RATATAT Monday, 9TH

New York duo Ratatat eschew the typical shoegazer soundscapes you’d expect from an instrumental band, such as those of Mogwai or Explosions in the Sky, and instead focus on hooky melodies anchored with hip-hop beats. Mike Stroud and Evan Mast met while attending Skidmore College in upstate New York around 2001. (Stroud had toured as a guitar player with Dashboard Confessional and Ben Kweller before pursuing Ratatat full-time.) While Mast’s drum programming is essential to their process, the live guitar parts are equally critical: Stroud’s tone is seemingly modeled on Queen’s Brian May, with its almost keyboard-like electronic sound. And when the band launched an American tour last year, they surprised themselves when people packed the clubs. (Being unprepared for the tour’s success also led to a few scary moments in bad neighborhoods hauling around a giant suitcase stuffed with cash.) Last year, Ratatat also had the distinct honor of playing New York’s Guggenheim Museum, and NPR has practically drafted the group as their on-air “house band.” It’s easy to see why: their songs have a melancholy flavor that wraps around your head like an Alien face-hugger, perfect for punctuating an All Things Considered piece. Also unlike most instrumental acts, Ratatat craft songs you can actually dance to, turning their shows into an all-out party. Take that, Tortoise! Playing with 120 Days. (myspace.com/ratatatmusic) Mercy Lounge —ERIC WILLIAMS

MUSIC

THURSDAY, 5TH

THE DECEMBERISTS Though The Decemberists’ most recent record, The Crane Wife, is a lush, ambitious, compelling thing, the messy business of crafting a concept album sometimes produces unintended strain on the art of the song. That’s a shame, because frontman Colin Meloy—who grew up in Montana, a land of fast-moving rivers, mountain passes and snowy peaks—has long been a master of those self-contained nuggets of bliss and heartache. Over the course of four full-lengths, Meloy has offered a smorgasbord of songwriting standbys and Decemberist staples: character sketches, melodrama, whimsical phrasing and big words. His quirky, esoteric delivery glides perfectly over the band’s rich, baroque pop. And though the grand, cryptic tale of The Crane Wife has its temptations, it can’t quite stand up to the compulsive thrall of Meloy’s more compact masterpieces, such as the haunting, acoustic “Red Right Ankle,” where he begins, “This is the story of your red right ankle / And how it came to meet your leg.” (decemberists.com) City Hall —LEE STABERT

THE QUEERS The Queers’ seminal second album, Love Songs for the Retarded, was released in 1993 on Lookout! Records, the Berkeley, Calif., punk label that broke bands like Operation Ivy, Rancid and, of course, Green Day to wider audiences. But The Queers were always too goofy, lovable and sort of off-putting for mainstream acclimation, what with sole constant Queer Joe King (a.k.a. Joe Queer) singing “Ursula Finally Has Tits,” “Granola Head,” and “I Can’t Stop Farting” instead of getting famous. Still, the appeal and influence of The Queers’ infectious pop-punk is without question: Love Songs for the Retarded is probably the quintessential coming-of-age punk-rock record for hyper teenage boys who don’t care about much but loud guitars, nascent libidos and hating things that aren’t as cool as The Queers. Sure, make digs at a punk band that made its most important record 14 years ago hitting the road again—but remember that The Queers were kind of old in the first place (they formed in 1982), and teenage romance will always be terrifying. (queersrock.com) The End —GRAYSON CURRIN

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND Shara Worden, who operates under the moniker My Brightest Diamond, has a rich vocal tonality that’s captivating. She boasts a degree in operatic vocal performance from the University of North Texas, and Tear it Down, her recent digital re-tinkering of previously released songs in the My Brightest Diamond canon, proves she’s best sans the phonic manipulation. With just a mic and guitar in hand, Worden can ring a full-bodied nuance out of every note, capitalizing on her role as an indie chamber maid for Sufjan Stevens and The Decemberists. (mybrightestdiamond.com) City Hall —JOEY HOOD

