuban bassist Carlitos Del Puerto (Chris Botti/Steve Lukather) and drummer Gary Novak (Chick Corea). The program features works from composers including Ivan Lins and Gilberto Gil, but will also vary from traditional bossa nova or samba styles. A slate of guests will join the trio for what promises to be an adventurous musical evening. The following Wednesday will see Beasley fronting his own "MONK'estra" big band. --Tom Meek

This or the Apocalypse
COBALT CAFÉ
These Pennsylvania metalcore-ists look more and more like a boy band with every photo shoot and video. But, in fact, they're as brutally technical as anyone in the genre and, having formed in 2005, relative granddaddies of this precision-guided heavy-metal mutation. More sonically single-minded, detailed and ambitious than most of their peers, This or the Apocalypse make grandiose rhythmic sieges on the senses, spiked with melodic guitar refrains, Rick Armellino's ragged-yet-intelligible spewing and tuneful dalliances. Quasi-proggy song structures and short-attention-span arrangements hold the ear on 2012's The Dead Years, a collection oozing a sense of nothing-to-lose as metalcore's sun sulkily sets. With hit-seeking copyists diluting this type of music into footnote oblivion, This or the Apocalypse can at least stagger away with heads held high. (Also Tues. 1/15 at the Industry Theater in Lancaster) --Paul Rogers