THURS/4.1
[SOUL SUMMIT] KENTUCKY THUNDER
Each member of Kentucky Thunder — Etta Britt, Vickie Carrico, Sheila Lawrence and Jonell Mosser — is a formidable vocalist and bandleader who can pack clubs and raise roofs on their own. For 13 years, the four friends have come together for occasional four-on-the-floor concerts to shout hallelujah and share their talent for finding the soulful, ecstatic heart of the country-rock-R&B-roots music they all love. This seriously fun endeavor has always been a loose side project for the four Kentucky natives, and they've never bothered to record as a group — until now. Performing over two nights at their familiar home base, they'll record tracks for a live album and DVD, finally giving their legions of fans something more than sweet memories to take home. As rock 'n' rhythm summits go, they'll take it to the mountaintop, as they always do. 7 p.m. April 1-2 at 3rd & Lindsley MICHAEL McCALL
[OF PAINT AND FRETS] GREG DECKER RECEPTION
Ashville oil painter Greg Decker's figurative canvasses are full of earthy hues in alluring treatments that make even his most fantastic images — like a woman riding a whale and shamanistic scenes from his childhood memories of Africa — seem natural. The guitar-shop location of this former NYC Museum of Modern Art instructor's current show, however, is anything but natural. But Simon Ripley's, like Fanny's House of Music in 5 Points (which mixes instruments and boho couture), is part of a cool new breed of six-string emporiums. At Ripley's there are always free coffee, snacks and conversation, along with a comfortable integration of gear ranging from affordable vintage six-strings and basses to boutique amps and necessities like strings. Ripley's also boasts paintings and sculpture, which spill from a dedicated showroom into the rest of the shop. Tonight's event, which will feature live music, is part of Ripley's opening-month celebration, to be followed on April 8 with a reception for Nashville's own curio makers Twisted Sisters and painter Ray Stephenson, who's also a country singer-songwriter and will perform. 6 p.m. at Simon Ripley's Music and Art, 1305 Eighth Ave. S. TED DROZDOWSKI
[JEAN-YVES WE CAN] NASHVILLE SYMPHONY WITH PIANIST JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET
It's safe to say that pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet loves the Nashville Symphony's Hamburg Steinway — after all, he picked it out for the Schermerhorn Center's 2006 opening. Thibaudet returns to the Schermerhorn this weekend to join the orchestra in Edvard Grieg's Schumann-influenced Piano Concerto in A Minor. The celebrated French pianist recorded the piece for Decca in 2005, and his numerous other recordings run the stylistic gamut from Satie to Bellini to Messian. Giancarlo Guerrero is also back, returning to the podium after a string of guest-led classical programs. Respighi's ever-popular Fountains of Rome is also on the bill, and Guerrero furthers his two-pronged mission of presenting recent works and lesser-known American repertoire with Samuel Barber's early Symphony No. 1 and Philadelphian composer Aaron Jay Kernis' 2005 Newly Drawn Sky. Admission is $35-$85. April 1-3 at Schermerhorn RUSSELL JOHNSTON
[CONTRERAS TO POPULAR BELIEF] BILLY CONTRERAS & BUDDY SPICHER
Yes, there have been some legendary fiddle players here in Music City, but none deserves the title more than Buddy Spicher. His studio and touring credits go back to the 1950s, and he's played with anyone you could name. When you've done that much for that long, you get to do pretty much whatever you want, and one of the things Spicher's done for the past year or so is team up with young fiddle phenom Billy Contreras for some hot string jazz in the Frist Center's "Music in the Grand Lobby" series. Contreras sticks mostly to guitar for these outings — he's pretty dang hot on that, too — and the lineup's rounded out by Darrell Johnson and Jeff Henderson on bass and drums for a classic quartet approach. It goes without saying that these guys can swing up a storm, and where else are you going to get this close to a legend? 6 p.m. at the Frist JON WEISBERGER
[DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT THE BLOWJOB AND THE BLUE DRESS] SEVEN MARY THREE W/MARCY PLAYGROUND & SPONGE
