Wednesday

Copeland — This Florida band has been kicking around since 2000 and in that time has released five well-received longplayers and a few EPs. Its latest, You Are My Sunshine, was released Oct. 14 by Tooth and Nail. The music takes its cues from Death Cab for Cutie’s bookwormish indie-pop and is characterized by Aaron Marsh’s fluttering vocals. Opener Lovedrug is also supporting a new record and brings a bit more swagger to the bill. Rounding things out are the heart-on-sleeve stylings of Lydia and the saccharine synth-pop of Lights.
- K. Foster
New Brookland Tavern: 6 p.m., $14 ($12 advance); 791-4413, newbrooklandtavern.com.

Jared Finck — No matter how much the music business changes, my guess is that there’s always going to be room for a good-looking guy with a guitar and some good songs to gain an audience. Spokane, Wash.’s, Jared Finck fits that mold, with some tunes that mine the glossy pop-rock of ‘90s bands such as Vertical Horizon or Sister Hazel for timeless tales of true love and loss. It also doesn’t hurt that his debut disc was recorded in New York and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in London, giving it a polished, professional sound.
- K. Oliver
Five Points Pub: 8 p.m., $5; 253-7888, myspace.com/5pointspub.

Friday

Jay Clifford — So, Zach Braff is a giant fan of Jay Clifford. Seriously: In a blog entry dated May 2 on zachbraff.com, the tastemaker wrote, “I am a giant fan of the artist, Jay Clifford.” Now, there’s no telling if Braff’s star power will yield the same fortunes on Clifford that it’s had on Colin Hay or The Shins, but it certainly couldn’t happen to a more deserving musician. Either as a solo artist or through his efforts with Jump, Little Children, Clifford has proven himself a gifted singer and musician. It’s not fair for only South Carolina to be in on that secret.
- K. Foster
Five Points Pub: 8 p.m., $10; 253-7888, myspace.com/5pointspub.

Decemberadio

Decemberadio — Not since Stryper or the peak of Petra’s popularity has there been a Christian rock band that has had its pulse as directly on what the kids are listening to as Decemberadio. Taking the path of commercially accessible hard rock to a sound that’s equal parts Aerosmith, Nickelback, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, the band’s latest disc, Satisfied, landed at No. 3 on the Billboard Contemporary Christian Music chart in its first week of release back in August. This after its eponymous 2006 debut was nominated for a Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album Grammy and won a Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year.
Unlike pseudo-Christian bands such as Lifehouse or Creed, Decemberadio makes it perfectly clear what it’s singing about on songs such as the mellow power ballad “Look For Me,” The Black Crowes-ish stomp of “Satisfy Me” or the heavier, Soundgarden-esque “Better Man.” If you’re going to preach The Word, or better yet if you’re going to listen to it, there aren’t many more effective ways to get the message across to the target youth audience than to rock out like this.
- K. Oliver
Northside Baptist Church: 7 p.m., $14 ($12 advance); 796-9786.

Framing Hanley — True, Nashville was, is and ever shall be the epicenter for all things country music. But between rockin’ band of brothers Kings of Leon and new-wave emo pop-tarts Paramore, the new millennium has seen a modern rock revival for Music City, U.S.A. Exhibit C: Nashville quintet Framing Hanley, which, like its two more famous brethren, has cracked the Top 50 of Billboard’s Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. Of course, it was for a cover of Lil’ Wayne’s “Lollipop,” which belies the fivesome’s penchant for overwrought, overdramatic post-grunge/emo. Comparisons to Incubus, Three Days Grace and 30 Seconds to Mars are exceedingly appropriate, for what they’re worth.
- P. Wall
Headliners: 8 p.m., $10; 796-2333, headlinerscolumbia.com.