BILL FRISELL Arguably the greatest jazz guitarist of the last 30 years, Bill Frisell is notable not only for the distinctive timbre of his playing, but also for the eclectic range of influences he displays. A former classmate of Pat Metheny at Berklee School of Music in the early ’70s, Frisell’s applied his richly atmospheric style to everything from pop and country to experimental jazz and soundtracks. He cut his teeth first in Belgium in the late ’70s for ECM Records, collaborating with many of their artists, and then in New York during the thriving ’80s downtown scene. He’s worked with John Zorn, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull, Dave Holland and Norah Jones, to name a few, and he always seems to be involved with interesting projects, whether writing soundtrack music for Buster Keaton’s silent films or covering a broad expanse of American pop from Sonny Rollins to Stephen Foster (as on his signature 1993 release, Have a Little Faith). Frisell won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2005 for Unspeakable, and continues to release evocative, tonally unique music. He works with such a broad palette, there’s little telling what he’ll do when he performs tonight, accompanied by members of the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. (billfrisell.com) 8 p.m. at Grace Chapel —CHRIS PARKER

FRIDAY, 6TH

SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS Covers records can reveal a sensibility, or they can obscure the intent of the original versions. On their new Countrypolitan Favorites, North Carolina’s Southern Culture on the Skids subtract the pain from The Kinks’ “Muswell Hillbilly” and John D. Loudermilk’s “Tobacco Road.” It’s an uncommonly intelligent party record, and it’s instructive to hear The Byrds’ “Have You Seen Her Face” side-by-side with Slim Harpo’s great nonsense-syllable blues, “Te Ni Nee Ni Nu.” T. Rex’s “Life’s a Gas” gets a droll, warm rearrangement that suggests Marc Bolan gone Americana. Countrypolitan Favorites might not have the acuity and oddity of, say, Alex Chilton covering a piece of ’70s kitsch such as “What’s Your Sign Girl,” but the sensibility is similar. This record is like a party where someone slips Wild Turkey into your vodka martini—and what’s wrong with that? (scots.com) Mercy Lounge —EDD HURT

THE ALTERNATE ROUTES On their Good and Reckless and True, The Alternate Routes fray the edges of country-rock. Tim Warren sings his lyrics in a soulful, self-involved tenor, so that a line such as, “I wrote a song for you / On the blank side of a coaster / With a pen I had to borrow,” registers as funny and true. Produced in Nashville by Jay Joyce, Good and Reckless features the Connecticut quintet’s distanced take on the verities of romance. The rhythms are as conflicted as the pent-up guitar moves, and the group employs the conventions of Britpop in the manner of bands such as Diesel Park West and Gomez. “Are You Lonely?” is a rocker that contrasts blithe verses with a pleasingly dirty chorus, and on “Hollywood” and “California” they contemplate the impossibility of true love with a fervor that seems entirely appropriate. (myspace.com/alternateroutes) Exit/In —EDD HURT

SATURDAY, 7TH

ALISON KRAUSS There is a notion that someone as freakishly talented as Alison Krauss (singer/fiddle player/producer and owner of the most Grammys by a female artist—ever) should be more popular, like Sheryl Crow- or Faith Hill-popular. But really, the opposite is true: given the typical cruelty of the music marketplace, it’s more amazing that the bluegrass prodigy (she was 16 when her first record was released) has even had the success she’s had. There are certainly many young wunderkinds that never quite grow up and fulfill the potential that’s recognizable so early. That hasn’t been the case for Krauss, who’s maintained her bluegrass credentials with the Union Station band even as she’s made interesting side trips to mainstream pop and country worlds. Her recent duet with John Waite on a remake of his ’80s hit “Missing You” is one example. Another is her excellent work as a producer, where she filled Alan Jackson’s ballad-heavy Like Red on a Rose with strings, making it his warmest and most surprising album in years. (alisonkrauss.com) Grand Ole Opry —WERNER TRIESCHMANN

RANDY KOHRS & THE LITES It’s taken Randy Kohrs a little while to settle in under all those hats he wears—engineer, producer, singer-songwriter and hot Dobro picker—but his new album, Old Photograph, makes a strong case that, even as he continues to work as one of the city’s busiest session players, he’s gotten ’er done. The title track and one other tune are from outside writers, but Kohrs had a hand (sometimes the only one) in all the rest, and he has a well-developed ability to craft a distinctive melody. And while the project features contributions by everyone from longtime ’grass-and-more colleagues such as Scott Vestal and Jim Hurst, to Idol contestant Melinda Doolittle and the MuzikMafia’s Shannon Lawson, it also has room for Kohrs’ regular band, The Lites—a set of youngsters who can hold their own with the big dogs on disc and keep it loose and lively onstage. (randykohrs.net) 6 p.m. at Grimey’s; The Station Inn —JON WEISBERGER