Three of the greatest bands in the history of greatness, united on one stage to perform the single most awesome show that's ever been awesome. April Fools! This isn't actually a show; it's a trap to lure in thirtysomething lame-Os and blast them into oblivion, Logan's Run-style. Yep, it's all a nefarious plot to eliminate anybody old enough to remember when there was no question what the definition of "is" was or when Google wasn't even a website, never mind a verb in the dictionary. 'Cuz ya know what? You're old and uncool. Although if you're actually thinking about dusting off the ol' Doc Martens for a night's worth of mulch-gargling vocals and overdriven alterna-chords, you might not have been that cool to begin with. Seriously — Sponge? 6 p.m. at Wildhorse Saloon SEAN L. MALONEY
FRI/4.2
[TAKING ANOTHER WAX AT IT] WAX FANG, HOW I BECAME THE BOMB & THE NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
Wax Fang's Jan. 30 performance at Exit/In was regrettably postponed due to "The Situation 2010." But perhaps the now-legendary Southern ice storm is proving to be a bit of unforeseen providence, because it pushed this show back just far enough to ensure one thing: Both of the local bands on tonight's bill will now be playing Bonnaroo. The Non-Commissioned Officers and How I Became the Bomb won their respective Road to Bonnaroo shows on Feb. 22 and March 22 at Mercy Lounge, and the result is that tonight we get a little pre-Roo sampler, with Wax Fang added to taste. And in case you're wondering what Wax Fang sounds like, let's just reach back to my initial Critic's Pick from a few weeks ago: "Alongside contemporaries like My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses, a band like Wax Fang might sometimes get lost in the shuffle of ambitious Southeastern indie-rockers. They're hard-touring and capable of producing an epic amount of sound considering their three-man lineup, but they haven't quite reached the level of recognition they truly deserve. The fact of the matter is, however, if you're looking for the sort of band that might conventionally be referred to as a 'power trio,' you'd be hard-pressed to find more apt candidates." Glad I remembered to hit "save." 9 p.m. at Exit/In D. PATRICK RODGERS
[IN BLOOM] ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS
Less than a year ago, Caitlan Fleurette's curatorial project The Owl Eyes launched its first show. Traveling Past Ourselves transformed the Lush Gallery into a Xanadu of sorts, and that inaugural effort left us anxious for the latest project from Fleurette. Artificial Flowers is a video art exhibit that will be screened at the Watkins College theater. The show will serve as something of a mini-festival of moving images with first, second and third place prizes announced at the end of the one-night event. Keep your eyes open for the red carpet and your nose on the trail of the popcorn scent. Watkins is also currently showing senior exhibits by Sierra Faye and John Henley in the college's Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Gallery. 6-9 p.m. at Watkins JOE NOLAN
[NEVER THE BRIDE] BUTCH WALKER
Butch Walker has turned his handiness with a hook into a thriving career. Unfortunately, the ex-Marvelous 3 frontman (remember "Freak of the Week"?) isn't paid for making music so much as producing it. He's cut albums for Pink, Avril Lavigne, Lindsay Lohan, Katy Perry, Fall Out Boy and Weezer in the past half-dozen years while making his own (fruitless) runs at the charts. What's missing (other than millions in promotion dollars) is anyone's guess. His last two releases — 2008's Sycamore Meadows (written after his California place was consumed by a forest fire) and February's I Liked You Better When You Had No Heart — are crisp, warm and as radio-ready as anything he's recorded. From "Ponce De Leon Ave.," which sounds like premium Chicago, to the appropriately titled, string-abetted piano ballad, "Pretty Melody," Walker writes terrific pop music, though my money's still on 2006's wonderfully glammy, rock-driven The Rise & Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites. 8 p.m. at the Ryman CHRIS PARKER
[FRESH PRINTS] TWO FRESH
