COWBOY MOUTH:

New Orleans’ Cowboy Mouth, now going on almost 15 years of raucous rock shows, had a date at last weekend’s New Orleans’ VooDoo Festival and from there will make its way to Little Rock for a 9 p.m. show Thursday, Oct. 21, at Juanita’s Cantina Ballroom.
Mouth members are drummer Fred LeBlanc, Thomas Griffith, Paul Sanchez and Mary LaSang (the newest member, playing bottom and keys), with LeBlanc perhaps the most recognized with his somewhat nutz-o stage shenanigans. LeBlanc’s first band was Dash Rip Rock, which incidentally will play at Sticky Fingerz at 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23 ($6). Griffith was in the Clash-influenced band the Red Rockers (who produced a hit, “China,” on MTV in 1983).
“Live at the Zoo,” released this year, gives listeners a good description of Cowboy Mouth’s high-energy, fun style Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 at the door.
Gooding, which brings world music and electronic soul from the chilly town of Fort Collins, Colo., is also up from the VooDoo Festival, and will play Sticky Fingerz on Thursday, Oct. 21.
Gooding is towing along a few accolades this trip; its music has been featured on MTV’s “Road Rules” and “The Real Life,” and the group hit the big screen on “The Matrix: Revolutions.” Recent heavy touring has been in support of its latest CD, “Soldiermaking.”
Local pop outfit the Boswells open at 9 p.m. Admission is $6.
Contemporary folk guitarist/fiddler Steve Gillette’s tunes have found their way into the hands of such big names as John Denver, Garth Brooks and Linda Ronstadt. Gillette will perform along with musical partner Cindy Mangsen (guitar, banjo and concertina — an instrument in the harmonica family) at Acoustic Sounds Cafe in the Second Presbyterian Church’s Great Hall at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22.
The duo’s more recent albums were “Texas & Tennessee,” “Songs of Exper-ience” and “A Sense of Place.”
Opening will be Warwick, N.Y.-native Brian Driscoll, who now resides in Little Rock. The 2003 winner of the Arkansas Acoustic Showcase individual singer-songwriter title cites Eric Clapton, Duane Allman and John Hartford as his influences.
Admission to the non-smoking, alcohol-free event is $8 for adults, $7 for students. Second Presbyterian is at 600 Pleasant Valley Drive. For more information, call 227-0000.
The local “newgrass” band Runaway Planet, the Arkansas Times Musician Showcase winner in 2002, has been working hard the past couple years, appearing on AETN and booking dates throughout the state as part of the Arkansas Arts on Tour Council’s list of performers. Having produced a three-song sampler, Runaway Planet now has completed its first full-length CD, and the release party is set for Saturday, Oct. 23, at Juanita’s.
The four guys in Runaway Planet have been writing and laying down tracks, and after a few bouts of bad luck (their last effort was accidentally lost by a local studio), they hired local producer Barry Poynter at Poynter Studios for assistance. The fruit of their labor, “No Part of Nothin’,” is now available. The album includes original material, with the exception of two short takes from the traditional “St. James Infirmary Blues.”
CDs will be on sale at the show, as well as at local record shops Been Around Records, Anthro-Pop and Arkansas Record-CD Exchange.
Bandmembers tell us they have had a dobro player sitting in recently as well.
The 9:30 p.m. show will have no opening act; admission is $5.
And, from the they-either-love-them-or-hate-them dept.: Dillinger Escape Plan will headline a huge speed-metal and noise-core lineup starting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25, at Vino’s Brewpub.
DEP has been around since 1997 and has hung in despite many changes in its lineup. Fans hail the musicians as some sort of metal demigods, calling their music complex and angry, sadistic masterpieces. The listeners who aren’t so keen on DEP refer to its stuff as simply incoherent and irritating merde.
But DEP has toured with great metal acts such as Pantera and Static X, to name a few; so, to say that Dillinger Escape Plan has earned its chops among fans would be fair. “Miss Machine” was the band’s recently released CD.
Other acts Monday include Zao, Every Time I Die and Whyoming. Admission at the door is $15.
Others to catch: The Living Room plays host to cellist wunderkind Matt Haimovitz (see more picks, Page 33) at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, and admission is $15. … There’s not too much shake and seed for Grateful Dead lovers when the Schwag from St. Louis takes the stage on Friday, Oct. 22 at Juanita’s. Wildwood opens at 9 p.m., admission is $7. … The lovely and talented Amy Garland and her three-man backup band perform at the White Water Tavern on Friday, Oct. 22. The show starts at 10 p.m., admission is $5. Garland and company have been working on a new CD to be released soon.

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