THURSDAY 8/2

Bitches Brew

LAPPY HOUR People in this town love their pets. They also love their cocktails. It’s about time someone went ahead and combined the two. This monthly happy hour at Eastland Café in East Nashville offers lushes and their Lassies a chance to relax on the patio with like-minded souls and enjoy drink specials, gourmet dog treats and prizes. And look at it this way: no matter how many beverages you consume, you’ll still have someone there to show you the way home. 4:30 to dusk at Eastland Café (the first Thursday of every month) —LEE STABERT

Music

THE POSTMARKS Despite a healthy MySpace following and the ever-important Pitchfork vote, Florida’s The Postmarks roll into town well beneath the radar. Yes, that Florida, the one best known for pounding club music and an inability to grasp the nuances of voting. Not to worry—The Postmarks’ music evokes not only another time period, but an entirely different time zone. An easy-listening synthesis of classic ’60s Bacharach and French pop, their self-titled debut has a sweet, delicate charm that’s easy to escape into. Lovely singer Tim Yehezkely—who happens to be a woman—sings in a cutesy, barely-there Françoise Hardy hush. Consequently, The Postmarks can at times make even Belle & Sebastian sound pretty butch. The arrangements are suitably understated—they wouldn’t have upset Brian Wilson if they had crash-landed in his famously sand-castled living room—and should be fleshed out with a bolstered live lineup. The Postmarks are a trio, but double in number for their live incarnation, all providing plenty of lush, pretty instrumentation for the captivating, star-in-the-making Yehezkely to coo over. 9 p.m. at The Basement —ANDREW J. SMITHSON

Arts Education

UNDERSTANDING VISUAL ARTISTS RIGHTS ACT SEMINAR Thinking about showing and selling your artwork? Have questions concerning publicity and privacy rights? Tennessee Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts is hosting a free seminar that will provide an overview of moral rights protection under the Visual Artist Rights Act. Guests of the lecture are invited to stay and visit the Frist galleries with complimentary admission. RSVP to tennesseevla@gmail.com . 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts —BRITTANY CONNER

Spoken Word

RHYTHM AND RHYME Vince Santoro now calls himself the Rat-a-tat Raconteur, a suitable alias for the multitalented singer/drummer/songwriter’s spoken-word side. A serious music-industry player—he’s worked with Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rodney Crowell and Shania Twain, among others—Santoro brings to the stage his wide-ranging and offbeat life experiences. He draws upon his past in his live recitations, combining them with his own percussive accompaniment. Santoro is also a talented recording artist, and if you check out 2000’s Little Vinnie, with its funky rhythms, nifty a cappella grooves, ironic lyrics and expressive delivery, you’ll hear the seeds of his new gig. Don’t expect romance—this isn’t that kind of poetry: Santoro’s verbalizations deal with everything from live eels to sacrificial pet rabbits to life in his first-generation Italian American family. Also on the bill is veteran singer-songwriter/producer Tom Ghent (“Whiskey, Whiskey”), sharing stories of his own. 7 p.m. at Bongo After Hours Theatre —MARTIN BRADY

FRIDAY 8/3

Children’s Theater

THE REMEMBERER Nashville Children’s Theatre’s summer camp is a 10-week experience involving 500 local youths ages 12 through 17. NCT selects 15 of its most capable youngsters, puts them through three weeks of intensive rehearsal and mounts a full-scale production. This play, written by popular regional dramatist Steven Dietz and originally produced in 1994 at the Seattle Children’s Theatre, presents the bittersweet, true story of Joyce Simmons Cheeka, a Squaxin Indian girl who is forcibly separated from her family and sent to a government-run boarding school in 1911. As “The Rememberer,” an honorific tribal designation, Joyce’s mission is to preserve her people’s history in the face of a white establishment determined to obliterate it. NCT education director Julee Baber oversees the staging, with Rachel Woods starring in the title role. The setting for the play is Washington state, but Baber, with an eye toward audience accessibility (and input from historical consultants), has reconfigured the Indian cultural markers from Squaxin to Choctaw. Nonetheless, the heartfelt message about tolerance and the value of ethnic heritage remains intact. The single performance is free and open to the public. 7 p.m. at Nashville School of the Arts —MARTIN BRADY

