Koko and the Sweetmeats

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South Africa, the country that gifted the music world with Dave Matthews, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Die Antwoord, is also the birthplace of Garett van der Speck, the young songwriter who now lives in Seattle and fronts the bluesy and hard-rocking Koko and the Sweetmeats. Van der Speck has a dynamic, squalling voice that sounds like a cross between Dan Auerbach and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and his band’s uptempo tunes are aggressively rhythmic (there are two drummers thrashing away simultaneously) and recall the raw, untamed spirit of the early Kinks or Rolling Stones. Koko’s newest release, Foreign Island, is available for download and features the excellent, incessantly catchy “Little Lover.” With Charlie Smyth Band, Mike Dumovich. ERIN K. THOMPSON
Sat., Jan. 1, 9:30 p.m., 2011