THURSDAY 7/25

THE ALMOST

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9 p.m. Juanita’s. $13 adv., $15 day of.

OK, it’s time again to learn about a band by watching a couple of that band’s music videos with the sound turned off. The band is The Almost and the video is “Lonely Wheel.” The band is playing in a bar, but nobody is there save for a dour-looking barkeep cleaning up. He picks up a napkin and one of those old-school label-maker decals that reads “I NEED TO FORGET.” Turns out somebody printed and left a bunch of these labels on the set for this video. One says “CAN YOU HELP ME OUT” and another one says “I’M SICK OF ME” and then another one says “DRINK” and yet another one reads “I WON’T LET THEM SEE ME NOW.” There are many other labels with other emo-type phrases. “I’LL PUT UP A FIGHT,” says one label bravely. Another one backs up that one: “I WON’T LET US LOSE.” Finally, a label says “IT WILL GET EASIER.” Then it’s over. In the video for “Say This Sooner,” the band has moved from an empty bar to an abandoned gas station in the desert. The singer is a bunch of different people in this video. He’s a hitchhiker and then he’s a cop and then the band is playing inside a cheap motel room. The singer is looking in the mirror and seeing someone else, which usually doesn’t happen with mirrors. Now there are two of him. One of him is standing in front of the other of him holding a briefcase. What’s inside? It’s a mirror and what looks like a cellphone from 2002. He picks up the cellphone. Whoa! He’s instantly transported back to the hotel room and the video is over. This video has been viewed more than 2.4 million times. Also on the bill: Austin indie rock band The Rocketboys and Central Arkansas pop band The Supporting Cast.

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FRIDAY 7/26

JASON BOLAND & THE STRAGGLERS

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8 p.m. Revolution. $12 adv., $15 day of.

Fans of Red Dirt country have it pretty good here in Central Arkansas. Situated on I-40, Little Rock is a natural stop for the constantly touring bands — mostly from Texas and Oklahoma — that make up the scene. Harrah, Okla., native Jason Boland is one of the more popular Red Dirt artists, on the strength of years and years of serious road-doggin’ and zillions of shows. Back in aught-eight, he had a vocal cord injury that was a serious bummer, requiring him to rest up and to take it easy for a minute. That was right around the time that his album “Comal County Blue” and its single of the same name were proving very popular. It’s a good tune for sure. Boland’s live album “High in the Rockies: A Live Album” cracked the top 30 of the U.S. country charts. The latest from Boland and Co., “Dark & Dirty Mile,” was co-produced by Shooter Jennings and was released in May, hitting No. 25 on the country charts and No. 18 on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart. The title track was co-written with fellow traveler Stoney LaRue. Also on this bill: Hell-raisin’ upstarts The Dirty River Boys.

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SATURDAY 7/27

CHANEL WEST COAST

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9 p.m.-5 a.m. Discovery Nightclub. $10-$15.

There is no pretense whatsoever in the music of Chanel West Coast (born Chelsea Chanel Dudley in the year 1988). The actress and aspiring rapper is certainly not aiming for the cerebral or political or artistically challenging. She pretty much laid out her priorities on her single “I Love Money,” which is a song about how much she loves money. The video finds the young blonde woman and her friends riding around in a Maybach and smoking blunts, hanging out in a hotel room and throwing cash around, laying down tracks in the studio and cavorting with Snoop and A$AP Rocky. Coast recently signed with Lil Wayne’s Young Money label. She described the signing thusly on Billboard.com: “I went to Miami, played him my music, and I just remember him after my one song … I played him a track and he sat back and said, ‘Man that shit was stupid.’ I was like, ‘Yo. Wayne thought that shit was stupid.’ As soon as he said that, I knew I was in.” If you just read all of that and were like, “Huh? What the hell is this all about?” — relax. You’re not having a stroke or anything. You’re just old and out of touch (which, thank God!). However, if you read that and were like, “Hellz to the yeah, get that Weezy money girl!” then you will probably want to grab your good friend Molly and head out to Discovery Saturday for a night of glitter-encrusted debauchery, which also includes Muck Sticky, Taylor Thrash and Dylan Dugger.