Music

SUMMER OF DREAMZ DANCE PARTY Complete with maxims such as, “Dreaming a dream is the first step to completion” and “All dreamz created during the Summer of 2007 have the right to be alive,” the Summer of Dreamz has been a largely web-based movement encouraging locals to, very simply, dream. The genesis of this call for utopia was detailed by the Scene’s own Tracy Moore in a recent column explaining her involvement and the growing online enthusiasm. The movement certainly hasn’t been without its detractors—a number of readers on NashvilleCream.com have labeled the Summer of Dreamz everything from kitschy to hippie to just plain stupid. And yes, the Summer of Dreamz may have a taste of all those things, but at its essence it’s just a plea for fun. Onetime organizer of the Unzipped Fly weekly dance party in Murfreesboro, DJ Bawston Sean has concluded that the best way to synthesize this call for good times is through dance. Accompanied by local blogger Trashley (of “Made of Trash”) and Turncoats singer/guitarist Linwood Regensburg, Bawston Sean & Co. will spin records that hopefully will tap some toes and uncross some arms. 9 p.m. at The 5 Spot —MATT SULLIVAN

Music

MENAGE W/MORESIGHT Though they’re as pretty as a picture, Ménage aren’t too forward. They prefer to circle, their ambling country swing trailing behind like a lost puppy. There’s a lonesome, wistful air to the Asheville, N.C., quartet’s dusty twang, though they’re not above a jazzy cabaret strut, as on their ode to Manhattan slumlords, “New York Situation.” Keying the sound are the duo of guitarist Sarah McDonald and bassist Mary Ellen Bush, who trade vocals and combine on wonderful, frequent harmonies. They’re celebrating Tell Me, their fourth release in four years, highlighted by the soulful acoustic folk of the title track, and the smoky rock lust of “Got 2 C U.” Atlanta opener Moresight play ragged, garage psych that keeps getting baked and wandering off in the woods to freak out. But make no mistake, these guys are muscular enough to snap Devendra Banhart like a twig. 9 p.m. at The Basement —CHRIS PARKER

Music

JOHN MAYER So what’s wrong with him? That he writes the occasional slow song aimed at the mainstream marketplace? That he’s dating/dated Jessica Simpson? That he is under the delusion that he’s some kind comedian and has, in fact, attempted to do stand-up at a NYC comedy club? OK, the last one might really be a fault, but this guitarist/singer-songwriter/heartthrob has amassed a collection of songs that deserve more than a little respect. His blue-eyed soul is rooted in a sharp pop sense and given a boost by his marvelously fluid guitar work. Listen to “Belief” on 2006’s Continuum for a tune that just floats on a warmer-than-warm sound. And hey, the blog on Mayer’s site (johnmayer.com) is, at times, quite funny—guess I’ll take back that whole comedy dig. 7 p.m. at Sommet Center —WERNER TRIESCHMANN

SATURDAY 8/4

Music

THE MOANERS A pop-blues record complete with tempo shifts, backwards boogie and scurrying drums, The Moaners’ latest, Blackwing Yalobusha, has as much in common with the neo-psychedelia of Jennifer Gentle as it does with Captain Beefheart’s Strictly Personal. What sound at first like shambolic structures reveal themselves as catchy songs that might not match Beefheart’s cantilevered inventions, but compare well to those of The White Stripes. Like the Stripes, The Moaners are a two-piece, but guitarist Melissa Swingle likes to reharmonize her basic blues patterns, while drummer Laura King plays behind, around and on top of the beat. The North Carolina duo achieve a spooked, meditative tone, and the lyrics seem almost helplessly confessional. “Foxy Brown” doesn’t appear to have any particular point, but it’s hard to resist the artlessness of lines such as, “Well, they caught her and sent her to the ranch / Made her do the hillbilly dance.” And the gals have a sense of humor— “Brainwash” finds Swingle placing a call to a “fake boyfriend” in order to escape a disastrous gig in a biker bar. 8 p.m. at Springwater —EDD HURT

