Mikey G's Picks of the Week

This week’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them: Monday: Don’t expect any of that whiny emo crap from Australian cock-rockers Jet. The band embraces and loses itself in the riff-heavy hedonism and misogyny of the Stones and AC/DC. The group’s second album, Shine On, pretty much recycles the best parts of 2003’s Get Born, but without a killer single like “Are You Gonna Be My Girl.” No matter. Jet’s House of Blues show should be ear-shatteringly macho. Tuesday: Seattle singer-songwriter Brandi Carlisle taps into joy, heartbreak, and rage on her second album, The Story. They’re all powered by her massive voice -- which simultaneously conveys country ache and folksy joy -- while cello, piano, and plenty of electric guitar swells around it. She plays House of Blues. Wednesday: We regret to inform you that the new Vegas revue The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands skips over all the stuff that made the era so much fun: Dino’s onstage drinking, Sammy casually sticking it to bigots, and Sinatra eating breakfast off a hooker’s chest. Still, this song-and-dance-stuffed production at the Palace Theatre is a real ring-a-ding ding! Thursday: Otep frontwoman Otep Shamaya’s deal with the devil was probably more sexual than Robert Johnson’s. Listening to the L.A. metal band’s latest album, The Ascension, you can’t help but notice how fierce she sounds. And how sexy. If anyone can make the growls of the goat-sacrificing genre sound like foreplay, it’s Shamaya, who packs a lotta hot-and-heavy fury into her tiny frame. Otep plays House of Blues. Friday: In the Sundance hit The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, a 12-year-old Filipino boy dresses like a girl and runs numbers for his dad. He also cooks and cleans for his two crooked brothers, who don’t seem to mind that their little sibling sports makeup and sashays through the hood like a cross-dressing Lolita. The movie screens at the Cleveland Cinematheque. --Michael Gallucci