The Fire Tonight

The Fire Tonight — Admittedly, The Fire Tonight — which releases its debut, No One is Fine, tonight — is much in love with the bombastic Brit-rock of Muse and Pablo Honey-era Radiohead. Indeed, “Be Rejected” could’ve fit right at home on Radiohead’s My Iron Lung EP, what with its dark, arpeggiated minor-chord progression and hammer-off accents, upon which vocalist Colin Derrick affects a Yorke-ian croon — replete with wavering trills and all.
But what does it say about The Fire Tonight that the most striking influences on No One is Fine are local? The attractively dour and poetic “Daniel McLean” is reminiscent of the tender, emotive piano-pop of Daniel Machado; “Pay the Waitress” kicks off with a start-stop riff that sound like something out of the Cats and Cobras catalog before exploding into a dynamic, rocking chorus that recalls the early years of Hot Lava Monster, circa First Breath of Water. And then there’s “Cannon Canvas,” which marries the band’s penchant from dramatic Brit-rock with the American aggression of Shallow Palace. Surely, if the above are your favorite local acts, your interest undoubtedly should be piqued.
Far from being lamentably derivative, though, The Fire Tonight has distilled its influences — local and otherwise — into uniquely earnest, piano-pounding power-pop pleasure. Equally capable of gentle ballads and high-energy riff-monsters, The Fire Tonight surely has something for just about everyone.
- P. Wall
New Brookland Tavern: 7:30 p.m., $5 ($7 under 21); 791-4413, newbrooklandtavern.com.

John McCutcheon — In a variation on that old “his picture’s in the dictionary next to…” cliché, if you search for “folk music” on the web, one of the first hits you’ll get is folkmusic.com, the web site for John McCutcheon. Far from a cliché, however, McCutcheon is perhaps this country’s most vibrant living folk singer. Witness his song “Not In My Name,” a scathing anti-war tune from 2002’s The Greatest Story Never Told, which dares to put words in the mouth of God. McCutcheon’s 30-plus year career has spanned everything from children’s albums to baseball odes played on banjo, hammered dulcimer and more.
- K. Oliver
Ebenezer Lutheran Church: 7:30 p.m., free; 765-9430.

Twin Tigers — What was truly exceptional about My Bloody Valentine was that band’s innate ability to be wistfully beautiful and aurally destructive in equal, concurrent measure. Twin Tigers possesses that same pyrrhic quality; the Athens quartet crafts indelible psychedelic-post-punk melodies (think Interpol meets The Flaming Lips) and then sets them ablaze in a wall-of-sound wash of fuzz, reverb and thunderstruck tom-tom rolls. The fact that it’s all done without a hint of arty pretense makes Twin Tigers’ bombastic rock — especially the propulsive “Envy” — that much more special. Put simply, Twin Tigers doesn’t sound like your typical Athens band — and this is a very good thing. Local yokels The Unawares, they of the contorting, convivial Minutemen-ish post-punk, also play, and they’ve got a new record on the way, to boot.
- P. Wall
Hunter-Gatherer: 11 p.m., $5; 748-0540, myspace.com/hunter-gathererbrewery.

Mel Washington — Insert “Getting By With a Little Help” joke here: This show doesn’t mark the release of Mel Washington’s Friends EP, but rather an intimate preview of the songs penned by the All Get Out sideman. Indeed, many of the adjectives used to describe his wildly popular dayjob are apropos of Mr. Washington’s solo outing: earnest, honest, tuneful and eminently likeable. The difference: It’s a great deal quieter, and the emphasis on the Christian mythos is much more overt. Still, there’s worse ways to hear The Word. Cameron Gill opens.
- P. Wall
The Watershed: 8:30 p.m., $5; 957-1887, watershedbooks.net.

Saturday

The Brisbones — Rock has so many qualifiers these days, so it’s damn refreshing to finally write about a band that just plays rock, like this Columbia quartet. No additives or preservatives, just the kind of good old-fashioned blues ‘n’ boogie that turned this country upside down two generations ago. What’s interesting is all those fears about the influence this music would have on the youth of America sort of came true. Oh well, what’s done is done. Also playing are The Reverie, Animal Husband and Juggernaut Syndicate.
- K. Foster
Art Bar: 10 p.m., $3; 929-0198, artbarsc.com.