Dance Music

BIG LUV FEAT. THE CRYSTAL METHOD The Crystal Method—along with Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim—popularized a variation of breakbeat electronic music, typified by noise-guitar riffs and wailing keyboards over a rap beat. Duo Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland churned out a high energy version of breakbeat that lent itself easily to adaptation by movie and television producers—the song “Keep Hope Alive,” from their LP Vegas, has been used on soundtracks nearly as much as the “1812 Overture.” In 2004, The Crystal Method wisely decided to depart, albeit slightly, from their lucrative soundtrack business, tweaking their sound just enough to make their music vital again. Though never lauded for their originality, Jordan and Kirkland do know what makes a dance floor shake. Funky house producer Jay-J and progressive trance DJ Kenneth Thomas are also featured performers on the slate for Big Luv, a yearly end-of-summer dance music bash. 9 p.m. at Velvet Ultra Lounge —MARK MAYS

Stand-Up Comedy

PAULA POUNDSTONE This popular comedian was on the rebound from personal travails when she last played Nashville at Zanies in 2003. But proving her resilience and staying funny as ever, Poundstone has turned lemons into lemonade, enjoying a return to A-list status through regular exposure on NPR, cable specials and late-night network TV talkfests. The tenor of her comedy remains the same—the targets are self-deprecatingly personal (substance abuse, parenting), uncompromisingly political and cover the wide spectrum of everyday human experience, from dark to light, from suicide to the perils of overactive air-conditioning. As always, Poundstone delivers her rap with an appealing blend of girlish assuredness and spontaneity. She’s also an author (There Is Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say came out in 2006) and, as national spokesperson for Friends of Libraries USA, she’ll be donating a percentage of ticket and book sales to Friends of Nashville Public Library. Poundstone will sign books following her performance. 8 p.m. at TPAC’s Polk Theater —MARTIN BRADY

Art

ART-LUCK Three decades before Teletubbies started taking your kids on hallucinatory joyrides around planet Xneep, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour offered the first evidence of what happens when you mix LSD and writers of children’s TV shows. The frenetic, eye-popping Hanna-Barbera series, basically The Monkees with animal costumes, only lasted a couple of years, but, even now, the theme song alone—“One banana two bananas three bananas four...”—has been known to trigger flashbacks in people in their mid- to late 40s. This month’s “Art-Luck” potluck dinner and art show at the Downtown Presbyterian Church, coinciding with the First Saturday Gallery Crawl, will feature outdoor screenings of Banana Splits episodes, along with art by Shane Doling, Richard Feaster, Beth Gilmore, Heidi Schwartz and Tom Wills. So come kick off your crawl with some madcap shenanigans from Fleagle, Bingo, Drooper and Snork—and feel free to bring a dish for the potluck. (Tempting as it is, better leave the psilocybin mushroom soup at home.) 6 p.m. at The Downtown Presbyterian Church —JACK SILVERMAN

