• Green Jelly plays Juanita's Sunday night.

GREEN JELLŸ
8 p.m. Juanita's. $5.

Back in 1987, Reagan was snoozing his way through the Iran-Contra hearings, S&Ls were failing faster than you could say "repossessed Lamborghini" and a punk band called Green Jello appeared on the Gong Show. It was clear that the band was brought on as one of the sacrificial lambs guaranteed to be ridiculed and gonged off the show in a matter of moments.

But little did then-host Don Bleu realize that the band he was smugly escorting offstage would soon go on to conquer the world of pop music, to record albums of timeless beauty and sophistication and create a catalog of masterworks rivaled only by that of the Beatles.

Just kidding. Green Jellÿ (as the band was renamed after a threat of copyright litigation from the fine folks at Kraft Foods) was a heavy metal novelty act along the lines of Gwar, right down to the giant foam rubber costumes, scatological humor and ridiculous characters (e.g. Satan's Ham, Cowgod and Shitman — a walking pile of corn kernel-riddled feces, naturally). The band had one of those increasingly rare fluky radio hits with 1993's "Three Little Pigs," memorable for its Claymation video and falsetto chorus "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin."

So what's the band up to in 2011? Here's one way to find out.

• The Black and White Years plays Stickyz Sunday night.

THE BLACK AND WHITE YEARS
9 p.m. Stickyz. $5.

To be honest, this whole early '80s/post-punk revival what-have-you has persisted a hell of a lot longer than yours truly would have thought possible back in the early- to mid-aughts, when he was aggressively ignoring Radio 4, The Rapture, Franz Ferdinand and their ilk.

The Black and White Years hails out of Austin, and initially the band was compared to The Talking Heads. But that seems likely a result of former Head Jerry Harrison producing the band's debut, self-titled album. That set was full of jerky guitars and even jerkier rhythms, coming off like a less whimsical XTC or a less dramatic Echo & the Bunnymen or a less funky Gang of Four.

The band's new stuff is a move in a poppier direction, mining the New Romantic sounds of Ultravox and Duran Duran, with all of the icy synths, electronic beats and histrionic vocals that define the genre.

Booyah! Dad opens.

• Tyrannosaurus Chicken plays at Dickey-Stephens after the Travelers game Saturday night.

ARKANSAS TRAVELERS, TYRANNOSAURUS CHICKEN
7:30 p.m. Dickey-Stephens Park. $6-$12.

Now this right here is what you call a recipe for the perfect summertime evening: baseball, beer, salty snacks, live music. Combine all four in liberal helpings and enjoy.

Hell, you don't even necessarily have to love baseball to have a good time at a Travs game. At $6 to get in, and with inexpensive beer and food, it's one of the best cheap dates in town. After the Travs get done whuppin' up on the Tulsa Drillers, Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase winner Tyrannosaurus Chicken will be playing a set of shambling, psychedelic blues at the Hookslide Corner Beer Garden.

Sounds like this is a surefire bet for a memorable summer night.

• Sway celebrates its first anniversary tonight.

SWAY'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY
5 p.m. Sway. $5.

Across Central Arkansas there are approximately 547 million sports bars — loud, smoky places where you can watch the game, devour a giant stack of hot wings and quaff cheap domestic beer gallon by watery gallon. But there aren't nearly as many clubs that cater to the discerning urban sophisticate.

Along with a handful of other newer venues, Sway has helped to fill a niche, offering a club atmosphere that's considerably more refined than most other bars in the region. Think dress codes, high-end mixed drinks and DJs playing modern R&B, electronic and dance music.

To celebrate its first year, Sway hosts a party with live music from Jason Greenlaw, Buddafli and Shea Marie, specialty cocktails, floral arrangements and a dressed-up atmosphere. Business casual attire is required.

• Jessica Lea Mayfield plays Juanita's tonight.

JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD
9 p.m. Juanita's. $10.

Jessica Lea Mayfield is one of those wise-beyond-her-years singer/songwriters who might cause nonbelievers to reconsider reincarnation.

Ruling out the influence of past lives, Mayfield must have either had a string of painful breakups by the tender age of 21, or else she has a powerful imagination and the ability to synthesize real, grownup heartache to a degree so convincing that it doesn't matter whether it really happened.

A native of Kent, Ohio, Mayfield kicked off her recording career with a homemade EP that fell into the lap of Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Auerbach helmed both of her full-lengths, enveloping her songs in a sparse yet rich production, particularly her most recent album, "Tell Me," a set dominated by ruminations on relationships that border on the morose.

On lead single "Our Hearts Are Wrong," Mayfield feigns aloof circumspection, but reveals her underlying vulnerability over simple acoustic guitar strumming and a gently thudding Casio beat. She's got a smoky, restrained voice and an appealing Midwestern twang (yeah, Ohio folks can have an honest-to-God drawl; have you ever heard Robert Pollard talk?) Her music is a sort of gothic country-pop that, while not exactly bleak, is pretty dark.

Ferraby Lionheart opens the show.

• Full of Hell headlines a night of hardcore at Downtown Music Hall.

Full of Hell plays dark, heavy hardcore in the vein of '90s acts like Rorschach, Initial State and His Hero is Gone. Fellow travelers Jungle Juice, Motives, Mailbomber and Rotting Out are also playing the show at Downtown Music Hall, 7 p.m., $7.

Tales of the South this week features "Jobs We Love to Hate," with Tim Bennett, Spencer Campbell and Mike Rush, along with music from Runaway Planet and Mark Simpson, at Starving Artist Cafe. Dinner starts at 5 p.m. and admission is $5. Reservations are recommended so call 501-372-7976.

• Poptart Mokeys plays Saturday night at the final Peabody Rivertop Party of 2011.

Florida's Poptart Monkeys don't go in for subtlety or nuance. The band plays hybrid pop-punk party music, kind of like the lovechild of Sublime and Blink 182 on day five of an MTV Spring Break bender.

Check out the band's song "Choke Yourself," which, to be clear, is in no way an endorsement of auto-erotic asphyxiation: "Worried about your brain / just save your mental health / tonight my hands won't work / you'll have to choke yourself."

The band's central message: Why don't you just chill out, brah? So check your brain at the door, have a good time and knock back a drink or three while taking in the splendor of the Arkansas River and enjoying one of the city's biggest, most diverse party scenes.

Epiphany emcees the good times at the final Peabody Rivertop Party of 2011, so don't miss out.

• Those Darlins will be at Stickyz Saturday night.

THOSE DARLINS
9 p.m. Stickyz. $8 adv., $10 d.o.s.

The latest album by Those Darlins finds these Tennessee gals and guy having abandoned their clogging and Carter Family covers in favor of a Runaways-vs.-the-Ronettes-in-a-switchblade-fight sorta vibe.

Nowhere is this more evident than on opener "Screws Get Loose," also the title of their latest album. "Mystic Mind" offers some mildly foreboding garage psych in the vein of The 13th Floor Elevators' more restrained moments, and "Be Your Bro" is an instantly catchy anti come-on with perfectly snarling lead vocals from Jessi Darlin.

This change of course didn't come completely out of left field (see "Red Light Love" from 2009's self-titled album), but Those Darlins is a pretty different outfit here in 2011. In recent years, there's been no shortage of bands mining the sounds of girl groups and early rock 'n' roll — Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, Best Coast. Those Darlins' version of wall-of-sound retro rock is more straightforward than say, the warped lunacy of Thee Oh Sees, but that's not to diminish it.

The band's expanded palate is a good thing, and the album is ear candy in the best sense of the term. Correne Spero, Quin & Dodson and Vanhoose open the show.