Soundbites

IN RESPONSE TO JAN. 8

A local CD was released last week to raise funds for the victims of the January 8 shooting.

The net proceeds from sales of Can We Get Together?—a two-CD compilation, featuring 26 local acts, released on Coseismic Records—will be donated to the Tucson Together Fund.

The set features a diverse array of styles and genres, including reggae (Neon Prophet), country (Chip Ritter Band), choral (Tucson Girls Chorus), rap (Chorizmex), punk (Wax 78), classical, folk and everything in between. Some of the songs were written specifically as a response to the January shootings.

The album is currently available as a download at iTunes and Amazon; CDs may be purchased at Barnes and Noble, and soon, at Amazon and local Safeway stores. You can choose between a CD and download at CD Baby, or you can order the CD directly at coseismic.org/how-to-buy.

For more information about the album, head to tucsongettogether.com.


THE MODEENS GET WITH IT

A year after the release of The Modeens' Take a Ride With the Modeens, the band is releasing a new EP, Get With the Times, which includes five tracks of the band's signature groovy '60s-leaning psych-pop, as well as a nifty harmonica-abetted cover of the Monkees' "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone."

The Modeens celebrate the release of Get With the Times with a CD-release party at Plush, 340 E. Sixth St., next Thursday, April 28. Also on the bill are The El Camino Royales and The Swigs (who will be releasing a new album on May 20), who start the night off at 9:30 p.m. Admission is $5. For more info, point your browser to plushtucson.com, or call 798-1298.


A LABEL'S FIRST BIRTHDAY

On the heels of the sixth 7-inch release from James Tritten's local Fort Lowell Records label—a splendid pair of songs by Howe Gelb released as part of Record Store Day last weekend—the label is throwing itself a birthday party to celebrate its first year in bidness.

The Fort Lowell Records Showcase will feature all six bands that appeared on the first five Fort Lowell singles, as well as a pair of DJs spinning tunes between acts, on two stages at Hotel Congress, on Friday, April 22.

Here's a look at the schedule.

Outdoors on the Hotel Congress patio: The Vinyl Baron DJ set with special guest DJs (6 p.m.), Young Mothers (8 p.m.), The Vinyl Baron DJ set (8:45 p.m.), Wet and Reckless (9:15 p.m.), The Vinyl Baron DJ set (10 p.m.), Tracy Shedd (10:45 p.m.), The Vinyl Baron DJ set (11:15 p.m.).

On the Club Congress stage indoors: Jaime J DJ set (9 p.m.), Dead Western Plains (10 p.m.), Jaime J DJ set and live performance (10:45 p.m.), Death Kit (11:15 p.m.), Jaime J DJ set and live performance (midnight), ... music video? (12:30 a.m.).

Doors for the Fort Lowell Records Showcase open at 5 p.m. Admission is free, but you must be 21 or older to attend. Hotel Congress is located at 311 E. Congress St. For further details, check out hotelcongress.com, or call 622-8848.


THE END OF SUNDAY AFTERNOON?

Since the dawn of the '00s, local quartet Sunday Afternoon—originally a sextet, but now composed of singer Rick Paz, guitarist Joey Unger, bassist Tyler Tafeaga and drummer Ryan Janac—has been packing in crowds at local clubs to hear its brand of tasteful folk-pop.

In those years, they've embarked on a 40-date West Coast tour; opened for acts as diverse as Leftover Salmon, Sugar Ray and Amos Lee; and self-released a pair of albums—Stories (2002) and Something Always Leads You Home (2006)—as well as a 2004 EP, No Boundaries. They also took home a pair of Tucson Area Music Awards, in the pop (2003) and indie-rock (2004) categories.

Following an extended quiet period, the band performed at last week's Club Crawl®. And this week, they're playing what is being touted as their farewell show at Plush.

On Saturday, April 23, Sunday Afternoon will play a two-hour set starting at 10:30 p.m. Opening the show at 9:30 p.m. will be Leila Lopez, who will perform with a full band. Plush is located at 340 E. Sixth St. Cover is $5. For more info, head to plushtucson.com or call 798-1298.


MOVITS! MOVITS!

