The members of One Direction have done important work in relaxing what’s expected of a boy band. They don’t dance. They often dress like hobos. And their music generally relies less on syrupy R&B grooves than on rowdy pop-rock guitars. Onstage last August at Staples Center, where the British group played four sold-out concerts, they seemed so cheerfully indifferent to the arena-show enterprise that you wondered whether they knew anyone had turned up to watch them. In at least one way, though, One Direction adheres to established boy-band orthodoxy: When they sing about sex, they do so via winking euphemism and thinly veiled double entendre. “Let’s take a ride out in the cold air,” they sang on last year’s “Midnight Memories” album. “I know the way / Why don’t you go there with me?” For a more direct approach to the topic, one must turn to 5 Seconds of Summer, the Australian boy band that opened those Staples gigs (and will do the same job when One Direction stops at the Rose Bowl in...

Billy Corgan has explored some unexpected paths in recent years. He’s opened a tea house in a Chicago suburb, founded a professional wrestling league and performed an eight-hour musical interpretation of Herman Hesse's existentialist classic "Siddhartha." The Smashing Pumpkins leader recently explored a more familiar avenue, announcing that he has completed "Monuments to an Elegy," one of two records the band says are lined up. “I’d like to boast and say it’s some newly invented form, but more than likely it’s just a stripped compendium, that in its steeliness achieves some eager, brute modernity,” Corgan wrote on the Smashing Pumpkins site, the Panopticon. Corgan believes the completed record “was one of the easiest and most pleasurable albums I’ve ever made.” He was more vague in delivering word of a released date, adding, “if we’re lucky it’ll be out soon enough.” No details have been released regarding the second planned record, “Day for Night.” Corgan also revealed the completed...

As a service to readers who may need up-to-date music news and in-the-know talking points for the weekend -- who knows what Tinder may deliver? -- below are a few talking points to impress your date, dinner guests and/or parents, along with tips for possible soundtracks. -- Jack White went to a Cubs game, morphed into a miserable Cubs fan. (Go Cardinals!) He also covered “Royals,” Lorde’s ode to the middling Kansas City "baseball" team.  -- To build the groove-heavy new mix for the website Africa in Your Earbuds, Hot Chip singer and cofounder Alexis Taylor dug into his archives. He ended up selecting music that he got “from market stalls in Marrakech, and from street musicians selling their own CDs, as well as my own field recordings of dawn and dusk prayer sounds and general Medina music/noise.” It’s a good exercise and/or meditation mix, available for streaming and download. -- Mötley Crüe is the Gary Busey of Rock. Lady Gaga goes all in on EDM at Staples Center. Both don’t fare well...

 A selection of jazz and jazz-adjacent shows coming up this week. Ron Carter Trio at Catalina With the recent loss of Charlie Haden, Carter may be the most storied bass player working today with stints backing practically a phone book of jazz legends in Sam Rivers, Andrew Hill, Eric Dolphy and, of course, Miles Davis on landmark albums such as "Miles Smiles," "Nefertiti" and "Four and More." Here he performs in a trio that shows he remains committed to pushing ahead. Catalina Bar & Grill, 6725 W. Sunset Blvd., L.A. Thurs.-Sat., $25-$40. www.catalinajazzclub.com.  Mark de Clive-Lowe at Downstairs @ Fifty Seven A pianist, producer and DJ, Mark de Clive-Lowe can probably add the term chemist to his resume for his jazz-infused live sets combined with in-the-moment remixing he's offered on a regular basis in New York City and Los Angeles for a night he's simply called "Church." He just released an album of the same name, a dynamic, groove-heavy blend of live electronic music, funk and...

Stand back: Stevie Nicks is preparing to unleash a new solo album. The Fleetwood Mac frontwoman announced Thursday that she'll release "24 Karat Gold -- Songs From the Vault" on Oct. 7, only a week after the band launches its first tour with Christine McVie in over a decade. The follow-up to 2011's "In Your Dreams," Nicks' record consists primarily of songs written between 1969 and 1987, according to a statement; there's also one from 1994 and another from 1995. Nicks co-produced the album in Nashville and Los Angeles with Dave Stewart (who also oversaw "In Your Dreams") and her longtime guitarist, Waddy Wachtel. "Each song is a lifetime. Each song has a soul. Each song has a purpose. Each song is a story," Nicks said with characteristic flair in the statement. "They represent my life behind the scenes, the secrets, the broken hearts, the broken hearted and the survivors. These songs are the memories -- the 24 karat gold rings in the blue box." Along with the music, "24 Karat Gold"...

