It’s a strange terrain that Dengue Fever wanders, drawing as it does both from classic Southern California surf music, and, more important, the sounds of those same pre-Beatles beach tones as filtered through Cambodian pop music of the 1960s and ‘70s. If that seems a ridiculous non sequitur on paper, coming out of the speakers, the L.A. band’s music makes perfect sense. On this, their third studio album, Dengue Fever has refined its sound to the extent that the six-piece is no longer a vehicle for a curious cultural collision, but for a fluent conversation that sounds positively Esperantan. Chhom Nimol, a Cambodian by birth, has become an exquisitely expressive singer; her high-lonesome wail on songs like “Sister In the Radio” conveys a sadness that transcends language (she sings it in Cambodian). And brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman craft guitar lines, keyboard clusters and arrangements that consistently meander down mysterious pathways.

-- Randall Roberts

Dengue Fever
“Cannibal Courtship”
(Fantasy Records)

A series in Sunday Calendar about what we're listening to right now...

tUnE-yArDs, the visionary musical project from Oakland, California’s Merrill Garbus, is fittingly named, screwball lettering and all. Listening to the newly released “Who Kill,” the follow-up to “Birdbrains,” her 2009 from-the-dirt debut made in her bedroom, there’s a sense that Garbus considers the whole lot of music as a series of junkyards, available for ransacking and recycling. Her soulful voice, which can veer from a muscular wallop to a tender coo, is the pitbull roaming about this bracingly adventurous album that’s deeply informed by dub, reggae and other Caribbean sounds. Adding bassist Nate Brenner to her one-lady band, the two wrote ten songs that pop and swing with hardline percussion, textured synths and an innovative sense of structure that rewrites the verse-chorus formula.

-- Margaret Wappler

tUnE-yArDs
“Who Kill”
(4AD Records)

A series in Sunday Calendar about what we're listening to right now...

England’s Micachu and the Shapes released “Jewellry” in 2009, an album of experimental pop rooted in equal measures classical minimalism and hip-hop’s percussive drive. The latest effort from the three-piece led by Mica Levi finds them exploring all those influences again in a live recorded performance with the London Sinfonietta. “Chopped and Screwed” is named for a style of Houston hip-hop developed by DJ Screw that slows down songs until they resemble dripping, hallucinatory ghosts of themselves. The nine songs here don’t sound like the result of too much codeine syrup (DJ Screw’s favorite elixir), but they do have a spectral quality, appearing like apparitions with rhythms that are there one minute and vanish the next. Levi’s voice often sounds hypnotized yet forceful, as she wends her way through compositions that shiver and quake with a range of both traditional instruments and homemade noisemakers. “Low Dogg” is one of the best tracks: Against a backdrop of guttural cello and nervous, high-strung violin, Levi sings a haunting line, “Even if I turn my back, you twist my neck until I snap.”

-- Margaret Wappler

Micachu and the Shapes
“Chopped and Screwed”
(Rough Trade Records)

Any number of metaphors floated across the stage during Paul Simon's rich, perfectly programmed concert at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on Wednesday night. There was the sight of Cameroonian guitar master Vincent Nguini, stage left, wearing an African dashiki juxtaposed with an American baseball cap and Fender six string, offering sweet, flittering West African melody lines that swirled as though breezing in from realms way more mystical than Hollywood Boulevard.

Or the words to “Rewrite,” from Simon's fantastic new album, “So Beautiful or So What,” which went over particularly well with the demographic at the Pantages. After his voice, as elastic and assured as ever, delivered the line, “I've been working on a rewrite, gonna change the ending/Gonna throw away the title, gonna toss it in the trash,” cheers erupted from the screenwriters in the cheap seats. He rhymed the last line with “turn it into cash,” and more hoots echoed.

The second of three nights in Los Angeles, and the first of two at the Pantages after an opening night at the Music Box, Simon and his nine-piece band indeed offered a new edit on the singer's biography. The story he told, in fact, was a precisely curated triptych through his musical psyche, moving as it did across continents and islands, through ideas both personal and universal, all of it conveyed on sonic wings as eloquent as the man front and center. Baritone and tenor saxophones punctuated “Afterlife,” Simon's imagining of Heaven as a bureaucratic mess. Flutes offered respite during a delicate rendition of “The Only Living Boy in New York.”

We didn't quite believe it either at first. But as he sat at a piano and addressed a crowd of sunburned onlookers last Saturday in Indio, we suddenly realized we were witnessing an epic celebrity cameo at the Coachella campground. 

 "Hello, my name is Jeff Goldblum, and we're gonna play a little music for you."

Taking the scorching tent city by surprise, Goldblum and his jazz band, the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, unleashed 90 minutes of pure bebop bravado. We soon learned that Goldblum's impromptu performance would be used as fodder for a skit on comedy website Funny or Die. Attempting to align Goldblum's performance with the likes of the Woodstock or the Beatles playing Shea Stadium, FoD presents the show as a legendary slice of history that fans will never forget. But, then, how could they?