ART

FIRST SATURDAY GALLERY CRAWL The First Saturday Gallery Crawl celebrates its one-year anniversary with two exciting shows. TAG Art Gallery features “Books,” new works by R. Ellis Orrall. This self-taught cult art hero “piggybacks” his paintings over existing artwork found at garage sales and thrift stores. This collection consists of hardcover books whose titles have been reinterpreted to fit the artist’s unique narratives. Also opening at TAG is “Distillery Burning,” featuring works by members of the Image Distillery illustration group. (Through Aug. 25 at TAG Art Gallery.) SQFT Gallery opens “To Nashville, Love Brooklyn,” a show of new paintings and drawings by Caitlin Keegan and Julia Rothman, RISD graduates and classmates. Keegan, who illustrates for Nickelodeon magazine, draws her inspiration from vintage photographs, prints and objects. A designer whose work has been used by companies such as My Little Pony and Urban Outfitters, Rothman puts her interest in pattern and surface design to use in her paintings. (Through Aug. 28 at SQFT Gallery.) Opening receptions 6 to 9 p.m. —BRITTANY CONNER

Music

GHOSTS I’VE MET Featuring players from Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Sleater-Kinney, Sparklehorse and Actual Tigers, Ghosts I’ve Met is composed mostly of former Seattleites, some of whom now live in Brooklyn. The group’s contemplative, melancholy tunes never descend into nostalgia or self-pity—fitting for a band that requires a cross-country trip just to practice together. Though never officially released, the album the band recorded at Kitty Wells’ studio in 2005 garnered significant airplay on venerable Seattle indie station KEXP. They retuned to Wells’ studio a few months ago and recorded another record, providing fodder for this cross-country tour, the band’s first. Though sometimes compared to Ryan Adams, Ghosts I’ve Met eschew the mercurial troubadour’s erratic flashes of listenability in favor of an even, expansive sound that nearly always succeeds in its intentions. If the alt-country scene is a house party, Ghosts I’ve Met aren’t the drunk guy in the lampshape. Rather, they’re the quiet guy in the corner spinning fascinating yarns for anyone with the attention span to listen. 5 p.m. at Grimey’s —BEN WESTHOFF

SUNDAY 8/5

Pageantry

MS. SENIOR WILLIAMSON COUNTY AGE OF ELEGANCE PAGEANT Gloria Steinem once said something to the effect of: “They say beauty is your ticket, but it’s really more like a passport—it expires.” Tell that to the ladies competing this Sunday at the Ms. Senior Williamson County Age of Elegance pageant, a chance for female Williamson County residents over 60 to show they’ve still got the goods after all these years. Sure, the contest trots out the age-old pageant tropes—interviews, evening gown modeling and a talent show—but this competition is all about celebrating the poise, charm and moxie that makes up inner beauty. The segment where the ladies discuss their philosophies on life—in lieu of their one great wish for world peace—alone oughta be worth the price of admission. Nuggets of wisdom from sassy, smart broads who’ve seen it all? Move over, Miss America. Naomi Judd recently signed on as a panel judge, and with a recently published book called Aging Gracefully, she should know what’s she’s talking about. Admission is $6 for adults, $3 for children. Williamson County Fair —TRACY MOORE

Dairy Dream

PURITY MISS MARTHA’S ICE CREAM CRANKIN’ Get there on time and wear your best elastic-waistband pants, because lines form fast at the delicious annual fundraiser for the Martha O’Bryan Center. Amateur ice cream makers will put their best scoops forward in four categories: chocolate base, vanilla base, youth recipes and “other.” The winning entry will become an actual Purity flavor. (Heavenly Hawaiian—Purity’s frozen confection of coconut and pineapple—was discovered at the Crankin’ last year.) And even the also-rans make a cool and tasty treat on a hot summer afternoon. Plus, it’s all for a good cause. Admission is $8 (children under 2 are free), and proceeds go toward Martha O’Bryan Center’s efforts to support East Nashville families living in poverty. 4 to 6 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church —CARRINGTON FOX

