Our Critics Picks
PINK SPIDERS/BANG BANG BANG If your New Year’s resolution is to rock, then there’s no better way to do it than with dollar PBRs and some sweaty rock ’n’ roll with the local bands who know how to party. For seven bucks, tread a strip of unlikely common ground with The Pink Spiders and up-and-comers Bang Bang Bang, both of whom share former members of Silent Friction. The Spiders ought to prove they’re not just another post-punk knockoff, and the latter are still busy showing us that they’re not Kings of Leon. But Bang Bang Bang are in a curious position on the local scene. Most new bands need their elders to usher them in and get them gigs, but in less than a year’s time, these boys have already played the Exit/In and are about to open for the likes of O.A.R. at the Ryman. Rounding out the bill are pinball rockers The Privates and Nashville newbies Snakeskin Machinegun, who threaten “total assault on the culture” with their ragged scuz-rock. The End —TRACY MOORE
DJ MICRO/ROBBIE HARDKISS/JU JU FABLED San Francisco club DJ Hardkiss acknowledges the debt owed by modern dance music to early funkateers with more than just sampling royalties: his original house music thumps with Bootsy Collins bass and the guitar and keyboard licks of the Minneapolis Sound. Witness, for example, “Everything Is Changing,” a breakbeat reworking of Prince’s “All the Critics Love U.” Meanwhile, Ju Ju’s high-energy, high-speed drum ’n’ bass works dancers into a frenzy. Though his mixes stay true to drum ’n’ bass traditions—heavy bottom and flourishes of dub reggae—Ju Ju also gives his beats a Latin flair. Rounding out this surefire bill is DJ Micro, who spins melodic trance, with epic horns over solid grooves. Club Volume —MARK MAYS
NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY w/THE GRASCALS Last New Year’s Eve, The Grascals hadn’t even released their debut CD—though they’d already spent months opening for and backing Dolly Parton in her ’grass mode. Since then, they’ve released an acclaimed CD, scooped up a pair of IBMA awards and a Grammy nomination, and played everywhere from Radio City Music Hall to the cow pastures that still make up much of the bluegrass circuit. Still, the Station Inn is arguably the group’s home base—the place where their members spent years grinding out well-worn classics and offbeat selections alike. So while their irresistible blend of bluegrass fundamentals, country-flavored touches and passionate, inspired singing goes over well everywhere, this party, which looks back on one astonishing year and forward into another, ought to be especially memorable. Station Inn —JON WEISBERGER
BOBBY BARE JR. New Year’s Eve ranks with Halloween as the holiday most likely to find people willingly and eagerly showing their asses, and no one understands the desire to combine celebration, inebriation, humiliation and exhibitionism quite as well as Bobby Bare Jr. His bawdy rock ’n’ roll confessionals honor the fool in all of us, and his mix of heavy stomp and moody Americana will make you laugh with him as he laughs at himself; then he’ll convince you that forgetting your troubles and letting it all hang out is the best way to enter the new year with promise. The Basement —MICHAEL McCALL
TH’ LEGENDARY SHACK*SHAKERS/REVEREND GLASSEYE Just back from a European tour opening for Robert Plant, the Shack*Shakers will be premiering some material from their upcoming CD Pandelirium. With ragtag horns and strident refrains, openers Reverend Glasseye sound like a community band playing a Kurt Weill operetta. The group’s latest album, Our Lady of the Broken Spine, is a musical sideshow that’s unashamedly broken and distinctly American; like Americanists from Weill to Morricone, Rev. Glasseye borrow from Southern fiction and images of the Wild West. But frontman Adam Glasseye’s masochistic lyrics and warbly vocals, which bring to mind Anthony Newly on his fourth vodka-tonic, aren’t so much nostalgic as creepy. Mercy Lounge —PAUL V. GRIFFITH
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PAUL THORN It’s hard not to think of Bruce Springsteen when you hear Thorn’s voice, but there’s more to him than that. Springsteen has his Jersey, and Thorn has his South, which is poignant, funny and gritty. A native of Mississippi, Thorn is at his best when combining bouncy pop, funk and folk with smart lyrics. Gospel influences crop up in his music, and he comes by them honestly: his father was a Pentecostal preacher. A onetime choirboy who used to solicit tips for his dad with an upturned tambourine, Thorn later did a stint as a pro boxer, all of which lends his music poignancy, humor and grit. 3rd & Lindsley —ELISABETH DAWSON
JOHNY JACKSON’S SOUL SATISFACTION For more than a decade, local DJ Johny Jackson has kept butts bumping with his Soul Satisfaction nights, spinning old-school soul, funk and anything else that’ll get people out on the dance floor. But as of New Year’s Day 2006, he’s hanging up his headphones and putting away his record crates to focus on his other love: painting. He’ll have one last blowout this weekend, as he ushers in his successor, DJ Cool-Out, who’ll keep the party going strong in the new year. The Barcar —JONATHAN MARX
Music
Friday, 6th
CHERRYHOLMES Few acts in any genre could claim the career trajectory of the family bluegrass group Cherryholmes. Formed six years ago as a family bonding exercise when most of the members couldn’t play an instrument, the group were virtually unknown outside the bluegrass festival circuit this time last year. Now the Los Angeles natives have the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award on the household mantel and a Grammy nomination for their self-titled debut, released on Ricky Skaggs’ label, Skaggs Family Records. Parents Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes provide the core of the group, but the kids are the real stars: singer and banjo player Cia, 21; guitarist B.J., 17; and fiddlers Skip, 15, and Molly, 13, make for a dazzling front line whose appeal goes well beyond precocity. (www.cherryholmesfamilyband.com) Station Inn —CHRIS NEAL