The video was posted today on the website's homepage. For those lucky enough to witness this flash of comedic brilliance, this was easily one Coachella you want to relive. For those who were busy wolfing down $4 churros or watching Foals at the Mojave tent, time to see what you missed.

RELATED:

Jeff Goldblum (yes, Jeff Goldblum) and his jazz orchestra shock the Coachella campground

-- Nate Jackson

The hottest ticket in town on Friday night might be the Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Rick Ross show at Staples Center. But perhaps the wisest and cheapest alternative is to head to the Hyperion Tavern for Blazing 45s, a night of 15-minute sets comprised of only 45 records.

Presented by Fuzz and Dublab, the lineup is deliriously deep and consists of many of Los Angeles' top crate-diggers: B+, Dam-Funk, Shinehead, Peanut Butter Wolf, Frosty, Nobody, Rhettmatic, Dub Club Tom, Turquoise Wisdom, Nanny Cantaloupe, Danny Holloway, Destroyer, Monalisa, Expo, Byze, Belson, Scott Craig, Dina J, Hymnl, IMI, and John Tripp. 

The event also doubles as Holloway's birthday bash. And for those of you who are unawares of the man's prowess, I'll point to this stellar reggae mix he made last year, full of deep and rare dub and roots reggae gems.

In honor of the occasion, Destroyer has cobbled together a similarly impressive reggae, classic soul and gypsy jazz-like remix of Aaliyah's "Try Again." Oh, and best of all, the event is free. It goes from 10 p.m. p.m till 2 a.m., but early arrival is suggested.

Download: (Pop & Hiss Exclusive)

ZIP: Destroyer-Blazing 45s Mix

-- Jeff Weiss

Music from the 21^st century: such a wide open theme for the “American Idol” contestants to navigate and one that would at least ensure that finalists hit the stage with more youthful tunes. 

However, for a show  so slanted toward youth -– the age of hopefuls has been lowered, and the oldest contestant will be turning 24 this year -– it continues to deliver tracks from deep within the American songbook. 

The contestants were allowed to pick tracks from the 21^st century, and considering that none of the finalists was a preteen at the start of the new century, it left too much room to turn back the hands of time.

So, after another week of high praise from the judges (with the exception of minor notes of the proverbial "pitchiness), Pop & Hiss opted to create a challenge.

Each week, no doubt there is someone, somewhere in America yelling at the television set about the contestant's choice (usually it's one of us). We thought it might prove instructive to take a stab at song selection. How hard can it be? The theme? Songs curated exclusively from this week’s Billboard Hot 100.

What do U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan do when they have a little bit of spare time on their hands? 

They cover Britney Spears, of course.

In this YouTube video, Marines in Afghanistan do their best impression of Spears as they lip-sync her single, "Hold It Against Me" -- dance break included.

The platoon has also offered versions of Miley Cyrus' "Party In the U.S.A." and Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls."

In a teaser video, the Marines announce they plan on covering Diddy-Dirty Money's smash, "Coming Home" -- appropriately pegged as their last video before they end their tour and return to the U.S.

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
twitter.com/gerrickkennedy

Lady Gaga has a sense of humor after all. 

On Wednesday, we reported that Gaga denied permission for parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic to satirize her anthem, "Born This Way," according to a lengthy post on his blog.

Dubbed "I Perform This Way," the man who turned Michael Jackson's "Beat It" into the gluttonous ode "Eat It" -- among dozens of others -- planned on poking fun at all things Gaga and donating sales from the video and song to the Human Rights Campaign.

But before Weird Al fans got ready to picket the Queen of the Monsters, it turned out her manager was responsible for nixing the song, without sending it to Gaga first. Yankovic didn't actually need Gaga's permission, but he extends the mutually beneficial proposition as a courtesy -- his parodies have always fallen under "fair use"  in matters of copyright law.

Yankovic wrote in an updated post that Gaga's manager apologized -- and that Gaga loves the cover. 

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
twitter.com/gerrickkennedy

Indio police spokesman Benjamin Guitron: "You read about other concerts, and some of the issues that they have, and we know we are very fortunate here."

Kendall Huberman and her friends wanted to take advantage of the sights from the Ferris wheel at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. They also had a deadline, as they wanted to catch rock act the Black Keys at 8:30 Friday night. So at the start of the hour, the group headed to the Ferris wheel line, were led to a gondola and began their ride. 

And then, as Huberman and her friend Kyle Flanders tell it, things got surreal. As the Ferris wheel was beginning its ascent, a young woman suddenly made a dash for their carriage. In separate interviews, Huberman and Flanders described her as about 5-foot-1. She said nothing after jumping into the gondola. Flanders, however, recalled that she was making indecipherable noises. 

