Our Critics' Picks

THURSDAY9/20

Music

RED STICK RAMBLERS Eclecticism and traditionalism rarely meet as comfortably as they do on the Red Stick Ramblers’ new Made in the Shade. The Baton Rouge quintet pay tribute to well-known figures such as Louis Armstrong and Clifton Chenier, and guitarist Chas Justus gives props to the undersung Roy Smeck on “The Smeckled Suite.” On the title track—a paean to a local whiskey-maker—they sing, “He’s got miles of copper tubing coming out of the top / So you gotta sit a spell before you see the first drop.” Like many modern acoustic bands, they evoke the past, but they’re grounded in a culture that’s rich enough to accommodate innovation. “The Cowboy Song,” written by Justus and lead vocalist Linzay Young, is a tribute to freedom that makes the connection between “range and canyon” and central Louisiana’s prairies. They might be “Unsentimental,” as one song is titled, but these guys have plenty of heart. 9 p.m. at Station Inn—EDD HURT

The New Old Weird America

CHARALAMBIDES W/CORTNEY TIDWELL & CHERRY BLOSSOMS At least two of the artists on this outstanding bill have been somewhat dismissively tagged as “freak folk.” And yet, as Todd Haynes’ fascinating Bob Dylan deconstruction I’m Not There suggests, it’s really all freak folk, all of it—Dylan, the Harry SmithAnthology, all those hypnotic murder ballads and hymns and reels, the soundtrack to a secret America full of signs and wonders, while the mainstream roars past on the interstate. Anchoring this night, fittingly enough, is another Carter family—longtime Houston musical partners Tom and Christina Carter, whose Charalambides explore the sonic equivalent of negative space in raga-like entwinings of spindly folk-blues guitar and spectral vocals offset by halos of quiet. Yet they can fuzz/psych-rock out in the best Texas tradition, and their live show is said to cast quite a spell. See them before their eagerly awaited fall release (and before Christina joins Thurston Moore in support of his new solo album, on which she sings a duet). Tidwell and the Cherry Blossoms you know, or should: the former’s Don’t Let Stars Keep UsTangled Up is one of the year’s most acclaimed local releases, a bewitching summer storm of stark space-folk atmospherics, while the latter—a wonderful rattle-trap “kazoo-exotica” collective of indeterminate membership—sound like the back-holler bohemians who somehow missed the notice that Ralph Peer was recording up in Bristol. 9 p.m. at Springwater —JIM RIDLEY

Music

DARK MEAT Athens music collective Dark Meat’s roster fluctuates between 18 and 30 members—the group supplements their standard rock ’n’ roll fare with multiple percussionists, a horn section, a vocal trio known as the Subtweeters and random offerings of fiddles, clarinets, flutes and even the occasional didgeridoo for good measure. With personnel representing some of the city’s most prominent bands—Circulatory System, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, The Olivia Tremor Control, etc.—Dark Meat come across as more of a happening than a band. The eclectic instrumentation lends itself to the eclectic output found on last year’s Universal Indians, on which the band weaves its way in and out of blues, punk, country, free-form jazz and soul. The disparate mixture is held together by a loose, quasi-hippie aesthetic (a former drummer called himself “Spirit Bird”) and the layers of sound meld into a swirling mass of satisfying psychedelia. 9 p.m. at The End—MATT SULLIVAN

Books

PACO AHLGREN First time novelist Paco Ahlgren set out to write a book about his passions and, boy, does he have a lot of them: economics, quantum physics, music, psychedelic drugs, spirituality and the game of chess. Part psychological thriller, part mystery and part literary novel, Discipline weaves together the author’s interests into one succinct story. Can Douglas Cole see visions from another dimension or is he simply going mad? When do the drugs inspire his music and when do they tear his life apart? What happened to the dog that day beside the river? With its own MySpace page and YouTube trailer, Discipline is the product of a new era in reading, and one can almost picture the inevitable movie. A little bit M. Night Shyamalan, a little bit Blade Runner, this is a story that will keep you wondering where reality stops and fantasy begins. Ahlgren will read from and signDiscipline, 7 p.m. at Borders—Cool Springs —CLAIRE SUDDATH

FRIDAY9/21

Music

MOCK ORANGEIf Mock Orange’s tuneful, distortion-drenched shimmer and off-kilter heartfelt angularities suggest bands like Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement, it’s because the Indiana quartet trace their origins back to ’93. It took more than a few years to really coalesce, but with 2004’s Mind Is NotBrain they achieved a wonderful synthesis of indie rock elements. Singer/guitarist Ryan Grisham’s anxious lilting croon conspires with ringing, zig-zagging guitars to suggest Built to Spill or Modest Mouse, but their sound’s grown louder and grander over the years, separating them from their obvious influences. Folksy acoustic strumming is the centerpiece of several of their brightest pop efforts to date, and a country-rock undertone appears as well. 9 p.m. at the 5 Spot —CHRIS PARKER