Michael Hearne — All music is local to somewhere, of course, but some is more tied to a locality than others. Take what New Mexico songwriter Michael Hearne refers to as his “Southwestern Americana,” a term appropriate to both the music’s origin and its sound. Hearne and his band South By Southwest play a dusty cowboy swing that doesn’t mask the artistic range of his songs. Sight and Sound, for example, included 11 songs written about 11 different works of art. The organizers of the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival know great art; Hearne has played the festival’s main stage the past five years.
- K. Oliver
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Coffeehouse: 7:30 p.m., $12 adults/$7 students ($10/$5 advance); 1-888-849-4224 ext. 4, uucoffeehouse.org.

Hoots and Hellmouth

Hoots and Hellmouth —  “We wanna break away from the traditional roles of performer and audience,” Philadelphia roots-rock outfit Hoots and Hellmouth says in its bio. “The exchange of music is a bond.” Indeed, the free exchange of musical ideals is Hoots and Hellmouth’s modus operandi; its carpetbagging acceptance of primarily Southern music is the proof in the pudding. Hoots and Hellmouth’s tunes blend soul, funk, Americana, alt-country, rock and a little bit of gospel with a fierce, revival-like intensity and bulge with homespun sentiments and backwoods flavors — “new music for old souls,” as the band’s Sean Hoots is wont to say. The core of Hoots and Hellmouth formed in Philadelphia in early 2005, when Hoots first jammed with Andrew “Hellmouth” Gray, with each eschewing the loud rock bands they’d been in for Hoots and Hellmouth’s raw, rejoicing riots. The band’s watershed moment came in 2006 at the Philadelphia Folk Fest, when more than a dozen musicians and audience members clambered on stage to clap, stomp and holler along with the band’s closing song. And, indeed, Hoots and Hellmouth has built upon that reputation for killer live shows, which bring tent-revival energy. Providing the pitch-perfect counterpart for Hoots and Hellmouth’s fiery stomp is Josh Roberts and the Hinges, which do the Southern rock revival thing like only true Southerners can.
- P. Wall
Five Points Pub: 8 p.m., $8; 253-7888, myspace.com/5pointspub.

Sawfest III — Though Saw V is already starting to make its way out of theatres, that’s no reason not to hold another edition of the the local-heavy head-banging festivus bearing the name of the classic torture porn series. This installment’s heavies: Diavolo, Into the Depths, Hollowmass, Facedown, Worth the Fall, Decadence, Diary of the Dead and Man Fell to Earth. Should you like metal — whether it’s preceded by black, power or death or anteceded by –core or –ocalypse — Sawfest’ll get your motor running.
- P. Wall
New Brookland Tavern: 6 p.m., $7 ($10 under 21); 791-4413, newbrooklandtavern.com.

Tuesday

3Oh!3 — Named after the area code of its Boulder, Colo., home, hipster electronic duo 3Oh!3 is all suburban hip-hop and electro-emo angst, an intentional and unironic parody (we think) of ludicrous party-pop. If nothing else, its tongue-in-cheek ridiculousness is to be admired, and it is ridiculous: every synth-blip is fuzzed out to the nth degree, every vocal line is vocodered, autotuned and/or distorted almost beyond recognition, and every bass hit is seemingly designed to loose the bowels. Tourmate (and fellow Colorado band) The Chain Gang of 1974 is (at least slightly) less tongue-in-cheek in its approach to disco-punk; Keystone Staters Innerpartysystem aim to make you dance, but in a much more industrial fashion.
- P. Wall
New Brookland Tavern: 6 p.m., $12 ($10 advance); 791-4413, newbrooklandtavern.com.

Jimmie’s Chicken Shack — Those of you with long memories will remember Annapolis, Md.’s, Jimmie’s Chicken Shack as yet another late-‘90s one-hit-wonder; “Do Right” rose as high as No. 12 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1999, and Bring Your Own Stereo, the album from whence it came, peaked at No. 153 on the Top 200. That’s about the only kind thing I can think to say about Jimmie’s Chicken Shack, the third-rate party-rock sound of which was stale and outdated even back in ’99. Actually, I take that back: The band’s newest long-player, Fail on Cue, features a not-entirely-terrible cover of Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” amidst its mix of uninspired post-grunge and funk-metal.
- P. Wall
Five Points Pub: 8 p.m., $12 ($10 advance); 253-7888, myspace.com/5pointspub.