A while back, a buddy of local electro outfit Two Fresh dropped by our music blog, Nashville Cream, to scold us and our readers for sleeping on the pair in that way that only obnoxious, anonymous Internet users can. While we stand by our belief that trolling is no way to win a crowd, upon further consideration and a thorough listen to their debut album The Bakers Dozen, we're willing to forgive that buddy of theirs. We understand why he was so excited. Dozen dives deep into the spacey, electronic end of contemporary hip-hop and journeys across the astral plane, propelled by lush atmospherics, strong melodies and a big-bottomed boom-bap with just enough weirdness to keep the listener from drifting too far afield. Two Fresh have been touring nonstop in support of The Bakers Dozen, including hauls with Pretty Lights and The Disco Biscuits' upcoming Camp Bisco festival, so catch 'em while they're home. 9 p.m. at 12th & Porter SEAN L. MALONEY
[Crazies for You] BELCOURT MIDNIGHT MOVIE: THE CRAZIES (1973)
A stopgap between chapters in director George A. Romero's Living Dead saga, this 1973 drive-in shocker has no zombies per se — yet it meshes perfectly with his overarching vision of a populace caught between consuming rage and anarchy at one extreme and fascist order at the other. In this Watergate-era doom piece, the government is the bad guy: a toxic spill turns a small town's water supply into bug juice and its citizens into homicidal maniacs. But the military's clean-up solution is if anything worse than the problem, as the white-suited, gas-masked troops roam among the townspeople like killer aliens. It should make for a livelier-than-usual comparison with the remake currently in theaters, which we've heard is surprisingly good. Midnight April 2-3 at The Belcourt JIM RIDLEY
[TALK DIRTY TO TENNESSEE] BRET MICHAELS
It's hard to know whether to feel sorry for or envious of the generation of teenagers who will know Bret Michaels only as a professional reality TV celebutard, as opposed to the goon shrink-wrapped in spandex at the helm of hair-metal icons Poison. While spending the grunge era languishing at the wrong end of Beavis and Butthead's wrath and co-starring alongside legendary actor Martin Sheen and laughable Tennessee talk radio wing-nut Phil Valentine in his low-budget masterstroke A Letter from Death Row — which he also wrote and co-directed — Michaels probably never imagined the bizarre "resurgence" he would one day enjoy as butt-rock's answer to Flavor Flav on VH1. There, his bandanna-shrouded receding hairline is currently pop culture's most beloved elephant in the room, and the pot of gold at the end of every honky-tonk cougar's rainbow. One would think that, at 47, his multitude of celeb-reality commitments and Poison's still-active touring schedule would be enough to keep Michaels' plate full. Alas, he still finds time to tour as a solo artist, which is how he'll appear when he predictably comes as cowboy to sing sad, sad songs at the Wildhorse Saloon. 7:30 p.m. at Wildhorse Saloon ADAM GOLD
[FROM THE DEPT. OF NO SHIT] NASHVILLE ON THE MOVE
So they did a bunch of studies where they looked at people who sit down a lot and people who stand up a bunch and compared how healthy the two groups are. And guess which ones were healthier? It's OK, take your time. Did you guess the people who stand up a bunch? Then the good news is you're not totally stupid. But the bad news is, you're probably fat, because most Americans are. Oh, I know, it's not, like, totally clear which way of life is better. All the good things in life, like driving, watching TV, sleeping, eating, hanging out and going on the Internet are all designed for sitting. Sitting and talking is what this country is made of. Try picturing America without chairs — you can't. So it's not so simple. But the sad, ass-swelling fact is that even knowing that standing is better for you doesn't make you or me get up any more frequently. Getting up is hard. It takes work. But you know you should, right? You probably should. There's a bunch of people who already know this, and they meet at different places around town as part of the Get Fit Initiative. And you know what they do? They walk around and stuff. 11 a.m. at Nashville Farmer's Market TRACY MOORE
[SOMETHING ON THE SIDE] DICK50
