LOW FLYING OWLS

Sure, we already featured ’em last week, but New York City’s Low Flying Owls are the psychedelic shizzle, fo’ rizzle—and let those be the last Snoopisms of 2004, or at least Januarizza. Like a looser Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, or an upright Brian Jonestown Massacre, LFO’s dirty swagger burns hot and cool on Elixir Vitae (Stinky Records), the quartet’s gorgeous second album that never allows the hooks to get lost in the guitar-splattered reverb din—it’s the real surreal deal you can feel. Oh, that one’s ripe for the press kit ... THURSDAY, Jan. 8 @ Kilby Court, 741 S. 330 West, 7:30 p.m. All-ages. Info: 320-9887.

LYRICS BORN

As half of late-’90s experimental hip-hop duo Latyrx, rapper Lyrics Born (aka Tom Shimura) blew minds with exactly one album—coincidentally titled The Album, considered an essential underground classic. He finally resurfaced a couple of months ago with Later That Day (Quannum), his first solo album that carries on the quest for adventurous new sonics and lyrical depth, and makes most current chart hip-hop sound like amateur hour. “Human beings are complex and have a wide variety of emotions and thoughts, and I feel it’s my job to express that spectrum,” he told TechnoPunkMusic.com. “Conviction and belief are what people find inspiring from art.” THURSDAY, Jan. 8 @ Sound, 600 W. 219 South (formerly Bricks), 9:30 p.m. All-ages. Tickets: 800-888-8499.

BACON BROTHERS

Everyone’s familiar with the work of Michael Bacon, songwriter, guitarist and film-score arranger, but what of his lesser-known little bro Kevin? The Bacon Brothers’ brand of folk-rock-soul-country (nicknamed Forosoco for the title of their ’97 debut album) is easily more legit than the rock-thespian weekending of your Keanus and Crowes—see Live: The No Food Jokes Tour (Image), the duo’s solid concert disc of last November. “I think people realize that this isn’t about feeding egos,” Kevin told City Weekly in 2001. “We think these songs are good and that we have something to offer.” SATURDAY, Jan. 10 @ The Eccles Center, 1750 Kearns Blvd., Park City, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: 435-655-3114.

GUY CLARK

He’s been hailed as the “Songbuilder,” as well as “the finest songwriter in the history of Texas,” but Guy Clark offers a characteristically simple explanation for his tunesmithing: “I suppose it’s because I wrote them and they’re my stories,” he says. “Most of the songs I write I couldn’t make up by any stretch of the imagination. They either happened to me or they happened to someone I know.” Last year’s The Dark (Sugar Hill), Clark’s 12th in an unbroken line of excellent country-folk records dating back to 1975, features laments about homelessness and dead dogs—hopefully, he’s holding up all right. SATURDAY, Jan. 10 @ The Egyptian Theater, 328 Main, Park City, 8 p.m. Tickets: 888-322-9364.

SXSW PRELIMS

Another January, another Showdown to Austin, City Weekly’s annual battle o’ the bands for expenses-paid entry into the South By Southwest Music & Media Conference down Texas way in March. Competing for a music-biz showcase slot and the chance to rub elbows with keynoters like Ani DiFranco and the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne this year are 39 local artists performing in eight clubs, with one per venue advancing to the following Wednesday’s Semifinals, and four moving onto the Finals on Sunday, Jan. 18. What’s in it for you? The chance to check out a whole lotta local bands over three nights, and/or the smug satisfaction of kicking back and saying, “Yeah, my band’s way better than that.” SATURDAY, Jan. 10 @ Burt’s Tiki Lounge, Cabana Club, Egos, Phat Tire Saloon, Todd’s Bar & Grill, Urban Lounge, Vegas and Zanzibar, 9 p.m. Semifinals: WEDNESDAY, Jan. 14 @ Liquid Joe’s and Phat Tire Saloon, 9 p.m. Finals: SUNDAY, Jan. 18 @ Port O’ Call, 9 p.m. Info: 575-7003 and www.slweekly.com.

ZILLA

You wouldn’t think a member of multi-genre jamsters String Cheese Incident would need an extra creative outlet, but here’s Michael Travis with Zilla, a side-project foursome featuring the percussionist (also on guitar and bass) flanked by non-SCI Boulder musicians. The players like to trade-off instruments at any given moment during a show, occasionally winding up with three simultaneous drummers. As for what this all sounds like, “Expect a largely improvisational, highly percussive journey that fuses funky guitar stylings, hammered-dulcimer wizardry and intricate dynamic rhythms into a source of telepathic musical expression, created in the now time.” Hammered dulcimer? Rawk! SATURDAY, Jan. 10 @ Halo, 60 E. 800 South, 9:30 p.m. Info: 363-4522.

KATIA MORAES

Not exactly an obvious Jazz at the Sheraton artist, Brazilian singer Katia Moraes (you may remember her and her hips from last summer’s SLC Jazz Fest) and Sambaguru shake up samba, pagode, forró, bossa nova, maracatu and more South Americanisms with a dash of USA jazz for a spicy-hot dish in every sense. Onstage, the focal point may be the vivacious Moraes, but she insists she and Sambaguru are one in the pursuit of the rump-shaking groove. “This is about the songs, about a cohesive sound,” she says, “not about someone taking a lot of glorious solos.” Mucho un-jazzy. MONDAY, Jan. 12 @ Sheraton City Center, 150 W. 500 South, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: 278-0411.

GUTTERMOUTH, THE TOASTERS

SoCal’s Guttermouth have been at this punk rock thing since 1989-ish, so they’re bound to get it right any day now—it’s called sarcasm; they’ll love it. The real draw here is 20-year New York ska vets The Toasters, who’d like to remind everyone that this stuff is deeper than Gwen Stefani’s bellybutton: “People tend to emphasize the party aspect of ska, not the political aspect,” singer-guitarist Robert “Bucket” Hingley told Denver’s Westword. “They forget that the music arose out of the Trench Town ghetto when Jamaica got rid of 200 years of English colonial rule. Now it’s associated with white frat boys.” WEDNESDAY, Jan. 14 @ Albee Square, 165 S. West Temple, 8 p.m. All-ages. Tickets: 800-888-8499.

COMING UP

Sundance Music Café (Plan B, Jan. 16-24). Slamdance: NYC Rock & Roll Kick-Off (Vortex, Jan. 16). Blackalicious (Suede, Jan. 16). Cypress Hill (Suede, Jan. 17). SXSW Finals (Port O’ Call, Jan. 18). Ima Robot (Liquid Joe’s, Jan. 20). Maceo Parker (Port O’ Call, Jan. 20). Clumsy Lovers (Sound, Jan. 20). Mushroomhead, Dope (The Ritz, Jan. 20). The Crystal Method (Suede, Jan. 20). Paul Oakenfold (Axis, Jan. 21). MXPX (In the Venue, Jan. 22). The Chieftains (Kingsbury Hall, Jan. 23). Hamell on Trial (Halo, Jan. 24). The Samples (Suede, Jan. 28). Thin Lizzy (Expose, Jan. 30). Hank Williams III (Liquid Joe’s, Jan. 31).