"We had started moving, and she jumped in really fast," said Huberman, 20, of Manhattan Beach and a student at UCSB. "We were kind of annoyed that she decided to jump into our gondola, so we just decided to ignore her and enjoy the ride. Then literally, as soon as we got high enough to where anything you could see from a bird’s-eye view..."

Huberman trailed off, as what happened next, she said, was something no one was expecting or could prepare for. "She stood up, lifted her arms and dove from the gondola head first," said Huberman.

Early Saturday, a rumor was spreading around the Coachella grounds that a young woman had attempted to jump off the Ferris wheel. There weren't too many details, though the on-site firefighters confirmed that it did happen, and confirmed that she was saved by someone on the ride with her. 

After speaking with numerous health, security and law enforcement officials, it became clear that the story existed in numerous forms. Pop & Hiss posted what was known as of late Saturday afternoon and promised an update when or if more information was available. The very next day Huberman's father contacted The Times, and said his daughter was on the gondola with the woman who tried to jump. He passed along his daughter's contact information.

As for the person who saved the woman, that is believed to be Flanders, a 24-year-old swim instructor/lifeguard for a Spectrum Athletic Club.

He agreed to talk to Pop & Hiss Tuesday afternoon, but wanted to stress the following: "I love Coachella. I love the Ferris wheel. I am definitely going again next year. Everything was run great. It was 50 times better organized this year. There was a lot more space. I liked the placement of the Ferris wheel better. There were so many overall improvements. 

"I’m really worried about the girl more than anything in the world," he continued. "I want to find her and I want to get in touch."

More than a few have emailed, taking credit for the rescue, and in an effort to avoid a hoax, Flanders was asked for verification that he was indeed on the Ferris wheel with the woman who attempted to jump. Flanders provided numerous pictures -- all taken immediately after the incident on the gondola -- as well as video of the same woman being assisted by medical staff. Due to privacy concerns and the unknown identity, condition or whereabouts of the woman, Pop & Hiss will not post either the photos or the video.

As to what, apparently, happened on the gondola on Friday night, this is how Flanders tells it:

Beyoncé is done making her fans wait.

After the singer’s new single, “Run the World (Girls),” leaked and caused a frenzy among her fans, the speculation on when the single would get an official release ran rampant online.

But the singer, who is gearing up for her fourth solo album, has announced the album’s first offering will be issued to iTunes and radio Thursday morning.

“Run the World (Girls)” fits right into the former Destiny's Child frontwoman’s long line of club-ready girl-power anthems.

The track features a direct sample of Diplo and Switch’s Major Lazer project, specifically the gritty dancehall hit, “Pon De Floor” and was co-written by Beyoncé and The-Dream; they also worked together on her smash “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).” 

To further whet fans' appetites, the singer released a quick (and we mean 17 seconds quick) teaser of the upcoming Francis Lawrence-directed clip, but the only image we see of her is on the back of a horse.

In photos that circulated online, Beyoncé can be seen commanding what appears to be a post-apocalyptic war zone, donning an elaborate gold headdress and holding a red flag emblazoned with a black “B.” 

Watch the teaser here.

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy

twitter.com/gerrickkennedy

Photo: “Run the World (Girls)” single cover. Credit: Courtesy of Columbia Records

West Coast fans of pioneering industrial metal band Ministry might be waiting quite a while to see the years-in-the-making behind-the-scenes documentary that premiered at the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival last weekend. Frontman Al Jourgensen is suing the film's makers, alleging, among other things, that he's owed thousands of dollars and that he did not have the opportunity to approve the cut of "Fix: The Ministry Movie," which chronicles the group's 1996 SphincTour.

"The bottom line is this," Jourgensen said Tuesday, speaking by phone from his home in El Paso. "It boils down to breach of contract in a lot of different ways. I'm sole registered owner of the trademark Ministry, the name Ministry, the brand Ministry, everything Ministry. In any contract signed throughout the history of the filming of this, it was understood and in writing and approved and signed by everyone that I would have final cut approval of this film being shown anywhere, let alone being released. I never got that."

Directed by Doug Freel, "Fix" features talking head appearances by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, Tool and A Perfect Circle's Maynard James Keenan and Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister (himself the subject of a recent music doc) in addition to the footage that Freel shot while touring with the band some 15 years ago. The film offers frank depictions of drug abuse, but Jourgensen, who has seen various cuts over the years, said he takes no issue with the movie's more unflattering moments.

"I don't really care about the content of what's in the film," said Jourgensen, who recently completed a rehabilitation program for alcohol abuse. "To me, the whole film is a Polaroid snapshot of a period of my life that I'm not particularly happy with... It's like watching a slow train wreck for me, or a reality show, but that's fine because I'm a whole different person now. I have no problems with that film ever being released, if it's done properly and I'm paid for it. It's not like I'm doing this because I'm ashamed, or anything like that."