MUSIC

Pop & Jazz

Previews by August Brown (A.B.) and Todd Martens (T.M.). The Big Pink / A Place to Bury Strangers Of all the instruments and sounds in a rock band’s arsenal, the most difficult one to use well might be sheer noise. For a band like the Big Pink -- a U.K. duo that brilliantly grafts the synth textures of Underworld and old rave to druggy, unshowered shoegaze -- the tension between the loveliness of its melodies and its nastier sonic impulses needs a sure pair of studio hands to keep the peace. With the equally ambitious yet even more brutal New York trio A Place to Bury Strangers. (A.B.) El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Tue., 8 p.m. $18. (323) 936-4790.

Little Boots Just now being released in the U.S., Little Boots’ “Hands” was issued last summer in Britain, and “Stuck on Repeat,” a slick little Euro-dance number, dates to 2008. No matter, the vintage futurism that drapes Victoria Hesketh’s songs has stayed in vogue, and there’s fun to be had here. “Earthquake” is packed with sharp, popping disco effects, and Hesketh, all upper-register sweetness, gets a baroque, carnival-like backdrop on “Ghosts.” (T.M.) El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Wed., 8 p.m. $18. (323) 936-4790.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow These shoegaze-poppers are actually from Philadelphia, but the name is apt -- their melodicism rips through their fog of guitars and synthesizers like a ray of light. (A.B.) The Mint, 6010 Pico Blvd., L.A. Sat., 8 p.m. $12. (323) 954-9400.