Music Around Madison: December 7 and 8, 2007

Cabin fever should be forcing many of us out and about this weekend and there is plenty on the plate around the city.

If you want to start Friday off early your two best options are the monthly Arts Crawl or Santaoke at the High Noon. Both start at 5 p.m. More than 14 art galleries will be open tonight with The Mad Rollin Dolls offering both an excellent starting and finishing point at the Forza Gallery on East Johnson. The Wheeled warriors will be featuring art from Timothy Hughes aka Weaztek, Aaron Mazzone aka Marshall Law, Nicole Olthafer aka Darling Nikki, and Sharon Vanorny aka Wanda. DJs will spin while a keg pumps out free Capital Winter Skal.

Meanwhile the Gomers will be putting on their holiday best for Santoke as the Madison Santarchy Crew kicks off an evening of drunken red and green debauchery. Plans after Santaoke include caroling at....well....that's a secret.

After Santaoke the High Noon will be rolling out the Kissers (who need no introduction in Madison) and one of Minneapolis' finest - Pert near Sandstone.

Over at the Klinic it is a "Selfish Night of Comedy." Madison's newest comedy troupe, Rhymes with Stomach, team up with The Selfish Gene fro an evening of funny and rock. 8:30 p.m.

The University continues playing host to the Homegrown: Hip Hop Fest. El Guante is in town offering a spoken word workshop followed by an open mic in the Memorial Union. the fest continues tomorrow with Brother Ali, Figureheads, and Lucha Libre.

Majestic has a double feature tonight. At 7:30 p.m. the space opens with a double shot of goofy fun. Jonathan Coulton is a science geek and a folk musician. His songs include topics such as a mad scientist falling in love with a captive and a man devolving into a monkey. Paul and Storm join him. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Stick around for the Majestic's weekly night of indie dance - SoundLab with Nick Nice.

For Inferno it is Spoil. Tonight features Emotional Joystick and Decay, Alan, Dissolvent, Thrasher, and A.J. Woo. 9 p.m.

Saturday:

The pop punk of Brutal Dildos hits the Annex Saturday and part of me really wishes they were playing with the Revolting Cocks. Counter Active, The Bottles, Heretics, and Pillow Fight join 'em. 9 p.m.

if you know JoAnne Powers from her sax work busking outside of Ben and Jerry's on State Street, then you don't know JoAnne Powers. Powers can bend and twist the soul of a sax like few others dare to try - at least in Madison, a city seriously lacking in the area of avant garde jazz. Powers and her trio more than make up for it. She'll be at Mother Fool's for the release of the new CD Food for Thought.

If you have ever wanted to see a band play nearly every instrument known to the country music scene then you don't need to look much farther then your very own city. Madison County bring to the stage a fiddle, mandolin, harmonica, steel guitar, dobro, banjo, lap steel, B-bender lead guitar, and acoustic guitar. It is quite a high energy sight to witness. They'll be at the High Noon starting at 9:30 p.m.