We thought it was a bit odd when, in July 2009, Stephen Colbert featured the tuxedo-wearing Swedish trio Movits!, which no one (in this country, anyway) had heard of, as a guest on his show. This was before Colbert started regularly featuring musical guests on The Colbert Report, which made it even stranger.

Movits! was the beneficiary of the fabled Colbert bump: After their appearance, the group's debut album, Äppelknyckarjazz, shot to the No. 1 spot on the iTunes hip-hop chart, and No. 18 overall, in the U.S. and Canada.

When we realized that the album was released on Comedy Central Records, it made a bit more sense, and not just in a symbiotic-marketing kind of way. The label is run by former Tucsonan Jack Vaughn, who owned and operated Slimstyle Records while he lived here; he moved to New York to start the Comedy Central imprint.

Meanwhile, Movitz! performed a hugely entertaining set at Plush in January of last year.

A few weeks ago, in advance of the release of the second Movits! album, Out of My Head (which hit streets on April 5), Colbert began touting what he calls the "Swedish swing-hip-hop-jazz band" once again. But we were surprised when the album arrived in our mailbox to find that Out of My Head was not released on Comedy Central Records—and that instead, Vaughn had resurrected his old Slimstyle Records imprint to release it.

The album features 13 new tracks that still sound unlike anything else, merging the trio's love of hip hop with their more newfound discovery of American swing jazz. Lyrics, in both Swedish and English, fly by at breakneck speed over various types of jazz—it's not just swing this time.

Movits! returns to Plush, 340 E. Sixth St., on Monday, April 25. Also on the bill are The Missing Parts and the Rosano Brothers' Virtual Quartet, who begin at 9 p.m. Tickets are $8. For further details head to plushtucson.com, or call 798-1298.


SHORT TAKES

Solar Culture Gallery, 31 E. Toole Ave., has back-to-back shows this week from a pair of Japanese artists who couldn't be any different.

Founded 15 years ago by Japanese guitarist Kawabata Makoto, Acid Mothers Temple specializes in outré psychedelic guitar freakouts with nods to krautrock and '70s prog. They'll be at Solar Culture at 9 p.m., Sunday, April 24. Admission is $10.

The following night, Monday, April 25, the gallery will feature a performance by the prolific Tatsuya Nakatani, who largely improvises music that contains elements of free jazz, rock, noise and traditional Japanese folk on a plethora of instruments, many homemade. That show also starts at 9 p.m., and admission is $10. Both shows are all-ages. For more info, head to solarculture.org, or call 884-0874.

In other news: Best known for his work on Dwight Yoakam's twangy albums from 1986 to 2003—he produced, arranged and played on them—Pete Anderson is a blues guitarist at heart. For evidence, take a listen to his Even Things Up album, originally released in 2009 and reissued in a deluxe edition with bonus tracks in January on Little Dog/VizzTone. On it, Anderson runs the gamut from rockin' Chicago blues ("Honky Tonk Girl") to funky jazz (the Booker T homage "Booker Twine") to a samba instrumental ("Wes' Side Blues"). But no matter the style, his playing is impeccable throughout.

Pete Anderson performs with his band at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 27, at La Cocina, 201 N. Court Ave. Admission is free to those of all ages. For further details, go to lacocinatucson.com, or call 622-0351.


ON THE BANDWAGON

Curren$y at the Rialto Theatre on Tuesday, April 26; Fishtank Ensemble at the Plaza Palomino Courtyard on Saturday, April 23; Stephen Marley at the Rialto Theatre next Thursday, April 28; The Octopus Project at Club Congress on Sunday, April 24; Parallels and Reporter at Optimist Club at Club Congress next Thursday, April 28; Emperor X, Human Behavior, Woolly Mammoth and Run-On Sunshine at Dry River Collective on Saturday, April 23; Earth Day Celebration with Sunday Drivers and DJ Nathan Wade at Mr. Head's Art Gallery and Bar on Friday, April 22; Greg Abate at JW Marriott Starr Pass on Friday, April 22; The Wonder Years at Skrappy's on Sunday, April 24; Logan Greene and the Bricks tour kickoff show at Dry River Collective next Thursday, April 28; Mostly Bears, Mergence and The Electric Blankets at Plush on Friday, April 22.