Irish Singers, Guitar-Slingers, Metal Bands and Camper Van Highlight the Live Music Offerings This Week in Clubland

Compiled by
Tomm Carroll,
Music Critic

Fri., Feb. 18-Thurs, 26 -- Here are the musical highlights of this week on the Westside -- plus one in West Hollywood because it’s worth the trip!

Friday
Maybe he’s taken his song title “The Naked Dutch Painter” to heart, but Stew, the namesake of the popular Silverlake trio The Negro Problem, is back at the Getty Museum!

He has been called many things -- singer/songwriter, cabaret philosopher, wiseguy troubadour, punk subversive, even the black Burt Bacharach -- but with collaborator Heidi Rodewald, he creates rich arrangements, incisive lyrics and innovative styles, which travel beyond the standard pop song. And they’re bringing them to the Harold M Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center in the Sepulveda Pass this evening. Stew and Heidi were recently commissioned by the Public Theater of New York to develop a new work for the stage.

Friday
“Metal Madness” comes to 14 Below in Santa Monica tonight with an all-head-bangin’ all-tribute-band extravaganza. Shake your grungy mane and pump your fist in the air to the sonic likes of Penny Royal (Nirvana), The Ultimate Sin (Ozzy Osbourne), Damage Inc. (Metallica), Domination 101 (Pantera) and Angel of Death (Slayer).

Saturday
Lee Ferris is a remarkably talented guitarist, singer and songwriter, and a former McCabe's employee to boot! He returns to the famed Santa Monica guitar shop-cum-concert hall en route to Hawaii, where he'll be working with James Goodall making some of the finest guitars in the world.

Also on the bill is fellow Mc-staffer Jeff Turmes, whose work with Richard Thompson, Rick Holmstrom, Janiva Magness and others -- along with his own stellar release Every Day's My Lucky Day -- has made him a local blues-roots favorite.

Backing up Ferris, and opening the evening, will be the celebrated new acoustic trio of “Johnny, Joel and Mike,” known collectively as The Pep Boys (the three best friends your ears ever had).

Saturday
“We didn't want to jump right back in and make that ‘bad reunion record’ that most bands make when they try to reform,” says David Lowery (of the surreal folk-rock band of absurdists known as Camper Van Beethoven) on the reunited group’s website.

“We were more concerned with getting used to each other and figuring out that we could still make music together, before we made a big deal out of announcing that we were back.” Well, they are, and, after a decade-and-a-half-long hiatus, they’re appearing at the famed House of Blues in West Hollywood tonight.

The group’s reunion album, New Roman Times (Vanguard) is perhaps the Campers’ most musically accomplished and conceptually ambitious effort to date. A concept album of sorts, it is a vivid, emotion-charged song cycle that merges the group's sense of musical adventure with a fanciful rock-opera storyline that's rife with parallels to America's current political landscape.

With most of its original members intact, the band consists of David Lowery (vocals, guitar), Victor Krummenacher (bass, vocals), Greg Lisher (guitar), Jonathan Segel (violin, guitar, keyboards) and Frank Funaro (drums), plus occasionally David Immerglück (guitar and various stringed instruments), and was one of the ‘80s’ most original and influential indie rock bands.

Sunday
At Santa Monica’s Temple bar this evening, a Tsunami Relief Benefit will be held, featuring the heavy sounds from the intense Asian underground --everything from ragas to drum and bass -- featuring Alien Chatter, Karsh Kale and special guests, to be announced.

Tuesday
The singular pianist-vocalist-composer Mose Allison is truly indescribable; although his influence on other musicians has been enormous, there's still nobody like him.

An authentic American original, he's a Mississippi jazz man steeped in the blues, a be-bopper, a hip modernist, a canny writer of classic tunes (“Your Mind is on Vacation,” “Stop This World,” “Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy”) and a sly master of swing.

Allison is in residency at Culver City’s Jazz Bakery with bassman extraordinaire Tom Warrington tonight through next Sunday.

Thursday
Cynthia Catania and Annmarie Cullen, co-lead singers and guitarists for the Santa Monica-based electro-acoustic rock outfit Saucy Monky kick off their latest tour with a gig at O’Brien’s Pub on Main Street in Santa Monica.

They recently had two hit singles on Irish radio from their debut album Celebrity Trash, and a stint opening for the B-52’s on their West Coast tour. Catania and Cullen are currently touring in support of Saucy Monky’s sophomore project on OlivOil Records, Turbulence.