> CONCERT SAMPLER
Live-music highlights for the week of July 20-26.
Elvis Costello and the Imposters The landmark 1982 LP Imperial Bedroom is the centrepiece of this return, but it’s not as if Costello and longtime band — apart from bass player Davey Faragher, the same compact, potent Attractions unit of yore — are in for a by-the-numbers nostalgia exercise. More like a nonsequential reworking, even a “defacing,” as he told Rolling Stone (“I didn’t want people to think that this was a grandiose return to the past”). And so the record that turned away from his narrower punktroubadour beginnings gets new arrangements, liberated from the lavish template by the addition of backing voices Kitten Kuroi, YahZarah and Faragher, and accompanying self-made visuals that gleefully cock a snook at his back pages. Though he does make sure to go there, too — the set list is otherwise packed with familiars at once hummable and quotable. (Thursday, Sony Centre, 8 p.m.)
C.W. Stoneking In crisp whites, bow tie and hair oiled back flat, the Melbourne-based Stoneking looks like he’s up for a game of vintage cricket. But no, the throwback lumber in his bag includes a banjo and a Duolian, and hailing from Australia’s Northern Territory hinterland, his “jungle blues” hits for six (as the cricketers say) in concert, where the storytelling flows as laconic and tall as the tunes. Anyone down with recent Sampler choice Pokey Lafarge will find vintage threads to grab here. A touchdown at this same venue last year was Stoneking’s local debut, and for this return he brings a new lineup including the backing vocals of Nashville soul sirens DelAmina and Stephcynie. Locals O Frontera’s sparse alt-folk will warm things up well. (Friday, Drake Underground, doors 8 p.m.) Jamila Woods Working with Chance the Rapper, Kweku Collins, Macklemore and more earned the Chicagoan Woods some momentum in the city’s R&B and hip-hop circles, then acclaimed debut album HEAVN last year took Woods to a new level that brings her in here for an overdue Toronto introduction. The record’s all smooth surfaces and roiling interiors, with a strong sense of roots and a deceptively keen edge — “LSD,” for instance, with Chance returning the favour with a guest verse, refers not to the hallucinogenic but to Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive, a sort of dividing line pointing to the freedom and open air of Lake Michigan. She’s a scholarpoet and teacher as well, mentoring young writers back home, so such a combination of lyricism and activism comes well-honed. (Friday, Garrison, doors 8 p.m.)
Dwight Yoakam and Jillian Jacqueline It’s been over a decade since Yoakam last played in Toronto — Rama don’t count! — and in the interim, a slew of new-school types have sprung up and, like him back in the day, taken country music to places not brand new perhaps, but certainly freshened. Last year’s LP Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars . . . was a bit of a placeholder but also of a piece with his 30-year career, as he steered a number of his old songs (and a cover of “Purple Rain”) into a bluegrass setting befitting his Kentucky roots. That might not be the best indicator here — recent shows have him, at age 60, with the backing of a killer band, equal parts electrified California rocker and Buck Owens revisitor. As for those young whippersnappers, Jillian Jacqueline opens. (Saturday, Danforth Music Hall, 7 p.m.)
Kendrick Lamar Lamar’s latest tour, including this first Toronto headlining date in nearly four long years has him alone and relatively unadorned, the band hidden away behind a scrim on the biggest arena and stadium stages. In the interim since the August 2013 Sound Academy show that had that sorry old place in an SRO lather, it’s been a case of ascending strength and changing course, from the kaleidoscopic time-tripping of To Pimp a Butterfly to the tighter focus of this year’s DAMN. followup that carpetbombed the charts. He’s also got a date booked Aug. 23 at this same arena — in either case, the pick of the week and among the concert highlights for the whole year. (Tuesday, Air Canada Centre, 7:30 p.m.)
LOLAA T.O. sisters Lex Valentine and Nadia King knocked around for a decade or so as two-thirds of scrappy indie rockers Magneta Lane, but as LOLAA they’re on to something quite different, more shine than spit, and all their own reflecting their Mexican heritage and disco-lovin’ hearts. The cover photo from their self-titled debut EP is telling — it’s mom Gloria, getting a glitter facewash — and they’re a natural bookend to this week’s Blondie show, with Debbie Harry among their touchstones. After a July 19 date downstairs at the Drake they’re on tap for this Open Roof assignment (set time 8 p.m.) — they’re gathering momentum. (Wednesday, 99 Sudbury, 7 p.m.)