As much as Delbert McClinton's music leans on loose-limbed R&B and meaty country grooves, he can be counted on to have a great band behind him. And that band of his — a quartet known as Dick50 — happen to jell so well together that they convened on their own time to make their own album, Late Show. It's a first for the group, composed of guitarist and frontman (as much as anyone's the frontman) Rob McNelley, bassist Steve Mackey, drummer Lynn Williams and keyboardist Kevin McKendree, who recorded the album in his Franklin studio The Rock House. There's some of what you'd expect from players whose common ground is McClinton's repertoire. Case in point: "Medicine Man" is a swinging blues strut, made all the more humid and funky by a syncopated clavinet part. But Dick50 also go places McClinton doesn't — Britpop territory, for instance, as they do on a crisp, melodic little number called "2012." 10 p.m. at 3rd & Lindsley; also playing 6 p.m. April 6 at Grimey's JEWLY HIGHT
SAT/4.3
[CHARMED, I'M SURE] SOUTHERN CHARMS
Some of Martica Griffin's older works bring to mind an expanded detail from some larger scene: perhaps one of Turner's dazzling, light-drenched seascapes. Like those pieces, they're filled with glowing, saturated color. Although they're abstract, their soft edges convey an illusion of depth. Griffin's new show, as the title implies, is a look at the South through her eyes: "What makes each Southern state unique — from the music of Lil' Wayne and Louis Armstrong, to the sermons of Billy Graham, to quilts of Alabama." The connection with Lil' Wayne isn't as clear as one might hope, but on seeing these paintings, you'll see hints of landscape in their dazzling blues, pinks and rusty browns. And you'll agree with Griffin's assessment that they convey a "sense of joy." Through May 3 at Tinney Contemporary EMILY BARTLETT HINES
[BAND NOT SEEKING VOCALIST] ADMIRAL BROWNING
Instrumental bands usually have to choose between atmospherics or sheer technique, something to justify the absence of a vocalist. Admiral Browning doesn't really do any of that. Without a doubt, they've got chops, but they don't always lean on those, showing an equal fondness for playing low and slow. Like-minded bands such as Pelican generally produce frustrating results, but the Admiral's superior chops give them a leg up. The Maryland trio lift themselves out of their doomy bog only to immediately jump into a neighboring proggy one. The shred sections are reminiscent of another instru-metal powerhouse (The Fucking Champs), though the Admiral's take isn't quite as ambitious. Still, the topsy-turvy and unexpected turns are a perfect counterbalance to the dronier sections. 9 p.m. at Springwater MATT SULLIVAN
[SHALOM, Y'ALL!] NASHVILLE'S JEWISH COMMUNITY SIGNING
You'd be forgiven if you thought a book titled Nashville's Jewish Community sounded about as likely as a volume called Great Shipbuilders of Omaha, but the community in question is much larger and has a much longer history than many people realize. Lee Dorman's new book — part of Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" series, which focuses on documenting the stories of various communities across the country — goes as far back as the late 18th century, and features chapters on the first Jewish settlers, Jewish-oriented businesses, and the social and cultural history, among other topics. What makes the book work is the wealth of photographs and accompanying brief bios, among them Zadoc Levy (who came to Nashville in 1852 and founded Levy's clothing store), musician Maurice "Mutt" Blumen (who played on the Grand Ole Opry and toured with Bill Monroe) and Janet Levine March (whose 1996 disappearance and murder shook the city for more than a decade). Dorman is a former editor of the The Jewish Observer, Nashville's Jewish newspaper. Dorman will sign books 1 p.m. at the Brentwood Barnes & Noble JACK SILVERMAN
[Pearls Before Wine] OYSTER EASTER
