Don't Call It Noise Music

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins
March 18
Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Pl, 212-777-6800

photo: Human Highway Records

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See also:

Faust Things First
A mammoth production of the epic verse gets a stateside staging
by Michael Feingold

Wonder Women
A season of old masters, Gumby, biomorphs, and cell phones
by R.C. Baker

A Mechanized Culture and its Equally Mechanical Population Meet
by Carla Blumenkranz

Tweaking Their Legacies: Composers Reinvent Themselves
by Leighton Kerner

Dancing in Your Sleep: Label Microcosm Calms the Nerves
by Tricia Romano

Postmodern Pioneer: The Next Generation
Bokaer gets physical, digital, and naked
by Elizabeth Zimmer

Vision Quest
Get your avant-garde fix with plenty of experimental cinema this season
by Ed Halter

To Serve and Protect: A Freestyle Series Rumbles On
by Jim Macnie

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• Webster Hall
• B.B. King
• Bettye LaVette
• Indie Rock and Indie Pop
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Rilo Kiley's frontlady may sound mellower with all the country she's added to her rock, not to mention the cooing, mildly creepy twins backing her up, but her neuroses have been thoroughly honed. Told in her perpetually blossoming voice, they're profound feeling. Catucci

Animal Collective
March 23
Webster Hall, 125 E 11th, 212-353-1600

That they're no longer grouped in Brooklyn means you should see them while you can; that their protean performances sound more like celebrations of their recorded output than reproductions of it means you should see them at every opportunity. But if their avowed unselfconsciousness strikes a sour note for you, come expecting cacophony. Catucci

Arctic Monkeys
March 25
Webster Hall, 125 E 11th, 212-353-1600

Can you hear the music for the hype? It's a challenge that should pay off for most Brit-friendly fans of indigenous indie. Leader Alex Turner dwells on Northern England nightlife dramas so obsessively and with such great lyrical detail that you can practically smell the stink of stale beer, chips, piss, sweat, and spunk on dirty provincial dancefloors. Walters

Rakim
March 27
B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 W 42nd, 212-997-4144

Rakim made his grand return to NY stages after years of absence less than a month ago, so consider this the encore. If his January B.B. King's set is any indication, don't expect transcendence; the stage will be too crowded with hangers-on, the hypeman way too loud and obnoxious. But time hasn't ravaged Ra's charisma or his miles-deep baritone. The classics still sound great, the new songs have promise, and the enormous goodwill between audience and performer is something to behold. Maybe this time he'll do "Mahogany." Breihan

Cesaria Evora
March 30
Beacon Theatre, 2124 Bway, 212-496-7070

The pleasure lies mainly in the consistency of this 64-year-old international crooner from Cape Verde. Evora sings an island version of Portuguese fado in her local creole dialect accompanied by her longtime band, a lilting string-driven combo that combines African rhythms, jazz, and French cabaret styles into an easygoing vehicle for sad and beautiful songs. Gehr

Franz Ferdinand+Death Cab for Cutie
April 13 & 14
Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 W 34th, 212-485-1534

Intelligent indie gods unite! Both of these top-draw guitar-pop titans last year released follow-ups that fell slightly below previous peaks, but even their B sides still outsmart and outcraft most of their peers' A's. Prepare yourself for the best in both bands: Franz Ferdinand rocks hard enough live to light a fire under cuddly Cutie butts. Walters

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
April 14
Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey, 212-533-2111

In one year this Brooklyn indie-rock band's moved from stints at Pianos to sellouts at Irving and elsewhere and made a case for label-less distribution deals, and guess what, their new songs are pretty OK—jumpier than before, more whimsical and ramshackle. If New York doesn't lose the band in the usual spring buzz shitstorm, this could be their year again. Sylvester

Ralph Stanley
April 14
Town Hall, 123 W 43rd, 212-840-2824

Dr. Ralph is never caught wincing when new fans he's gathered in late-life stardom suggest that he's so moving because he's old as the hills; he was singing "O Death" just as strikingly 30 years ago. In the bluegrass way, his shows are as much about the band as about its leader, and the band is in fine shape. Mazor

B.B. King
April 17 & 18
B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 W 42nd, 212-997-4144

At 80, the greatest bluesman sitting husbands his resources. After a 15-minute set by his elderly band he talks more than ever and sings less than you'd like. But the voice remains smooth and strong, always as powerful as the uncompromising material requires. His solos risk a weirdness startling in an octogenarian, so fluent you wonder whether arthritis ever crosses his mind. He's even developed sit-down moves—funky shoulder roll, splayed hands folded over enormous heart. Christgau

R. Kelly
April 18
Radio City Music Hall, 1260 Sixth Ave, 212-247-4777

You cannot stop him, and apparently you cannot hope to detain him. There will, of course, be good behavior on display—sublime step numbers and odes to Mama and the occasional desire to fade into someone bigger than he. But mostly, he prefers them small, all the better for receiving and tolerating the inevitable bad behavior—the gauche, sticky come-ons that inspire collective sweat thick enough to obscure the higher moral senses. Caramanica