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The coolest people in the world are the ones who can dress and act like mad fools and still deserve your admiration because they’re abilities, talent and charisma trump any superficial impressions. In a town where cool is valued above all things except money, Jamie Lidell was king for a day.

Lidell began his career as techno artist, but by the time he was collaborating with Lo Fidelity Allstars on 2002’s “Deep Ellum”, it was clear he wanted to be a soul man. And he was in front of the packed El Rey audience, dragging along a band featuring a bongo player, a bassist, a drummer and a reedsman who could play two saxophones at once just like Dana Colley of Morphine, doing just that. Singing songs from “Multiply” and his latest, “Jim,” while wearing striped baggies and what looked like a too-small snakeskin jacket, Lidell came on like the truest believer in the power of classic R&B, but with an unquenchable desire to geekily tinker with his toys.

One minute, he could be singing like Otis Redding with a noticeable Terrence Trent D’Arby rasp, the next he would be hunched over his laptop, layering an audience singalong and his irrespressible and impressive beatboxing into a post-modern funk symphony. These exercises can be terribly boring in concert, but Lidell’s mad science kept everyone dancing.

For his finale, Lidell did his most recognizable song, “Multiply,” but instead of a laid-back, Macon, Ga.-style Southern soul song in the vein of Redding, Lidell recast it as a Wilson Pickett-style raveup, and it simply killed. I missed Lidell when he opened for Beck a couple of years ago at Cain’s Ballroom, and this made up for the loss. Jim, we need you to come back to Oklahoma and, give us a big dose of soul, pale Englishman-style.

1. Weezer, Pork and Beans.” There are two Weezer modes that Weezer lovers love: “Blue Album” and Pinkerton. “Pork and Beans, from the “Red Album,” is very “Blue.” Given Mr. Cuomo’s antipathy toward Pinkerton, fans of the disc that birthed emo will be waiting a long time for such a foray, but as long as it doesn’t involve another trip to “Beverly Hills,” I think we’ll all be happy. 

2. Funkadelic, “Cosmic Slop.”

3. Bis, “Powerpuff Girls Closing Theme.”

4. Charlotte Hatherley, “Behave.”

5. Flight of the Conchords, “The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room).” “You’re so beautiful, you could be a part-time model.”

6. Ghostface Killah, “Beauty Jackson.”

7. Ween, “Spirit Walker.”

8. The Sleepy Jackson, “You Won’t Bring People Down in My Town.”

9. Iron & Wine, “Radio War.”

10. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “True Men Don’t Kill Coyotes.” No artist will be the same as they were 20 years before, and it’s safe to say that if that were true of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they would all be in the same shape as Hillel Slovak. But of all the bands from the classic KROQ days, I wish the RHCP’s spirit and music today hewed closer to the original blueprint, a peculiar mix of seminal hip-hop, Frank Zappa and George Clinton. Because today, they could bore me into a coma.

Alfred Weisberg-Roberts has been making music throughout the decade, imposing his classical training on electro and often using obscure music from the swing era for drop-in samples. “Make It So,” from the forthcoming Love to Make Music To, is basically one riff, but it’s a killer one festooned with Brian Eno-style multilayered voices.

The last Wu disc offered compelling evidence that all the rest were RZA’s guests, and “You Can’t Stop Me Now,” featuring a stunning video with a new Bobby Digital storyline, seals the deal.

Courtesy: Pitchfork.tv

Sorry kids — it’s a travel day, and I just got to a connection. I promise an interesting concert review tomorrow, live from an undisclosed remote location.

1. The Ting Tings, “Shut Up and Let Me Go.” While I’m a sucker for Chic-style disco guitar riffs and bratty vocals, the fizz goes out of it pretty quickly. And where’s the official video? It’s as if Jobs told them to hold off on the vid so he could get more mileage out of the mersh.

2. Sparks, “When Do I Get to Sing My Way.”

3. Afghan Whigs, “Creep.”

4. Stereolab, “Italian Shoes Continuum.”

5. Whitest Boy Alive, “Inflation.”

6. Black Kids, “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You.” Re: 5 and 6 — I swear, I didn’t plan that. By the way, this is used to great effect in “American Teen,” which shows next month at the DeadCenter Film Festival.

7. The Police, “Bring On the Night.”

8. Busdriver, “Sun Shower.”

9. Marina Celeste, “Shivers Down My Spine.”

10. Common, “I Want You.” Word on Common’s next disc, Time Travelin’, is that the old soul sound will be replaced by icy synths, so the practically glacial “I Want You” must be the template. Either that, or Graduation.

Rating: 51

The styles and attitudes of the mid-‘80s simply overtake some comedies of that era, and if it weren’t for the fact the two young leads in “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” became A-list talent, this teen-dream farce would be little more than a day-glo time capsule. Instead, “Girls” presages the stardom that awaited Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt — it would just take them another decade to get there. And with “Sex and the City” coming out, much of Parker’s early output is getting a fresh look — both her early ’80s series “Square Pegs” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” are getting new DVD treatments.