Now in its 20th year, this charity bacchanalia combines two of the Scene's favorite things: crooked electioneering and edible bivalves. Make that three of our favorite things — but we'll get to that in a second. The object is to crown an Oyster King and Queen from a field of eight candidates (including Brent Young, David Smith and Walker Shell for king and Anne Martin, Haylee Waddey Hall, Mindy McCready and Morelia Cuevas for queen) by heaping oyster shells on their table and offering payola, er, inducements of a financial nature. But forget all that jazz, 'cause all you need to know is this name: Eric England, the fourth Oyster King contender. The studly man of destiny who resembles a missing Allman Brother happens to be the Scene's master photographer, as well as shooting for our sister publication Nfocus, and if ever a dude deserved to be recognized as royalty, even of the seafood variety, it's Eric. Especially if you ever want your damn picture again in this publication. Tickets are $80 at the door and include beer, wine, jambalaya, hush puppies, the much-feared Oyster Shooter, and music from Les Kerr's Bayou Band; proceeds benefit the Community Resource Center. 1-5 p.m. at Travellers Rest Plantation & Museum, 636 Farrell Parkway JIM RIDLEY
[Coming Attractions] NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW
In two weeks, the 41st Nashville Film Festival opens with a promising biopic about the young John Lennon (Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy) and closes with a visit from Entourage star Adrian Grenier and his playful doc Teenage Paparazzo. In between — well, if you want the first look, show up at the downtown Arts Company during First Saturday for a sneak peek of trailers and clips, housed for the night in a "Trailer Park Drive-In" replete with a popcorn machine and theater candy. The festival's artistic staff will be on hand to answer questions such as "Where will Adrian Grenier be staying?" and "Do they enforce restraining orders at film festivals?" (They can also direct you to the online ticketing system at , where you should buy your advance tickets, like, now.) And since you're already here for the preview, stop by and snatch a Triscuit off the table at the reception for painter April Street, whose annual show of new work (this year entitled "Souvenirs from Spinning") continues through April 24. 6-9 p.m. at The Arts Company JIM RIDLEY
[ALL THIS GUILT WILL BE ON THEIR HEADS] THE LONG PLAYERS PERFORM THE POLICE'S OUTLANDOS D'AMOUR
Nashville's Long Players are an album band, even if the albums they perform aren't their own. The Police were not. With a slew of KILLER singles, Sting & Co. ruled the Top 40 with their idiosyncratic conflation of new wave, white reggae, choruses that sound nothing like their preceding verses and WASP-y good looks out of Hitler's wet dreams. But they never had a London Calling or a Ziggy Stardust or a Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, as each of their records was sullied by too much hackneyed filler. (How a song like Andy Summers' "Mother" made it onto the A-side of Synchronicity will boggle the minds of music listeners for generations.) Their closest call with consistency came on their 1977 debut Outlandos d'Amour, a record that — before their cool-crippling discovery of synthesizers, jazz-fusion and octabongs — captured the band's lightning-in-bottle chemistry and raw frenetic energy, before it vanished up the suppurating asshole of Sting's ego. Classics such as "Roxanne" and "So Lonely," along with cuts like "Next to You" and "Truth Hits Everybody," will sound great under the surgical focus of the LPs. Plus, watching drummer Steve Ebe do Stewart Copeland is worth the price of admission alone. 9 p.m. at Mercy Lounge ADAM GOLD
[DIG IF YOU WILL A PICTURE] PHOTOVOICE
Guided by a belief that people are experts on their own lives, a group of Vanderbilt undergrads worked with some fellow Nashvillians on a project that combines sociological documentation with fine art. Twenty students in Laura Carpenter's Seeing Social Life class (SOC 219-01) gave disposable cameras to a select group — representing the worlds of roller derby, beauty salons, working mothers and live music venues — then asked them to photograph the important things in their lives, and talked with them about the results. Among the questions they discussed: "What is really happening in this photograph? How does this relate to our lives?" Photovoice pairs candid photos with some of the photographers' responses to those questions. Opening reception 6 p.m. at Blend Studio. Through April 24 STEVE HARUCH
