Music Around Madison: August 17, 2007

From scary kids and poor bastards to plastic chords and crochet’d machetes, whether you like quirky music or just quirky names, the music around town this weekend has you in mind.

For instance, NYC’s The Bicycats hit up Mother Fools at 8 p.m. on Friday with a repertoire of songs including “Salad Van” and “Very Subtle Moustache” tweaked out by poppy keyboards and an intermittent ukulele. (Imagine Belle and Sebastian teaming up with Harry Nilsson.) The Bicycats are joined by the also ukulele-friendly “old-timey albeit timely cabaret-style bad girl,” Brooklyn singer-songwriter Kelli Rae Powell, and local Doug Pahl. At 10 p.m., just around the corner at High Noon Saloon, Madison’s The Ottoman Empire thrashes out some female-fronted progressive metal supported by Mirror Black, Hebron, and Boomslang (for metal on the west side, check out The Lords Of Discipline, Kill Jr, Snooky & Beautiful To Sick at the Klinic). Aeroplane Pageant glides into the Annex for a holding pattern of pleasantly shimmering indie rock. Their recent release “Wave to the Moon” was heralded in Newsday as “one of the best indie rock albums of the year so far” (circa February, no less). They’ll be supported by Blamm-O!, the Motorz, and Dumb Downs.

For a night of streetgrass doused in a liberal amount of drown-your-sorrows whiskey and set afire, check out the impressive lineup at the King Club. The frenetic melodies of Milwaukee’s .357 String Band are influenced by “Poverty, Depression, Love, Unity, Murder, Mayhem, Addiction and Affliction” but their punk and their picking coalesce into an unmatched sound that will cure whatever ails you. Those Poor Bastards add a jolt of raw misery—Hank III calls them “the best gothic country I have heard yet to this day.” In addition to the local boys, Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies drift in from the West with “junkbox blues duo” Hillstomp.

To rock out with your, hmmm, socks off, hit up Café Montmartre for a Western-themed Underwear Party. Strange bedfellows should abound, starting with the emo stylings of Soundbyte Society which will somehow segue into the burlesque of Foxy Veronica’s Peach Pies, topped off with a dollop of DJ Foundation and Wyatt Agard. Get PG-13 for a good cause (but you can leave your [cowboy] hat on)—it’s a benefit for FoRCE, Madison’s Foundation of Retaining Creative Energy.

Crochet’d Machete debuts live at Zuzu Café at 6. This new Madison band’s demo is heavy on the synth, light on the percussion, and impressively rounded out with harmonic vox and evocative melodies.

At the Inferno, it’s 80s Cartoon Night with DJ Smitty spinning retro 80s vinyl. Those in cartoon garb get in for free. Also going retro is The Cardinal Bar, with DJ Corey Lee spinning 80s and 90s tunes. If you’d rather stay put in the aughts, DJ Nick Nice is at Natt Spil, while Capitol Sound DJs rock Club Tavern.

Check in tomorrow morning for Saturday. And if we missed you...apologies, but you need to add us to your mailing list!