Rock/pop

In some circles, rock 'n' roll hasn't changed so much as it's gotten way, way louder. The Ramones, after all, were really just The Beach Boys with distortion. The Velvet Underground and The Jesus and Mary Chain were sonorous psych trips and noise freakouts to Chuck Berry and The Platters. Bobby Hecksher's Warlocks must have recently dug up all those doo-wop classics and Phil Spector-produced records, since the new Surgery (Mute) repackages the band's heady metal as an homage to the '50s and '60s. "Angels in Heaven, Angels in Hell" taps into a Skyliners-style waltz, and the soaring harmonies and pattering kick-snare intro to "Evil Eyes Again" are straight out of the Wall of Sound, though not without some wisely taken liberties. "I like listening to [Spector's] stuff. I like the full sound he gets, but it's so dated lyrically," Hecksher says. "I can only take so many songs about love, y'know?" So rather than lavish teenage romantic symphonies, Hecksher reimagines the style as a brooding, sinister film noir score while conducting The Warlocks' three overdriven guitarists. His isn't a wall of sound, it's a wall of Marshall amps.

Fri., Oct. 14, 9 p.m., $10, with The Gris Gris and Psychic Ills, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, www.r5productions.com.