[ON THE ROAD FOREVER] ROBERT EARL KEEN
Keen's a quintessential Texan and the archetypal Austin singer-songwriter. For more than three decades, he's mixed wry, knowing humor, epic story songs and world-weary compassion with languid twang and a bristling rock backbeat, setting the example for the legions that would follow. He's at his best live, where the stage patter's effortless and amusing and backed by 11 albums of material, the best of which — like outlaw love story "The Road Goes On Forever," Foxworthy-esque satire "Merry Christmas From the Family" and the drunken dissipation of "Corpus Christi Bay" — lords over that of his peers. Over the years, his drawling delivery's grown sharper, and his albums (particularly the last few) have gotten rockier. But his gift for comic absurdity ("The Great Hank" features a still-living, VW Bug-driving Hank Sr. in drag, commenting, "Country music's full of freaks") and canny homespun wisdom ("All I Have Is Today") remains as sharp as ever. 8 p.m. at the Ryman CHRIS PARKER
[IN STITCHES] VANESSA OPPENHOFF: NEW WORKS
It's clear with the title Vanessa Oppenhoff: New Works that the artist herself is front-and-center, which is especially apt in this case. Oppenhoff's multimedia drawings will be familiar to fans of the Estel space, but this show of new work is full of surprises: recognizable work that is clearly now informed by the vision of a much more ambitious creator. With earlier pieces, Oppenhoff made use of thread and vellum to create work that resembled needlepoint designs. Her latest pieces feature layers of material, a treasure trove of images and a thread that has been freed from crafty stricture to utter energized, expressionistic lines that often take the liberty of breaking beyond the boundaries of an individual work. This expanded vocabulary finds Oppenhoff free to roam conceptually, and this engaging show is the result. Opening reception 6-9 p.m. at Estel Gallery. Through April 24 JOE NOLAN
[BUNNY BUSINESS] EGGSTRAVAGANZOO EASTER EGG HUNT & MORE
What is it about the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere that lends itself so readily to puns? According to the zoo's website, things will get "hopping" for today's "Eggstravaganzoo," which will feature 10 separate Easter egg hunts for children in five different age brackets. Terribly cute. Zoo officials will distribute over 30,000 plastic eggs throughout their Festival Field — according to the 2000 census, that's roughly one egg for every two children ages 1 to 10 living in Nashville — several of which are larger, golden eggs that can be "redeemed for special prizes." There will also be special items hidden in the animal cages for the animals themselves to find, but these items ARE NOT TO BE SEARCHED FOR BY CHILDREN! No need to let your little ones toddle into the Bengal tigers' cage. In addition to Nashville's biggest egg hunt, Eggstravaganzoo will also feature free games, the "Bunny Breakfast" and photos with the most elusive member of the species known as Sylvilagus floridanus. (Hint: His real name rhymes with "keister funny.") 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere D. PATRICK RODGERS
[THE JOYCE OF ART] JOYCE MELANDER-DAYTON MID-CAREER RETROSPECTIVE
Viewers of Melander-Dayton's mid-career retrospective will likely be impressed by the Santa Fe artist's range. Finding inspiration in unexpected places, she combines fabric with paint to suggest the unfinished reverse side of a canvas. ("Elegy" uses jute to stand in for a bamboo placemat on a table scene.) Her skill with kinetic, playful, abstract designs has drawn comparison to Vassily Kandinsky — the recent "Allegro Non Troppo" is a lively arrangement of patterned silk discs. And although most of her works have abstract elements, she doesn't lack the traditional skills of realist painting: "The Little Things" is a precise, luminous depiction of a cluster of silver bells and marbles. This body of work might sound schizophrenic, but to the eye, they're clearly the product of one bold vision. Opening reception 6-9 p.m. at Rymer Gallery. Through April 24 EMILY BARTLETT HINES
SUN/4.4
[SOUL CALIBER] SOUL LOUNGE
