Rock out with your Goblin Cock out!

Two EPs put out last year by the Ubiquity and Sound in Color labels helped build up the underground buzz on L.A.'s SA-RA Creative Partners, but 2006 looks to be the band's time to shine. Members Taz Arnold, Shafiq Husayn, and Om'Mas Keith (each of them producers who have worked with the likes of Dr. Dre, Ice-T, Common, and Jurassic 5, to name a few) formed the group six years ago, and will finally be releasing their debut album sometime in '06 through G.O.O.D. Music, Kanye West's label. The band takes its name from a Kemetic word meaning "children of the cosmos," and that suits its music just fine. SA-RA's hypersexualized hip hop/soul is infused with a healthy dose of funk that could grab the attention of George Clinton's Mothership. The venue formerly known as Storyville and currently called the 1751 Social Club is once again shutting its doors, but this Friday, Feb. 10, the venue celebrates its sexy last hurrah with SA-RA; call 441-1751 or visit www.massiveselector.com for more info. -- Tamara Palmer

The video for Goblin Cock 's "Stumped" features girl softball players, comic books, and bad special-effects robots -- three sure signs that, while their music wouldn't be out of place on a mixtape with Sabbath's, these guys aren't your ordinary metal band. This is metal for the ironic indie kids; it's metal for people who've had their tongues in their cheeks for so long they can't say, "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is way overrated," without lisping. Which isn't really all that surprising, considering Goblin Cock is the brainchild of one of indie rock's crown princes, Pinback's Rob Crow. Crow's known in his San Diego hometown as the man of a thousand bands (Thingy, Heavy Vegetable, Optiganally Yours, and his most recent project, the Ladies). Goblin Cock pairs his nerdy penchant for sci-fi and Dungeons & Dragons with a weird phallophilia (peep the NC-17 album art of the group's debut, Bagged and Boarded, released on local label Absolutely Kosher) and a desire to perform in black cloaks. Still, despite the doom-and-gloom chicanery, you can expect more horn-rimmed specs than hair-spray whores when Goblin Cock throws down on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Rickshaw Stop; call 861-2011 or visit www.rickshawstop.com for more info. Appropriately enough, the show is scheduled to coincide with WonderCon 2006, a comic book convention happening at Moscone Center West all weekend.-- Maya Kroth