In two weeks local Tucson sludge favorite Godhunter will be embarking on a tour that will take them from Los Angeles to New Orleans. It's good to see Tucson metal getting out and around other cities, and they will be playing 23 dates over two months, including SXSW. The tour will come through Tucson Feb. 6 at the Rock and and ends March 16 at the Rock as well. The Feb 6. show will also include Solid Giant and Red Shield from Louisiana, and locals Thorncaster.

Godhunter hits your gut with nice heavy rhythms, as heard on "Wolves of the North," a great local staple, and "(Dead Hooker by the side of) The Road," a bluesy groove with some nice flying notes, among others. Thorncaster brings a heavy rhythmic drum-heavy metal sound. Red Shield will be bringing drony, slow heavy hits on the strings although their "Disquiet Follows the Soul" picks up the pace a bit. Solid Giant is in-your-face mellow metal with slamming drives and growling vocals.

Feb. 6 show details

[audio-path:http://www.tucsonweekly.com/audio/wolves_of_the_north.mp3]

Truth be told, I generally don't dig today's indie rock that much. If there aren't loud guitars or drum beats that threaten to change my heart's rhythm, I'm generally not into it.

Now, here's another truth: "The Deep" is an awesome song, and in an effort to find out where they're going to be playing next, I've just liked Roll Acosta's Facebook page. (No, seriously, they can tell you who likes their page. You'll see "David Mendez." Facebook is not a game, people.)

Watch that video. Dig their sound. Be disappointed if you (like me) did not see them at the Great Cover-Up. We'll go to the next show together. It'll be fun.

One of my favorite holiday season traditions each year is the Sonic Solstice radio show broadcast by KXCI FM 91.3.

Now in its 11th year, the program — which airs tonight, Monday, Dec. 17, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. — combines live, in-studio performances of holiday classics and original songs as performed by an always-stellar lineup of local acts, with recorded highlights from past years' shows and amusing DJ banter filling out the time between the live stuff.

Supplying that banter this year will be hosts Cathy Rivers (The Home Stretch), Matt Milner (Locals Only), Bob Girth (The Hub), and Laura Adams (The Music Mix); and the list of scheduled live performers looks a li'l something like this:

Hip Don't Dance
Jacob Acosta (of Race You There and Roll Acosta)
Al Foul
Boreas
Gabrielle Pietrangelo (of Silver Thread Trio)
Keli Carpenter and Taylor Bungard (of The Tryst)
Carlos Arzate and the Kind Souls
Kaia Chesney
The Great Collision (Ryan Green of Ryanhood and Paul Jenkins of ...music video?)
Hans Hutchison
Golden Boots

Pretty sweet, right?

It's the sort of "event radio" that just doesn't happen very much anymore. So, for one night, turn off the TV, put down the video game controllers, and suck back some eggnog with friends and/or family with your radio tuned to 91.3 FM (or stream it at kxci.org). If you're not in the holiday spirit at the end of those four hours, well, you're on your own this year.

Attention all daytime rockers: Because Tucsonans start shivering when it dips down to 60 degrees, and OK, because it might rain, thereby destroying all the equipment donated by our generous sponsors, all of the Great Cover-Up events this afternoon have been moved from the Hotel Congress patio to the Rialto Theatre.

I know, it's no big deal since they're across the street from one another. I'm just trying to save you a few steps and an egg or two on your face.

Admission to both today's and tonight's events is open to all ages. The daytime is FREE, and tonight will set you back an $8 donation to SAAMHA (Southern Arizona Artists and Musicians Healthcare Alliance).

Here's the schedule for the remainder of the event:

Saturday, December 15, (daytime) at Hotel Congress' outdoor patio the Rialto Theatre.

12:30p Evan Dando/Lemonheads
1:00 Robert Johnson
1:30 Supertramp
2:00 The Doors
2:30 '80s One-Hit Wonders
3:00 Cake
3:30 James Brown
4:00 Tom Waits

COVERED BY THE FOLLOWING LOCAL BANDS (in no particular order):
Kyle Brondson, Roman Barten-Sherman, Smallvox, Jumper, The Tangelos, Jeremy Michael Cashman, Roll Acosta, Sinphonics

Saturday, December 15, (evening) at Rialto Theatre

6:00p Joe Walsh
6:30 Quiet Riot
7:00 Flogging Molly
7:30 Leonard Cohen
8:00 Stevie Wonder
8:30 Dixie Chicks
9:00 The Kinks
9:30 Violent Femmes
10:00 The Smiths
10:30 LCD Soundsystem
11:00 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
11:30 Outkast
12:00a Paul Simon
12:30 Red Hot Chili Peppers

COVERED BY THE FOLLOWING LOCAL BANDS (in no particular order):
Wolf Larsen, The Gallery, ...music video?, Skinkfinger, Awkward Moments , David Clark Band, Hank Topless, Holy Rolling Empire, LeeAnne Savage, The Gunrunners, Electric Blankets, The Distortionists, The Tryst, Some Of Them Are Old

Just a friendly reminder that the awesomeness that is The Great Cover-Up begins tonight at Plush.