ONE MORE TIME: RAY PRICE’S CHEROKEE COWBOYS On classic late-’50s recordings such as “Invitation to the Blues,” Ray Price’s band, The Cherokee Cowboys, helped create modern country music by refining 4/4 time into a cooled-out shuffle. Today’s panel discussion, presented in conjunction with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s ongoing Price exhibit, features six former members of the group: guitarists Pete Wade and Van Howard, fiddler Buddy Spicher, and steel guitarists Buddy Emmons, Don Helms and Jack Evins, WSM Radio and Grand Ole Opry announcer Eddie Stubbs will host, and the program will include rare audio and video footage. For anyone who has the notion that great country players weren’t hip to the same currents that moved all innovative musicians a half-century ago, this should be a superb opportunity to gain perspective. (countrymusichallofame.com) 2 p.m. at Ford Theater, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum —EDD HURT

120 DAYS When Norway’s 120 Days arrived stateside last fall, they came anointed as the Next Big Thing, inspiring a blog frenzy as hot as a broom-closet arcade fire. Though the buzz might have cooled a bit—as buzzes tend to do—the band’s self-titled debut remains a deliciously heavy, perplexing example of the heavy emotionalism of industrial, rhythmic rock. A Scandinavian palette of droning guitars, synths and heavy beats emphasize singer Ådne Meisfjord’s bleak outlook, which is expressed with chilling economy—as with the overarching sentiment of their lead single, “Come Out (Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone).” That said, there is something triumphant about the head-nodding momentum and meticulous layers of noise laid down by the quartet—they go big, and almost always manage to pull it off. 120 Days also holds up remarkably well as a cohesive work—the insistent, electronic dance-beats, metallic synths and swirling crescendos are matched by instances of quiet and beauty, like the delicate, spaced-out surprise of the instrumental “Sleepless Nights #3.” Playing with Ratatat. (120days.no) Mercy Lounge —LEE STABERT

ELECTRIC SIX What if Spinal Tap suddenly got the joke and started a new wave-disco-garage rock act, reveling in their cheesy antics like The Monkees stopping traffic in their four-poster bed? They’d be Detroit’s Electric Six, whose music and performances are spiked with a goofy tongue-in-cheek theatricalism. Their worldwide hit, “Danger! High Voltage,” epitomizes E6’s technique—a skin-tight rhythm percolating beneath explosive shards of garage-glam guitar, with singer Dick Valentine spewing cleverly silly lyrics. It’s a winning formula, one that’s twice as good live as on the album, thanks both to their crack musicianship and Valentine’s showmanship. Their latest, Switzerland, is a concept album about the music biz that only needs the guy asking, “Which one’s Pink?” Tracks include the humorous piano-fueled single, “I Buy the Drugs,” and other wickedly named tracks: “Infected Girls,” “I Wish This Song Was Louder,” and “There’s Something Very Wrong With Us, Let’s Go Out Tonight.” (electricsix.com) Exit/In —CHRIS PARKER

TUESDAY, 10TH

ALTRUIZINE When they’re rocking out, Athens outfit Altruizine pull off a combination of the feral rhythms and exuberant amateurism—the word “amateur” is rooted in “love,” after all—of early Velvet Underground. It’s sloppy, kinetic and energizing, while managing to avoid VU’s proclivity for bleakness. For this Nashville appearance, singer and multi-instrumentalist Rife Thompson will be performing some of the band’s songs solo. Without the bang and drone of his mates behind him, he probably won’t let on much to the other side of the band’s split personality, that of the art school noise-jam crew. (altruizine.com) The Basement —STEVE HARUCH

BROKEN TEETH Way more gritty than you might expect from a Dangerous Toys spin-off, Austin’s Broken Teeth keep their knuckles scraping close to inspirations like AC/DC and Kix—very close. Rest assured: this is intentional, and the band’s blind purpose and drive gives it a leg up on the scores of bands to be found with a like-minded meat-and-potatoes aesthetic in any city on any day of the week. While some listeners may have fun with Broken Teeth’s appropriately leering subject matter, vocalist Jason McMaster’s wit beats at the heart of the band’s sound like a hidden treasure—as does his deep knowledge and love for metal and heavy music of all stripes. Thinking back to those old issues of Circus and Hit Parader, it’s tempting to write McMaster off as a guy coasting on hairspray fumes. Think again—Broken Teeth leave the hairspray on the shelf, and their frugal self-sufficiency feeds their raw sound. (brokenteeth.com) The End —SABY REYES-KULKARNI

