LITTLE ROCK — David Bazan, formerly the frontman of the group Pedro the Lion, will bring his new approach to music to central Arkansas for a show tonight at Sticky Fingerz Chicken Shack, 107 Commerce St., Little Rock.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone will open the show at 9:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10 at the door.
Call (501) 372-7707.
Bazan, who retired the Pedro the Lion band name to pursue other projects, released a solo EP, Fewer Moving Parts, on Barsuk Records on May 22. The 10-song EP contains five new songs, each recorded in stripped-down acoustic version and a version with full instrumentation. He was named No. 85 of the Top 100 Living Songwriters in a recent issue of Paste magazine. In 2006, he toured with Mark Eitzel of American Music Club and Vic Chesnutt and others as The Undertow Orchestra.
Now based in Edmonds, Wash., Bazan, 31, also leads a new electronic project, Headphones. He also plans to release a CD in early 2008 by another new band, David Bazan's Black Cloud.
Pnuma Trio, a Boulder, Colo., band, will perform at 9 p.m. Saturday at Sticky Fingerz.
Cover charge will be $8.
The trio identifies its sound as a mix of "break beat, drums-n-bass, jazz, classical, rock and anything else that categorizes as a modern music genre ...." The group played more than 200 shows in 2006.
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, a jazz/bluegrass/fusion band that has not played central Arkansas in several years, will remedy that with a show at 9 p.m. Saturday at the Revolution Room, 300 President Clinton Ave., LittleRock.
Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 on the day of the show.
Call (501) 823-0090.
Fleck is the only musician to have been nominated for Grammys in jazz, bluegrass, pop, country, spoken word, Christian, composition and the world music categories.
The B-Flats, known to fans as "the doctor band," will return to The Afterthought, 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, for a show at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
Cover charge is $7.
Call (501) 663-1196.
Members of the group are Dr. Jim Grissom on guitar and hematology/oncology; Dr. David Bauman on keyboards and cardiology; Dr. Keith Mooney on bass and urology; plus nonmedical members Steve Bauman, David's brother, on guitar; and John Shively on drums.The band's "chick" singers are Drs. Susan Santa Cruz and Sue Ulmer, both internists, and Dr. Sidney Hayes, a Medicare executive.
Shuffle Band, a Tulsa group, will shuffle into the White Water Tavern, West Seventh and Thayerstreets, for a show at 10 p.m. Saturday.
Admission is $5.
Call (501) 375-8400.
Members of Shuffle Band have links to Arkansas. Guitarist Jeff Davis is a native of North Little Rock, where he founded The Bar-B-Q Blues Band. He later lived in Eureka Springs before settling in Tulsa. Drummer Jonathan Taylor graduated from Parkview High School and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. He has performed with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and now lives in St. Louis.
Other members are singer Annie Ellicott, bassist Cris Foster and saxophonist Zach Elkins.
The Salty Dogs, who are still determined to outsell The Eagles Greatest Hits, will bring the band's "aw, shucks" approach to music tonight to Juanita's, 13th and Main streets, Little Rock.
The show opens at 9:30 p.m. with a set by another central Arkansas band, Runaway Planet.
Admission is $6.
Call (501) 374-3271.
The Salty Dogs released the band's second CD, Autoharpoon, earlier this year. Members of the band are Brad Williams on vocals, Nick Devlin on guitar and lap steel, Bart Angel on drums and Mike Nelson on bass.
The Reds will hold a prerelease party to celebrate the band's new CD, Economy of Motion, tonight at Vino's, West Seventh and Chester streets. The album will officially arrive Oct. 2.
Smoke Up Johnny and San Antokyo will open the show at 8:30 p.m.
Cover charge is $5.
Saturday, Vino's will mark its17th anniversary with music that begins at 3 p.m. and will include Drop Dead Syndicate, Browningham, Mat Mahar, Underclaire, a King Don CD release show and more.
Admission is $6.
Call (501) 375-8466.
Doug McDonald and the Blue Mirror Band will play at 9 p.m. today at Cajun's Wharf, 2400 Cantrell Road, Little Rock.
Admission is $5.
Call (501) 375-5351.
McDonald, who traded a bale of cotton for his first guitar, was born in Little Rock and then moved to Chicago to learn the blues. He played with Buddy Guy, Fenton Robinson and Junior Wells. Jesse "Captain" Johnson, who plays keyboard in McDonald's band, also has played with Guy and Robinson, as well as Ruby Andrews.
The Rhythm and Brews Coffeehouse will feature six acts, five from Arkansas and one from Tennessee, from 7 to 11 p.m. today at St. Thomas' Reformed Episcopal Church, 4411 Woodlawn Drive, Little Rock.
Performers will be Dreaming of Anna, from Conway; Jonathan Snow Carpenter, from Monticello; Matt Pinkard, from Blytheville; Karniam, from Cabot; Hensel, from Fort Smith; and Kathleen Carnali, an artist and worship leader from Nashville, Tenn.
Cover charge is $8.
Call (501) 663-7708.
According to Rhythm and Brews founder, the Rev. John Lohmann, the coffeehouse "was created to provide a safe, alcohol- and drug-free place for young people to listen to music on Friday nights, keeping them off the streets. [The] (M)usic is very loud andcomplemented with a light show and fog."
The monthly Advent Arts Cafe in Conway will tonight feature two Fayetteville folk singers.
Emily Kaitz and Effron White will split the bill, starting at 7:30 p.m.
Advent is in Advent Lutheran Church, 900 Farris Road.
Admission is $7 and $4 for students.
Call (501) 786-1604.
Kaitz, a former Texan who moved to Fayetteville, has written songs recorded by Trout Fishing in America and the Austin Lounge Lizards. She has released six CDs, one of which, Terminally Trendy, contains a duet with Ray Wylie Hubbard on her song "I Will Stay With."
White won the "Best Singer/ Songwriter Award" at the Northwest Arkansas Music Awards show in 2006 and was named a "New Folk" winner in 2004 at the Kerrville (Texas) Folk Festival.
The Villines Brothers will perform in the second show in a series of bluegrass and old-time music shows at the Lyric Theater, 115 W. Rush St., on the courthouse square in Harrison, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets are $10, $8 for members of the Ozark Arts Council and $5 for students. The box office will open an hour before the show.
Call (870) 391-3504 or see the Web site www.thelyricharri son.org.
The Villines brothers, formerly of the band Wildwood, got their start on the family farm in Boxley Valley in Newton County, learning music from their father. The brothers play guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle and stand-up bass.
Weekend, Pages 70 on 09/14/2007