You know all about it by this point, right? If not, read up here.

We've been posting a video (almost) every day this week of one of the acts getting covered at this year's event playing a cover song, and today is no exception.

Today's clip features The Pretenders — who are being covered on Friday night at Club Congress — playing a song originally recorded by The Kinks — who will be covered on Saturday night at the Rialto Theatre.

Enjoy!

More info and a complete, up-to-date schedule after the jump.

Tucson Rock Alliance is going to have one lucky band play at the "Tucson's Best" Showcase at the Rialto Theatre January 27th, 2013. This is a good opportunity to see some smaller local bands play at this great venue. To vote, just like the photo of the band you would like to see. There are about a dozen bands that submitted photos.

The photo gallery can be seen here.

More information on the event can be found here.

I mentioned yesterday in a post here that there were only four more days until the start of The Great Cover-Up, the annual music-for-charity event for which local acts cover the songs of acts better-known than themselves.

Well, I'm not very good at math. The 14th annual Great Cover-Up begins at Plush on Thursday, Dec. 13, which is now only two days away. It continues on Friday night at Club Congress, Saturday afternoon on the patio of Hotel Congress (don't worry: there will be outdoor heaters and hot drinks, if weather warrants it), and wraps up Saturday night at the Rialto Theatre.

Over the course of the event, 50 local acts will each perform 20-minute set of better-known national and international acts — and every penny of the proceeds will be donated to TAMHA (Tucson Artists and Musicians Healthcare Alliance).

To get you into the Great Cover-Up spirit, every day this week we're posting a a cover song by one of the acts getting covered at this week's event.

For example, the music of the Violent Femmes will be covered at the Cover-Up, so here's a video of the Femmes covering a T. Rex song. Enjoy!

A full schedule of events and more info are after the jump:

Friends, only four days until the most awesome music-for-charity event in Tucson!

That's right, The Great Cover-Up begins on Thursday, Dec. 13, at Plush; continues at Club Congress on the night of Friday, Dec.14, and during the day on Saturday, Dec. 15, at Hotel Congress' outdoor patio; and finishes up that night, Saturday, Dec. 15, at the Rialto Theatre.

Over the course of the event, 50 local acts will each perform 20-minute set of better-known national and international acts — and every penny of the proceeds will be donated to TAMHA (Tucson Artists and Musicians Healthcare Alliance).

In order to get you into the Cover-Up spirit, each day this week we'll be posting a cover song by one of the acts getting covered at this week's event.

If that's confusing, here, enjoy Amy Winehouse (whose songs will be performed on Thursday at Plush by a local act — we won't tell you which one, as it's a Cover-Up tradition to not divulge beforehand who will be covering whom) performing a song originally recorded by The Zutons.

A full schedule of events is after the jump.

Hey, guys. Remember that item we posted right before Halloween featuring a few videos shot by Tucsonan Jason Willis? And remember that one video that was a brilliant parody of "classroom drug educational film(s)" featuring kitties strung out on catnip? You know, the one that was selected to screen at last month's American Film Institute's AFI Fest, in Los Angeles?

Well, we just got word via a Facebook post that the video (and, by extension, Willis) has just received its biggest honor yet: Catnip: Egress to Oblivion? has been selected to screen at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Here's what Willis posted on his Facebook page:

Okay everyone — I'm not exactly sure how to process this news yet so I'm just going to post it.

Here goes:

My short film Catnip: Egress to Oblivion? has been named as an official selection at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

No, honestly. It's playing at the Sundance Film Festival. For real.

In January I'm going to travel to Utah, and go to the Sundance Film Festival where my film Catnip: Egress to Oblivion? will play.

Five times.

At the Sundance Film Festival.

In 2013.

Congratulations, Jason!

Burger Records, the mostly-cassettes label that has released some of my favorite albums of the year, released a new compilation today in conjunction with its sister label, Wiener Records, that looks friggin' awesome.

The Wiener Dog Comp contains 71 unreleased tracks by 71 Burger-associated acts, spread over two cassettes. With songs by bands including Thee Oh Sees, Redd Kross, Jaill, King Tuff, The Eeries, Spanish Moss, The Blank Tapes, Pop Zeus and tons more, it almost warrants running out and buying a cassette deck just to listen to it.

Further incentive: The comp also contains songs by three Tucson bands — Lenguas Largas, The Resonars, and Freezing Hands.

Even more incentive: All of the proceeds from sales go toward an operation to remove a growth from the belly of Popcorn!, the adorable wiener dog featured in the video above. Any leftover proceeds will be donated to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. So it's like a triple-win!

If you want in on the action, get to it: Only 500 copies were pressed. Oh, and it's only 10 bucks per copy.