Stand-up Comedy

JEFFREY ROSS Jeffrey Ross might have had a career before dishing out hot insults on Comedy Central’s various roasts of celebrities, but it clearly wasn’t like the one he has now. By tossing out bombs during the roasts of Pamela Anderson, William Shatner, Hugh Hefner and more, Ross raised his profile considerably and now proudly wears the mantle of the “Sultan of Insultin’.” Good thing that the personalities he skewers seem to enjoy the treatment: his takedown of Shatner—telling the man that the Star Trek ship should have landed on a planet with an acting school and that his hairpiece was growling—was particularly hilarious. True, Ross can make you wince (a joke about Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain during the Pamela Anderson roast went too far), but you remember his best zingers weeks later. Thursday-Sunday at Zanies Comedy Club—WERNER TRIESCHMANN

Film

WEEKEND CLASSICS: THE FILMS OF OUSMANE SEMBENE/BLACK GIRL It’s been a grim year for world cinema with the recent deaths of Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman (less than a year after the passing of his brilliant cinematographer Sven Nykvist), Taiwanese director Edward Yang (Yi Yi) and cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs (Five Easy Pieces). But while it’s galling that their deaths are what it takes to bring new attention to their work, we’re still grateful to have another chance to see their films—as with the Belcourt’s monthlong matinee series devoted to Senegalese master Ousmane Sembene, who died in June at age 84. Regarded as the father of African cinema, the novelist, intellectual and World War II resistance fighter (who supported himself at various points in a Citröen factory and as a Marseilles dockworker) turned to movies as a popular art that could communicate instantly across cultures. The result was his landmark 1966 feature Black Girl, a plaintive, seething, Nouvelle Vague-influenced study of a Senegalese girl (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) who becomes servant to a bourgeois French couple only to end up a prisoner in their apartment, no less an exotic collectible than the mask on their wall. Co-sponsored by the International Black Film Festival of Nashville, the screening also includes Sembene’s strikingly similar 1966 short “Borom Sarret”; the coming weeks bring his earthy 1975 comedy Xala, the 1977 epic Ceddo, and his last film, 2004’s acclaimed Moolaade, a feminist stand-off that strikes a blow against the rite of female circumcision. More on the series in next week’s issue. Noon Aug. 4-5 at the Belcourt; also 4:30 p.m. Aug. 5 —JIM RIDLEY

Music

MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT As Ministry prepares to take its final bow later this year, it’s heartening to see some of the old Wax Trax! Records gang, like KMFDM, Meat Beat Manifesto and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult still in action, if not necessarily alive and kicking. If Meat Beat Manifesto made a career out of perpetual creative growth and KMFDM did the opposite, Thrill Kill Kult fall somewhere in between. This year, TKK released their first proper album in six years, The Filthiest Show in Town. Of course, fans of this industrial goth-dance institution expect nothing less, and while there is a certain reassurance in the predictability of the band’s degenerate B-movie shtick, Filthiest Show takes listeners from the familiar thump ’n’ throb into more treacherous lounge waters. Which means that if you’re looking for a strident return to form after years of reissues, repackagings and a disco album, the live show is where you’re going to have to find it. 8 p.m. at Exit/In —SABY REYES-KULKARNI

MONDAY 8/6

Music

BIRDS OF AVALON This marks the second date of an eight-show run for Raleigh, N.C.’s Birds of Avalon in support of D.C.’s Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Something interesting will happen as the Birds lead the Pharmacists from Kentucky through the Carolinas and up to Brooklyn: the largely packed houses—filled with increasingly young crowds drawn to the thin, hooky, shaky songs Leo started to master around 2003—will hear things they’ve never imagined. There will be sheets of psychedelic textures poured across bombastic vocals, double guitars dancing distinct melodies over heavy rhythms and lyrics about dimensions and phallic sabers. BOA are omnivorous birds of prey, their wide-ranging record collection swinging up from The Beatles to outbound prog bands like Magma and back down through the garage majesty of The Seeds and the righteous excess of Thin Lizzy. Maybe you’ll recognize some of the bands dotting BOA’s pedigree—The Cherry Valence, The Dynamite Brothers, The Weather—but maybe not. Either way, you’ll recognize strains of a sound you’ve known forever, even if it’s your first time seeing it. 8 p.m. at Exit/In —GRAYSON CURRIN