Parker plays Janey, the insecure new girl at school with a strict military father and a consuming desire to be on “Dance TV,” a stand-in for a certain music video channel. Lynne (Hunt) is the outgoing rocker chick who gives Parker newfound confidence, a shot winning over school jock Jeff Malene (Lee Montgomery) and being on the network. It’s standard innocent fare for the period, suffused with big hair, bright colors and the kind of exaggerated new wave styles that only really existed in movies.

In “Girls,” Parker emerged as a charismatic screen beauty after years of wallflower characters, and Hunt came across as just a much younger version of her later, Oscar-winning self, full of snark and confidence. And like a lot of “teensploitation” of the period, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” culminates in a dance contest, because nothing conveys true love like spandex, headbands, and the puny throb of tinny synthesizers.

Rating: 86 

Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut is a monument to the organic rock classicism that Neil Young and The Band helped pioneer: a sensibility steeped in rural folk traditions and strengthened with sophisticated melodies. Singer-guitarist Robin Pecknold supplies the Seattle band with its strong acoustic backbone and rock-ribbed songcraft, ensuring that Fleet Foxes deserves all the comparisons that follow. 

The tight harmonies of the opening “Sun It Rises” and “White Winter Hymnal” evoke Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Brian Wilson circa “Smile” — rural reveries yearning for a pre-electric simplicity. But at the core of Fleet Foxes’ outre hippie sensibilities lies serious pop music: “Your Protector,” “Quiet Houses” and nearly all their neighbors are tightly structured compositions — no room for jamming here.

Phil Ek, who also produced Band of Horses’ first two discs, pours a thick layer of atmosphere over the set – ”Fleet Foxes” echoes like a storm drain. On a purely superficial level, this makes much of the disc virtually indistinguishable from Band of Horses and, in turn, My Morning Jacket. That’s good company to keep, but Pecknold differentiates himself and his band with strong choruses and concise melodies that cut through the haze, making Fleet Foxes far more than also-rans in the neo-traditionalist folk-rock sweepstakes. 

1. Islands

“Arm’s Way” (Anti)

2. Portishead

“Third” (Mercury)

3. Mates of State

“Re-Arrange Us” (Barsuk)

4. Flight of the Conchords

“Flight of the Conchords” (Sub Pop)

5. Death Cab For Cutie

“Narrow Stairs” (Atlantic)

6. The National

“A Skin, A Night + The Virginia” (Beggars Banquet)

7. Magnetic Fields

“The Charm of the Highway Strip” (Merge)

8. No Age

“Nouns” (Sub Pop)

9. The Roots

“Rising Down” (Def Jam)

10. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

“Real Emotional Trash” (Matador)

Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett in “Crystal Skull” 

Rating: 72 

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is Steven Spielberg and George Lucas dumping their bags of tricks into a pile and setting off an explosion of nostalgia and white-knuckle action. It’s not as whip-smart as its predecessors, but it still swings.

In 1957, Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones Jr. (Harrison Ford) is teaching archaeology at Marshall College, but in the two decades since “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” the man was busy. That much is made clear in an opening sequence involving Soviet troops, icy superspy Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), and a nuclear test site.

Having been at the worst place at a terrible time, Indy comes under the scrutiny of “red scare”-obsessed government agents, and just as he’s picking a new place to lick his wounds, he’s hounded down by Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf). Mutt dresses like Marlon Brando in “The Wild One” and insists that Indy follow him to South America to help him locate his lost mother on an archeological mission gone wrong.

So this fourth film in the series takes Indy on a quest for the storied Crystal Skull of Akator, but it hardly matters. This is about getting back into the classically kinetic chases, strangely mechanical stone temples and old relationships made new again, including one with Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen, still beautiful and still a match for Indy) from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” “Crystal Skull” is packed with about a dozen wild rides that do not disappoint, and yes, there are snakes. (“Why’d it have to be snakes?”)

But it’s not what Indy wears on his head that is old hat. Director Spielberg and co-writer George Lucas are playing a hits medley with “Crystal Skull”: a little “American Graffiti” here, a lot of “Close Encounters” there, and some “E.T.” thrown in like Reece’s Pieces on their big, gooey cinematic sundae. In fact, a major science fiction theme plays a lot like an Indy plot that was kicked around in the early ’90s. It begs the question: what took them so long?

But these are minor quibbles because at 65, Ford can still hit all the marks. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” acknowledges that the main character is older, but we all are. And the best parts of this “Indy” adventure will make most fans feel a little bit younger.

Much like James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Australia’s Cut Copy derives much of its sound from high-end ’80s electro — “Hearts on Fire” benefits greatly from a Peter Hook-style bass lead.