Filling the void left by Lovenoise's move to Friday nights, Soul Lounge is a new, upscale soul weekly featuring an open mic, a DJ and scheduled performers. Heck, Soul Lounge even has its own radio show on 88.1 FM-WSFK on Sunday nights before Lovenoise do their thing on 92Q — the similarity between the two organizations is tough to ignore but also greatly appreciated. This week finds former West Tennessean and current New Yorker Kashan Fields taking the Soul Lounge stage. Fields' smooth, country-soul evokes thoughts of Donny Hathaway, Bill Withers and even Dobie Gray, but without ever being so wrapped up in retro affectation that it loses touch with the modern world. It just creates its own world where R&B never became an empty acronym and still, in fact, has both rhythm and blues — especially on tracks like "Old Girlfriend." 8 p.m. at B.B. King's SEAN L. MALONEY
[RABBIT SEASON] BELCOURT WEEKEND CLASSICS: HARVEY
As Easter movie fare goes, here's a pleasant alternative to The Passion of the Christ (or Night of the Lepus). In Henry Koster's 1950 movie version of Mary Chase's community-theater staple, James Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, the good-hearted tippler who prefers the company of an invisible 6-foot rabbit to that of his prim sister (Josephine Hull) and disapproving doctors. It's no great shakes as moviemaking, but Stewart does a wonderful show of sweetly soused daffiness in what could be called a 24-carrot performance. Co-starring Peggy Dow and Maytag's lonely pitchman Jesse White — "and Harvey as himself" — the movie screens three days only. April 3-5 at The Belcourt JIM RIDLEY
MON/4.5
[RHYTHM NATION] SANKOFA AFRICAN DRUMMING AND DANCE ENSEMBLE
Gyane-Kwame Ahmia is a master of Ghanian Asante drumming who has performed throughout the U.S. as well as in Africa and Yugoslavia. For the last decade, he's taught West African drumming and dance at the Blair School of Music, leading the Vanderbilt student ensemble Sankofa in traditional songs and dances from Ghana. "Sankofa" translates to "return and retrieve" — suggesting Ahmia's intention to go beyond a retrospective approach to tradition and bring these cultural roots into the living present. Perhaps it's too glib to suggest that we all share this heritage as children of Africa, but at the very least we can thank Vanderbilt's global music program — and the Global Education Center on Charlotte, where Ahmia also teaches — for helping to broaden the scope of Nashville's living music scene. Admission is free. 7 p.m. at Blair School of Music RUSSELL JOHNSTON
TUES/4.6
[KICKSTART ME UP] THE RABBIT PRESS' ROCK THE BLOCK FEAT. HEARTBEATER & MORE
Local grunge- and surf-inspired indie rockers Heartbeater want to make a record. A record called Slow Waves. They've got the material; they've got the chops. All they need is the dough. That's why they've set up a Kickstarter account — the latest way for bands (or pet projects of any sort, really) to raise funds for the creation of an in-demand product. If the project in question meets its set monetary goal, they get to keep the money. If they fall short, then donators get to keep their pledges. Heartbeater's shooting for $3,000 to make their record, and as of press time, they've just passed $2,000 with over 30 backers. They have until April 28, and, by God, it looks like they might just make it. They've been gigging their asses off lately — including this Rabbit Press-sponsored Rock the Block with the Stonesy, heavily bearded psych-rocker Majestico, folk outfit The Kopecky Family Band and much more — which shows you they've got the work ethic. Google "Heartbeater Kickstarter" to help the guys meet their goal. 8 p.m. at Exit/In D. PATRICK RODGERS
WED/4.7
[BANG YOUR HEAD] CARNIFEX
We've devoted a decent amount of attention in the past to our general distaste for metalcore, but now's our chance to tell you how stupid deathcore is. No doubt plenty of readers just rolled their eyes at the idea that there's actually something called deathcore, but that's not even the worst of it. First, the subtle distinctions: Metalcore was originally a hardcore punk and metal hybrid — now it's mostly reserved as a label for the Hot Topic-est of metal. The same is largely true for deathcore, except that the genre of metal in question is specifically of the death variety. That's the kind of band Carnifex is. The riffs are generic and uniform across all tracks, the vocals are mostly Cookie Monster'd, and every song is built almost exclusively to house brainless circle-pit breakdowns. Top that with the misogynistic offend-fest that is the video for "Lie to My Face," and Carnifex are a pretty easily hated band. But the drummer does helicopter headbangs while playing, so you've gotta see that. 7 p.m. at the Muse MATT SULLIVAN