Tuesday, 10th
SUPERSYSTEM It’s a shame these guys aren’t going to be in town on New Year’s Eve, because they’d throw one helluva dance party—and with songs that are right in line with the times we live in. When they were still recording under their former name, El Guapo, Supersystem’s music was more skeletal, but on their latest album, Always Never Again, the New York/D.C. quartet pump out a full-bodied sound meant to get both bodies and minds working. Their omnivorous music appetites have devoured everything from hip-hop granddaddy Afrika Bambaataa to the modal Ethiopian funk of Mahmoud Ahmed to the glinting post-rock of their Touch & Go label forebears, and it all finds its way into their buoyant music. Within their songs, though, is a grappling with the world that surrounds them—a seeming house of cards ready to collapse at any moment. Faced with such uncertainty, what else can a person do but find momentary liberation in a surge of steroidal disco beats? The End —JONATHAN MARX
Classical
NASHVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA WITH WU MAN Nashville Symphony’s first concert of the new year, Jan. 6-7 at Jackson Hall, explores the interplay of European and Asian music. Europeans Carl Nielsen and Ferruccio Busoni look eastward in their respective compositions for theatrical productions of The Arabian Nights and Carlo Gozzi’s Chinese-themed play Turandot. Representing the Asian vantage point is U.S.-based composer Tan Dun’s concerto for the traditional Chinese pipa, the four-stringed lute that forms one of the lead voices in Chinese “silk and bamboo” ensembles. The concert’s pipa soloist, Wu Man, is internationally known for performances of traditional Chinese music and projects that bring Eastern and Western classical traditions together. She was the soloist in the Kronos Quartet’s recording of Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera, which formed the source for the Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra that the NSO will play. The composer is best known for his score to the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but is an active presence in concert halls around the world. This concerto and its source composition were inspired by the Ghost Opera tradition at Taoist funerals, where shamans communicate with spirits from the past and the future. —DAVID MADDOX
Art
“ASSEMBLAGE” Nashville has seen a new generation of artists emerge from area schools, most notably the BFA programs at Watkins College of Art & Design and MTSU. In an attempt to bridge the educational generation gap, Cumberland Gallery has invited a group of emerging local artists to show their work alongside more established artists, all of them professors at Vandy, MTSU, APSU and other universities. Representing the older—but still vital—generation are Susan Bryant, Billy Renkl, Bob Durham, Mark Hosford, Marilyn Murphy and others. Representing the new breed are MTSU grads Patrick Brien, Dan Hall and Hans Schmitt-Matzen, and Watkins grads Kristen Burton and Iwonka Waskowski. The show opens with a reception, 6-8 p.m. Jan. 7. —JONATHAN MARX
Film
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Two weeks ago it trampled King Kong’s per-screen average and picked up a slew of year-end awards, including the Southeastern Film Critics’ prize for best film and director. But please—even though people are getting sick of hearing about it before it has even gone into wide release—don’t hate it because it’s popular. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play cowboys who can’t quit each other in Ang Lee’s late-model Western, adapted by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry from E. Annie Proulx’s short story. It opens Friday, rushed into wider release; get tickets early. —JIM RIDLEY
PULSE The U.S. remake co-written by Wes Craven comes out in March, but if you hurry, you can ignore it. Among horror fans, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 thriller about a rash of teen suicides linked to bizarre electronic phenomena has become one of the hottest cult items of recent years. It opens this weekend at the Belcourt, along with an encore run of the suicide-bomber drama Paradise Now and a revival of Raiders of the Lost Ark. —JIM RIDLEY
BE HERE TO LOVE ME: A FILM ABOUT TOWNES VAN ZANDT The term “singer-songwriter” has lost a lot of its value over the years; the subject of Margaret Brown’s haunting documentary made it a badge of honor. Friends and admirers such as Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle pay tribute to the late Van Zandt, who’s represented by seldom seen interviews and performance footage. The film opens Jan. 6 at the Belcourt; a special reception and musical tribute will precede the 8 p.m. show Saturday, Jan. 7, in a benefit for the theater. —JIM RIDLEY
BALLETS RUSSES Part cultural history, part juicy highbrow soap opera—with a cast of characters that includes George Balanchine and Salvador Dali—Dan Gellar and Dayna Goldfine’s hit documentary traces the onstage triumphs and backstage intrigues of the legendary Ballets Russes, the innovative dance company that split into rival factions after the death of founder Sergei Diaghilev. The film opens Jan. 6 at the Belcourt; Paul Vasterling, artistic director of the Nashville Ballet, will introduce the evening screening Jan. 8. —JIM RIDLEY