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SATURDAY 7/27

THEORY OF A DEADMAN

7 p.m. Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheater. $50-$60.

You know, sometimes we music critics encounter a band whose lyrics are so achingly beautiful and sublimely poetic that we just need to stand back and let the words speak for themselves, so to speak. Such is the case with Canadian band Theory of a Deadman and their song “Bitch Came Back.” Just let these nuggets of romantic inspiration wash over you: “I like her so much better when she’s down on her knees / ‘Cause when she’s in my face is when I’m starting to see / That all my friends are right for thinking that we’d be wrong / Well she’s so fuckin’ stupid bitch she’s singing along.” Makes Leonard Cohen look like a hack, am I right? Here’s another bon mot: “There she goes again just always breaking my balls / No matter what I do somehow it’s always my fault / She says I must be cheating ’cause I turned off my phone / But that’s the only frickin’ way she’ll leave me alone.” I don’t think there’s any more I could do to demonstrate the brilliance of this band, so we’ll just leave it there. Opening the show is 9 Miles Ahead.

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SATURDAY 7/27

WIZ KHALIFA, TRINIDAD JAME$, JOEY BADA$$

7:30 p.m. First Security Amphitheatre. $49-$86.

This here is probably one of the hottest hip-hop tours of the summer. Pittsburgh-bred Wiz Khalifa has spent the last several years releasing everything from Euro-flavored pop numbers to sunny singer/songwriter fare to buzzy club bangers and about a dozen other styles, all of it enveloped in a dense-ass cloud of cannabis smoke. I’m very much digging Khalifa’s excellent recent collaborative EP with Curren$y. It’s constructed around long samples from jazz flutist Bobbi Humphrey’s 1975 album “Fancy Dancer,” and doesn’t sound like much else I’ve heard. Trinidad Jame$ is a Trinidadian who resides in Atlanta. He’s got a fixation with gold, as evidenced on his single “All Gold Everything” and the fact that he largely wears all gold everything. In a recent interview with pop-savant Nardwuar, Jame$ dished on working at a Waffle House that was next to a strip club: “Porkchop and eggs, that’s the stripper meal.” Brooklyn native Joey Bada$$ is young (born 1995) and super ambitious. He’s been releasing tracks from his “Summer Knights” mixtape all summer, along with some accompanying videos that function like mini-documentaries. Also on the bill: Berner, Chevy Woods and Smoke DZA.

WEDNESDAY 7/31

‘THE IDENTITY THEFT OF MITCH MUSTAIN’

9 p.m. White Water Tavern.

Back in the early fall of 2006, if you cared about the Razorbacks football team or knew anyone who cared about the Razorbacks football team, the name Mitch Mustain was likely a familiar one. Many a Hog fan’s head was filled with visions of touchdown passes, cheering crowds and maybe, eventually, one of those big Waterford crystal footballs and fond future memories of “The Mitch Mustain Era.” But it didn’t work out that way for the vaunted Springdale quarterback and 2005 USA Today High School Offensive Player of the Year. There’s probably no need to rehash all of it at this point, as it’s just a painful memory for fans. So why would you want to see a 90-minute documentary about it? I’ll defer to Arkansas Expats writer Doc Harper, who caught the movie at this year’s Little Rock Film Fest: “The story involves most of all the worst parts of college sports. The filthiness of recruiting. Coaches pushing their own agendas at the expense of their players. Inappropriately meddlesome boosters. Media and fans twisting teenagers into demigods. Power, corruption, deceit, influence, ambition. It’s all very ‘Game of Thrones,’ with the Broyles Center taking the place of the Iron Throne and everybody forgetting that the point of high-level college football is the crystal football. And no dragons.” The film, by Matthew Wolfe, was narrated by Nolan Richardson, himself a legendary figure who knows a thing or three about how heated and insane things can get in Hog Country. Loblolly Creamery will be serving booze-y milkshakes.

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