[INTERNATIONAL LENS] OSTROV
The bearded sage, fielding philosophical questions from desperate wisdom-seekers while perched on a snowy mountaintop, is a cartoon cliché. Russian director Pavel Lungin's 2006 Ostrov (The Island) presents us with that archetype come to life: Washed ashore on a remote island (he was set adrift on a boat by Nazis, after being forced to shoot his superior), Anatoly has spent 40 years cultivating a life as a pious monk with a cult following. To his followers, he gives advice that's suitably eccentric, telling one widow she should slaughter her pig and move to France to find her husband. This gorgeously photographed movie contains flashes of humor, but it's as portentous (if not, one hopes, pretentious) as it sounds: a parable about faith and forgiveness that invokes Dostoyevsky and Bergman. Recommended as part of a double feature with Hot Tub Time Machine. 7 p.m. at Vanderbilt's Sarratt Cinema EMILY BARTLETT HINES
[BEASTS OF BURDEN] BETH CAVENER STICHTER LECTURE
It's not unusual to attribute human emotions to animals — anthropomorphism, in the U.S. at least, is probably at an all-time high, as evidenced by the jewelry and restaurants now available to pets. But the emotions we often think we see reflected back at us in animal eyes tend to be the ones we're most comfortable with ourselves. In Beth Cavener Stichter's eerie, unsettling work, goats, rabbits and other beasts coil in fear, gaze heavily with shame and ache with sexual longing. In sculptures that start as single, massive slabs of clay, Cavener Stichter deals powerfully with emotion, cruelty and fetish — evoking both the human in the animal and vice versa. She'll discuss her work as part of "StudioVU: The Department of Art Lecture Series." The lecture is free. 7 p.m. in Wilson Hall 103,Vanderbilt University STEVE HARUCH
[TRAIN TIME] DAVID OLNEY PREVIEWS DUTCHMAN'S CURVE
The title of David Olney's new full-length Dutchman's Curve refers to a horrific 1918 Nashville train wreck that was the result of two trains attempting to travel on a single track. And while Dutchman's Curve doesn't attempt to tell that story in literal terms, Olney's songs imagine life as a series of more manageable collisions. A Rhode Island native, Olney came to Nashville in the 1970s and established himself as a empathetic songwriter with a gift for dramatization and a feel for pithy, blues-derived music. Producer Jack Irwin's light touch complements Olney's mixture of Slim Harpo guitar licks, '50s rock 'n' roll and unsentimental balladry. Dutchman's Curve is a literate record — Olney's subjects include crime, middle-aged lust and painter Johannes Vermeer. "Train Wreck" is metaphorical, but it doesn't stint on the kind of emotional violence that can freeze you in your tracks. 2 p.m. at Manuel's on Broadway EDD HURT
[CHUNK-ARIFIC] THE WHIGS W/BAND OF SKULLS
The Whigs' shapely throb and punchy, hook-lined rhythms cling to trim musical figures, delivering compelling sinew and head-bobbing assurance that harks back to alt-rock's halcyon days. Parker Gispert's hoarse croon sails over big chiming guitars as their third album, In the Dark, revs up their ragged power-pop verve into a throaty Mustang V8, exchanging nuance for horsepower. Key to that was probably the departure of bassist Hank Sullivant (MGMT, Kuroma) after 2008's Mission Control, though screams of "Sell-out!" are vastly overstated. In the Dark's a catchy, muscular, energetic album that's perhaps a little over-buffed, but no more so than former tourmates Kings of Leon's Because of the Times. Grimy, bluesy British trio Band of Skulls landed "Friends" on the New Moon soundtrack, attracting belated attention to last year's fuzzed-out, hard boogieing debut, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, and earning comparisons to The White Stripes and the Kills. 8 p.m. at Exit/In CHRIS PARKER