TUESDAY, 10TH-WEDNESDAY, 11TH

AUTISM BENEFIT With a lineup that will make many bluegrass festivals jealous, one of the world’s most famous acoustic-music clubs donates its stage to benefit the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee. The shows crams in several top bluegrass bands in two nights: Tuesday features the current International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainers of the Year, The Grascals, with Ronnie Bowman, the Roland White Band, Chris Jones & the Nightdrivers, the Infamous Stringdusters and Mike Henderson’s mountain-music combo, the SteelDrivers. On Wednesday, the bill sports Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time, Mark Newton Band, Jerry Salley & Breakin’ New Ground and the Mashville Brigade, as well as a promise of a bluegrass star that can’t be advertised. In other words, there’s a week’s worth of headliners each night. The shows were organized by bluegrass journalist and bassist Jon Weisberger, who has a son with autism, and Salley, who has a niece with the disorder. Station Inn —MICHAEL McCALL

THEATER

THE REASON FOR IF A tragic death in New York sparks the drama in Myra Anderson’s new one-act play. It causes a crisis of faith for Catholic priest Anthony Scarpanno, who seeks the company of good friend Nikolaou Karaepovsky, a philosophy professor and avowed atheist. Their ensuing discussion touches on the existence of God and the nature of faith and redemption. Anderson’s two-person character study stars Obadiah Ewing-Roush and Pat Reilly. Performances are April 5-14. For reservations, call 423-5304. Darkhorse Theater —MARTIN BRADY

ODYSSEUS It’s post-Trojan War, and Greek hero Odysseus—before he embarks on his legendary Homeric journey—is a young commander confronting the aftermath of the recent conflict. Vanderbilt theater professor Jon Hallquist oversees this university mounting of a selection from John Barton’s 10-play cycle Tantalus. Tantalus’ world premiere took place in 2000 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. In 2001, PBS broadcast Tantalus: Behind the Mask, a documentary on the elaborate and ambitious production. The Vandy staging offers Nashville a first glimpse at the script. Six performances will be presented April 6-14. For reservations, phone 322-2404. Neely Auditorium —MARTIN BRADY

ART

KATHRYN SNELL-RYAN AND HEATHER PHILLIPS, “FIELD GUIDE”/MERRILEE CHALLISS AND SHEA STEELE The two artists in Twist’s April show are both interested in analogies between patterns seen in daily life and patterns embedded in human relationships. Down the hallway at the Arcade, SQFT is showing work by Birmingham, Ala., artist Merrilee Challiss and collages by Nashvillian Shea Steele. Challiss weaves together images inspired by myths and memories within intricately patterned ink drawings. Both galleries will have openings on Saturday, April 7, from 6 to 9 p.m. Twist Gallery and SQFT Gallery —DAVID MADDOX

JEFF FRAZIER, “GOD MOMENTS” Frazier brings his background in photojournalism to photos of people and places caught in fleeting but revelatory moments. This is not a particularly unusual pursuit for photography, so the success of the exhibit will hinge on whether the images give a firm sense of uncovering something we did not know before. The show opens on April 2 and there will be a reception on Saturday, April 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. Meanwhile, Gary Monroe’s tremendous drawings of snakehandlers seen through the frame of baroque art will remain on view through April 14. Estel Gallery —DAVID MADDOX

“MAXWELL’S DEMON” AND “PILLARS OF SALT: THE ACT OF RESISTING EXILE” These exhibits explore disparate human experiences that resonate with connections in a post-9/11 world. Jonathan Field’s “Maxwell’s Demon” presents a meditation on the Iraq war in the form of a year’s worth of New York Times images, enlarged and re-created with pinheads in black rubber. Shawn Johnson’s “Pillars of SALT: The Act of Resisting Exile” consists of work that explores the plight of displaced refugees through the mythic lens of Lot’s wife. Both shows open on Saturday, April 7, with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Dangenart Gallery —JOE NOLAN

