Our Critics' Picks

THURSDAY 6/19

MusicMAJOR STARS For the past decade, Major Stars have been playing Jenga with guitars. Just when you think the Boston-based combo couldn’t possibly stack another axe on top, here comes yet another solo threatening to topple the whole thing. The band’s latest full-length, the Drag City-released Mirror/Messenger, utilizes all the excesses of a triple guitar attack while maintaining a garage rock aesthetic. Perfect air guitar fodder if you’ve got six arms. 9 p.m. at Springwater —MATT SULLIVAN

Tequila TimeWINE DOWN MAIN STREET MEXICAN FIESTA AND TEQUILA TASTING There’s still a few months until the popular November fundraiser Wine Down Main Street worms its way through historic Franklin. But you can toast the main event early with a Mexican Fiesta and Tequila Tasting, also benefiting the Boys & Girls Club. Chef Jason McConnell from Sol and Red Pony restaurants will provide authentic Mexican food to accompany six different tequilas from Milagro. Yazoo will provide Dos Perros beers, and, of course, there will be wine available for tasting to hold you over until the fall. Tickets cost $55 and are available at winedownmainstreet.com. 7-10 p.m. at Hallmark Volkswagen (620 Bakers Bridge Ave.) —CARRINGTON FOX

FilmACROSS AMERICA FILM FESTIVAL It sounds like a Fitzcarraldo-scaled folly: Write, shoot, edit and premiere 12 feature films in as many months. And while the Cring family of Goodlettsville has overshot the target by a few months, they’re still on track to deliver Film #12—an original rock musical called Four on the Floor—by late summer. In the meantime, they’re hosting the local premiere of Films #10 and #11 as a double feature, pairing Has Been—a California-shot comedy about a celebrity journalist who stumbles upon a remote outpost of The Surreal Life—with the Arizona-filmed thriller Melvyn’s Clock, in which an older man’s rounds of his hometown lead to danger around every corner. Admission is $7 for both films; call 715-1578 for information about the films or casting for Four on the Floor. 6 p.m. at Watkins College of Art & Design —JIM RIDLEY

MusicPARACHUTE MUSICAL CD RELEASE SHOW One of Nashville’s many growing subgenres is piano pop—what do you expect from the now-home of Ben Folds? This week Parachute Musical celebrate the release of their new album Everything Is Working Out Fine in Some Town. The Washington, D.C., transplants have a sharp sense for melody and the good sense not to clutter up their recordings with extraneous flourishes. Frontman Josh Foster’s voice is agile and sweet, a fine complement to his expert key tinkling. Opening up are locals HeyPenny and Modern Skirts. 9 p.m. at Mercy Lounge —LEE STABERT

FRIDAY 6/20

MusicWILLIAMS & CLARK EXPEDITION Releasing their fifth CD in six years, the Williams & Clark Expedition just keep getting better. Once a bass player alongside mandolinist Bobby Clark in Opry star Mike Snider’s band, Blake Williams returned to the banjo he’d played with Bill Monroe and the two partnered up to start the Expedition, abetted by wife Kimberly Williams on bass and veteran guitarist Wayne Southards. The new disc, Brand New Set of Blues, shows a band that’s tight as a tick running through a nicely varied set that emphasizes straight-ahead bluegrass, from snappy mandolin instrumental “Jalapeño Quickstep” to the swinging “Goodbye Heartache (Hello You)” and lovely waltz “Heaven on Earth.” Perhaps drawing from his years with Snider, Blake Williams has become a fine country-style comedian, adding an extra dimension to the Expedition’s shows. 9 p.m. at Station Inn —JON WEISBERGER

MusicHELEN KELLER W/BLACK SKIES The ongoing revival of the riff will be illustrated this Friday as a couple of no-frills purveyors of all things heavy exhibit their penchant for head-banging. Helen Keller share a vocalist with epic doom metalers Rwake but keep things fairly straight, while Chapel Hill’s Black Skies’ monolithic attack weighs more than one should reasonably expect from a trio. Also on the bill are like-minded locals Seawitch—quite possibly the loudest band in the city. 9 p.m. at Springwater —MATT SULLIVAN

Let’s Go Get Sushi…and Not Pay!MIDNIGHT MOVIE: REPO MAN Is Alex Cox’s 1984 cult favorite the anti-Lebowski—a shaggy-dog yarn that pits a makeshift family against sinister L.A. punks and power mongers, with only scruffy nihilism as psychic armor? Even if not, it’s easy to see why Cox’s sci-fi comedy was the secret handshake of the Reagan years: Faced with the last gasp of first-wave punk and the onset of the Gimme Decade, Emilio Estevez’s bummed-out hero made disaffected slackerdom look as defiant as Brando’s motorbike. If you’ve never seen this, you’re missing Harry Dean Stanton at full rotgut strength, Tracey Walter as a Zen mechanic squarely on The Dude’s wavelength, cinematographer Robby Muller’s awesome evocation of scuzzed-out city-of-night L.A. and some of the most quotable dialogue of the decade—along with that killer soundtrack featuring everything from Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized” to the great Iggy Pop theme song. Midnight June 20-21 at the Belcourt —JIM RIDLEY