TUESDAY 8/7

Music

DEAD ROCK WEST From the band’s name, to it’s home (Southern California), to some of the images in the liner notes—lead singers Cindy Wasserman and Frank Lee Drennen in white suits, a grove of Joshua trees seen from a passing vehicle, a closeup of said trees—you might expect Dead Rock West’s new Honey and Salt to be an homage to Gram Parsons. And you’d be partially right: songs such as “Boredom (How Did I Get Here)” and “All I Know” bear echoes of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ loping SoCal country, minus the lysergic edge. But the rest of Honey and Salt has more in common with more recent Americana and rock acts such as The Jayhawks, Tom Petty and The Wallflowers, and occasionally even veers toward rockabilly, as on “Rocket From the Crypt” and, to a lesser degree, “Desert Rose.” The album was mixed in Nashville by Grammy-winning engineer/producer Richard Dodd, who’s worked with Petty, The Wallflowers, George Harrison and Steve Earle. DRW open for John Doe, then take the stage again as Doe’s backup band, with Wasserman covering the vocal parts of Jill Sobule, Aimee Mann and Kathleen Edwards from Doe’s A Year in the Wilderness, no mean feat. 9 p.m. at The Basement —JACK SILVERMAN

Music

EARTH, WIND & FIRE It would be unfortunate if Earth, Wind & Fire were frozen in public memory merely as an ensemble with colorful costumes and a string of disco-oriented hits. From the beginning through to the height of the group’s popularity, bandleader Maurice White’s blend of funk, jazz and soul balladeering represented fusion in the truest sense—a brave hybrid that was only easy to overlook for being so seamless and well executed. While the back catalog abounds with innovations that still sound fresh today, one need look no further than the three most recent efforts (dating back to 1997’s In the Name of Love) for some of the most authentically soulful music being made today. If you gave up on Earth, Wind & Fire or lost sight of them in the ’80s, the modern incarnation is no nostalgia trip. The resurgent widespread interest in vintage funk and soul over the last 10 years dovetails nicely with the group’s creative perseverance, and it’s high time they got their due again. 7:30 p.m. at Ryman Auditorium —SABY REYES-KULKARNI

Music

COLOUR REVOLT/PAPER RIVAL Mississippi band Colour Revolt were a hot topic at this year’s SXSW festival—but it wasn’t because of their music. The band had all of their gear stolen on the way to Austin and had to scramble to get enough stuff together to play their showcases. Through favors and friends they were able to pull it off, and the press attention surrounding the theft actually helped boost their buzz. The guys have now reclaimed most of their stolen gear (ironically by buying back the pieces from pawn shops using the money donated by fans) and are set to rerelease their debut EP on Tiny Evil (Jimmy Eat World). Regardless of whose equipment they’re using, these guys deliver on the promise broken by so many emo/indie bands: the music is actually as dynamic as their arrangements strive to be. All of their post-prog starts and stops are made more meaningful by the fact that the tunes are invested with real emotional oomph. Speaking of dynamics, the addition of monster drummer Josh Moore (The Katies) to local openers Paper Rival should certainly up their dynamic ante. 9 p.m. at The End —JASON MOON WILKINS

WEDNESDAY 8/8

ART

ARTISTS IN HEAT Cumberland Gallery’s summer exhibition is a series of three-week-long showings featuring the works of the Green Hills gallery’s artists. Favorites include Bob Durham’s photo-realist paintings, Jack Spencer’s rich photo-based mixed media and Kit Reuther’s subtle, stylish paintings. The taste-making gallery is also proud to feature some of its newer artists, such as Joanna Catalfo, whose work references 17th century still lifes, and Steve Cope, whose work explores the simple shapes of circles and spheres. Through Sept. 1 at Cumberland Gallery —BRITTANY CONNER