It’s Thursday, which in Twitter parlance means the Day of Throwbacks: dusty, crate-diggable music worthy of renewed consideration. Below, a curated round-up of recent and upcoming reissues, archival recordings, resurrection mixes and vinyl pressings.  Lewis, L'Amour (Light in the Attic). The mysterious artist who recorded under the pseudonym Lewis has gained much recent attention, much of it due to the reissue by Light in the Attic Records of his 1983 album, “L’Amour.” A smooth post-soft-rock guitar and synthesizer album considered a classic by collectors of private press recordings, “L’Amour” has a beguiling back story. Specifically, no one’s quite sure were Louis went. As the story goes, prior to making "L'Amour," he rocketed into L.A., stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel, recorded, did a photo shoot with underground punk photographer Ed Colver and then vanished, releasing "L'Amour" on his vanity label R.A.W. Records. The result is totally surreal: folky mumble-core that's tough to get...

Since bass-dribbling single “New Dorp. New York” was revealed Tuesday, a wave of updates surrounding SBTRKT’s new album have surfaced. The U.K. producer announced a new record titled “Wonder Where We Land” is set for a Sept. 23 release. While SBTRKT’s self-titled debut album had a number of notable guests, including Little Dragon, Jessie Ware, and Sampha, “Wonder Where We Land” is set to top that. With Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig already featured on the single, ASAP Ferg, Denai Moore and members of Chairlift, Koreless and Los Angeles-based Warpaint contribute across the 15-track record. Jessie Ware and Sampha will also return. These featured tracks will be showcased on a lengthy world tour starting in the United Kingdom in late September. SBTRKT (whose real name is Aaron Jerome) is slated for two October outings in Los Angeles at the Belasco Theater. He additionally released an album teaser, a relatively repetitive audio snippet above bubbling maroon water. These updates amplify what...

The impending arrival of the Made in America festival in Los Angeles hasn’t been without controversy. Back in April when Jay Z stood on the steps of City Hall alongside Mayor Eric Garcetti to announce plans for his two-day festival to take over downtown’s Grand Park during Labor Day weekend (Aug. 30-31), there was already concern from city officials. How will the festival affect downtown? What will it look like? Which streets will be closed? How many people will be there? Festival organizers looked to answer those questions during a community meeting Tuesday night at City Hall. About two dozen downtown residents and business owners filed into the Public Works boardroom to hear from representatives of festival sponsor Budweiser as well as the United Way (some proceeds of the event will benefit area branches of the nonprofit) and Diversified Production Services, the entertainment promotions company that has partnered with Roc Nation and Live Nation to stage the festival. “We’re only...

The theremin is just about the only musical instrument one can play without touching it. Musicians create sounds by moving their hands in the open air around the theremin’s antennae. Players get close to it, but outside of adjusting some knobs and settings, they never actually get their hands on it. For Sean Michaels, a writer and music critic, the theremin embodies all the modern, electrified ways that human connections come in and out of thin air. His debut novel, “Us Conductors,” follows the instrument’s creator, Russian inventor Lev Termen -- known as Leon Theremin in the West -- as he enjoys Jazz Age celebrity in New York’s avant-garde music circles, and chronicles his deportment to a Siberian prison camp after his return to the Soviet Union. After the theremin’s 1920 invention, Michaels said: “It was one of the first times that people found the beguiling confusion that can come from wires and electricity. It was a new feeling.” Music-obsessed readers will recognize Michaels’...

It's strange but true: "Weird Al" Yankovic, the pop-song parodist who seemed to peak in popularity in the mid 1980s, finally scored his first No. 1 album this week. "Mandatory Fun," Yankovic's 14th studio disc, topped the Billboard 200 chart Wednesday with sales of 104,000 copies in the week that ended July 20, according to Nielsen SoundScan. "If you'd told me 30 years ago this would happen, I never would've believed it," the singer wrote early Wednesday on Twitter. "If you'd told me 2 WEEKS ago, I never would've believed it." As Billboard's Keith Caulfield points out, "Mandatory Fun" is the first comedy album to hit No. 1 on the tally since 1963, when Allan Sherman's "My Son, the Nut" -- made famous by "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter from Camp)" -- spent eight weeks there. With parodies of well known tunes by Lorde, Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke, among others, Yankovic's album arrived accompanied by a series of music videos that earned widespread attention on the Internet...

Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Lorde, One Direction and Ed Sheeran are among the chart-topping stars who will perform at the fourth iHeartRadio Music Festival, scheduled for Sept. 19-20 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The two-day festival put on by radio conglomerate Clear Channel (DJ Ryan Seacrest’s lineup announcement was broadcast on all 840 Clear Channel stations early Wednesday) will again pack top-tier acts across a range of genres over two days.  Coldplay, Usher, Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea, Steve Aoki, Calvin Harris and Paramore will also perform. As will Zac Brown Band, Bastille,  Train, Eric Church and “other surprise special guests and never-before-imagined collaborations,” according to Clear Channel’s release. During the festival’s second day, the iHeartRadio Music Festival Village stage will host performances from Iggy Azalea, Neon Trees, Kacey Musgraves, Childish Gambino, Magic!, the Pretty Reckless, Nico & Vinz and Lil Jon, with additional talent expected to be...