“THE ART OF FILM” The Arts Company and Nashville Film Festival are collaborating on this exhibit, which explores the intersection between traditional visual arts and cinema. Included in the show will be a group of miniature portraits by painter Jonathan Richter, whose 2007 Nashville Film Festival commemorative poster will be unveiled at the opening reception on Saturday, April 7. The party starts at 5 p.m., with the unveiling at 6 p.m. (Short films will be screened in the Gallery’s Avant-Garage until 8 p.m.) The exhibit continues through April 30. The Arts Company —JOE NOLAN

KELLY WILLIAMS, JASON LASCU, MEL CADELL AND TRAVIS MILLARD This month, TAG will present work by four diverse artists working in a variety of media. Williams, who has recently returned to Nashville to teach at Watkins College of Art & Design, will be showing a group of her realistic interiors that explore home life. Lascu will show more of his stylized, figurative sculptures and icons. Los Angeles artists Cadell and Millard will have illustrative work on display in TAG’s back gallery. All the shows open on Saturday, April 7, with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. TAG Art Gallery —JOE NOLAN

FILM

JAMAL JOSEPH/“BABA KING” Relocated to East Nashville after its original Harlem location shoot fell through, writer-director Ryan Jackson’s 17-minute drama “Baba KING” tells the harrowing story of a once-promising high-school athlete who faces a grim decision: whether to use his trusting little brother as a coke mule for a drug deal that’ll put him back on top. Shot with co-producer William Jenkins over two 18-hour days at the corner of Seventh and Shelby, across from the Martha O’Bryan Center, the film stars Fisk student Keith-Alan (a familiar face to viewers of MTV’s Parental Control), Ryan Bell and Nashville film actor Reegus Flenory; it makes its world premiere 6 p.m. Thursday, April 5, as the closing-night event of the 78th annual Fisk Spring Arts Festival, to be shown in the Appleton Room at Jubilee Hall. The special guest for the screening will be poet, author, activist and playwright Jamal Joseph, the film’s executive producer. An ex-Black Panther who organized a prison theater troupe and earned college degrees while serving time at Leavenworth, Joseph is the author of Tupac Shakur Legacy, the acting chair of Columbia University’s School of the Arts film program, and the artistic director of Harlem’s New Heritage Theatre. Joseph will speak at 3 p.m. on “From Experience to the Silver Screen” and will participate in a post-film panel. For more information, call 579-9856. —JIM RIDLEY

MORE 50 YEARS OF JANUS FILMS: THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS A happier and more humble religious film than Roberto Rossellini’s beatific 1950 comedy you won’t find, which makes this an inspired selection for Easter weekend. Working from a script he adapted with Federico Fellini and two Franciscan fathers from the 14th century texts The Little Flowers of St. Francis and The Life of Brother Ginepro, the father of Italian neo-realism cast actual monks as the early followers of St. Francis of Assisi and filmed on modest locations that were hardly run-of-DeMille for splashy religious pageantry. Maybe that’s why the result is joyous, lighthearted and dizzyingly free of spirit rather than pompous and ponderous. In scarcely related episodes of the monks’ daily lives, Rossellini’s St. Francis (Brother Nazario Gerardi), more bit player than lead, benevolently watches over the holy foolishness of his followers as they stumble toward salvation and put their faith into practice. From tending the poor to seeking a pig’s leg for soup, their lessons are rendered with earthy good humor and grounded in concrete detail. The movie screens Saturday and Sunday in a 35 mm print at the Belcourt; see belcourt.org for show times. —JIM RIDLEY

OUTDOOR SCREENING: KING KONG To conclude its Lenten Film Series this Thursday at 7 p.m., the Downtown Presbyterian Church at 5th and Church will stretch a large screen across the adjacent alley and project the original 1933 ape-goes-ape classic—a provocative slant on the series’ theme of human sacrifice. Kids are welcome, and a light free meal will be provided at 6 p.m. as part of the observation of Maundy Thursday. Call 260-6238 if the weather looks iffy. —JIM RIDLEY

THE HOST The Belcourt was supposed to open the hotly awaited “Pad Thai western” Tears of the Black Tiger this Friday, but audience demand for The Host has forced the historic Hillsboro Village arthouse to push Tears back to April 27. The smash South Korean monster movie has already taken in close to $10,000 at the Belcourt in just two weeks, and it shows little sign of slowing. If you haven’t seen it, it’s been held over for a third week; see the review in our Movie Listings on p. 65. —JIM RIDLEY