Here are a few standout picks for live music this weekend, including a way to spend not a dime on Sunday:

Friday: “Dog-inspired” Sad Baxter is playing at the Stone Fox with Beech Benders and the Reneaus. The show starts at 9pm and cover is 5 bones (rimshot!) There’s definitely some Corgi influence on this number:

Deli favorites Guthrie Brown and The Smoking Flowers play with Rales and Nava Hotel at The High Watt starting at 9pm.

Saturday: Comedian and booking mogul Benji Brown is celebrating three decades on this mortal coil at Exit/In with this stellar lineup: The Nearly Deads, Hot Mess Loves You, The Finale, Foreverandnever and The Daily Howl.  The show starts at 7pm and costs $10.

Don’t want to cross the river? Wheathouse and Wooly Mamas at the East Room. Listen below to the grungy rock Wooly Mamas are dished out on their brand new EP: 

Sunday: Just stay planted in the vicinity of 1604 8th Avenue South. Everything you need for the day is there.  Grimey’s is hosting Sharon Jone’s Soul Brunch at 1pm, when you can get a sneak preview of Sharon Jone’s new album “Give the People What They Want” and access to free mimosas and a freakin’ biscuit bar. Spend a few hours record shopping/browsing, until 8pm, when Nick D’ and the Believers, The Calvary and Canyon Riders play a no-cover show at the Basement.  If you’re feeling like a high roller, drop $2 on a draft.  

Thrifty types will find an incredible value tonight at Exit/In, where KOA is playing a free show with Broken Laces and Release the Hounds. The band is showcasing new material and a new member, and giving away free EPs. “Cool It Down” is the first track of said EP, released early in 2013. Take advantage of their generosity starting tonight at 9, and ride the wave of their mellow soul right into the weekend. –Terra James-Jura

Local trio Hotel War kicked off 2014 with a brand spanking new video for their single, “Casino.” The fact that there are no casinos in Tennessee notwithstanding, it’s an entertaining video that should appeal to fans of 70’s garage rock, gambling, and gorgeous redheads alike (that should cover everyone, right?) The single begs for a full length, which is slated to be released early this year. Cruise over to their newly redesigned website to buy the track and keep abreast of their shenanigans. –Terra James-Jura
http://www.hotelwarmusic.com/

One of the most rewarding and often hardest things to do is take music solely for itself without attaching genres and judging it for a whole slew of trivial reasons. So before you count yourself out of this one, answer this: do you know any local easy-listening bands? Didn’t think so, and I didn’t either until I found out about the future of jazz.

Local act Jensen Sportag incorporates elements of smooth jazz, R&B, and easy listening into a dreamscape of futuristic fizzles and gallons of reverb. What ensues is a hallucinatory nod to the 80’s packaged in the comfort of soft-jazz and fluid beats. Their latest release, "Stealth of Days", is like a sensual elevator ride with Prince on painkillers. -Michael Perry

Stone Jack Jones  is preparing to release his third album, on March 4th. It is 11 sleepy tracks, influenced by his varied life experiences, which unfurl with the slow, fascinating pace of bubbles in a lava lamp. Members of Lambchop, “Nashville’s most f****d-up country band,” make an appearance in this record, as well Patty Griffin contributing background vocals. All can be heard on “State I’m In” which can be considered a gateway to Jones’ little universe. “Ancestor” plays like an audible scrapbook: memories mixed with moods interspersed with random sounds that are significant in a way that may no longer be remembered. It’s beautiful in its intimacy, but little electronic touches here and there elevate it to a cosmic level. Basically, it’s a folk album recorded inside the TARDIS. –Terra James-Jura

Have you been checking your phone every time you pass the Salvation Army folks outside of Kroger? There are a few ways to redeem yourself this weekend…

Friday: Beatles vs. Stones Charity Bowl at the Basement. This is a two-day event with Beatles and Rolling Stones covered by Mayhem, Bill Lloyd, Howling Brothers, Blank Range, DeRobert & The Half Truths, Shut Up Natalie Prass and Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes on Friday night, and Mayhem, Grimey’s Follies (w/Cory Chisel, Nikki Lane, Jenny O, and Chuck Mead), Sadler Vaden, Derek Hoke, The Danberrys, Langhorne Slim, Beech Benders and Grant Lee Phillips on Saturday night. The show starts at 8pm both nights, and $7 gets you in (proceeds benefit Second Harvest Food Bank).

Failing that (grinch), these are sure to be two excellent shows: Cory Branan at the High Watt (8pm, $10.)

Those Darlins with Churchyard and D. Watusi at the Stone Fox (9pm, $10.)

Saturday: Nashville Saves Christmas at the High Watt (8pm.) This is a ridiculous lineup of Nashville favorites playing 2 songs with a narrative tying them all together. Daily Howl, Lipstick, Fable Cry, Regdar and the Fighters, Blue Matches, Chris Davis and His K-Pop All Stars, Hurts to Laugh, Trigger Digit, Tall Dark Stranger, Kill City, Chris Dunnett, The MAN POWER, Chase Allan,, Fable Cry, Snake Vomit, Zasz & Lady E and the Black Light. Listen to the theme song by Lipstick below to get into the spirit. You $5 for admission will benefit Alive Monarchs, a hospice in Franklin, TN dedicated to caring for children with cancer.

Sunday: Wind down at 3rd and Lidsley with sweet soul from Andy Davis and reflect on your weekend of great music and giving a damn about your fellow man. –Terra James-Jura

The Deli Nashville is thrilled to premier this original Christmas song by The Smoking Flowers. Titled “A Bow and Nothing More,” it’s a swinging tune that wholeheartedly embraces 60’s camp. Featuring the ethereal Kim Collins as Sexy Housewife, Sexy Drummer, and Sexy Woman-Only-Wearing-a-Bow, it indentifies and fills the need for more innuendo in holiday music. The video was co-directed by the husband and wife duo, and filmmaker Davis Adams. It’s a fun mini-film, and black and white bits make it classy, despite the vignette ending with Scott Collins (‘Hipster Santa’) scrambling out of the frame in a dash for some Christmas nookie. This one goes out to all those who just can’t hear "Jingle Bell Rock" one more time. –Terra James-Jura

Whether you’re a local, or Nashville is the nearest city to where your car finally gave up the ghost, there’s nothing like an anthem to your native (or current) land to make your heart swell. “Tennessee,” the new single by Great Peacock has everything that’ll misty up your eyes: swooping pedal steel, mournful fiddle, mentions of whiskey, creeks, and loneliness. Great Peacock are currently Lightning 100’s Artist of the Week, meaning “Tennessee” is in their rotation, so you can weep quietly to yourself on your drive to work. They will be taking the stage at for a free show at Soulshine Pizza Factory this Friday at 7pm. –Terra James-Jura

Steelism’s 7’ single "The Intoxicating Sounds of Pedalsteel and Guitar" features their two tracks “9 to 5 Jive” and “Lewis & Clark.” If you haven’t gotten the word on Steelism yet, they are composed of Jeremy Fetzer and Spencer Cullum Jr., who both back some of Nashville’s forefront artists, like Caitlin Rose and Andrew Combs. Steelism takes the energy of Allman Brothers licks and throws a western swing onto it with the pedal steel guitar. “9 to 5 Jive” is a lively jingle that’s as catchy as a commercial, while “Lewis & Clark” stays laid back, embracing that slow beat that conjures thoughts of wooden doors swinging in the wind and cloudy whiskey. -Michael Perry

Chalaxy cleaned house this month, as there are loads of ardent fans out there who appreciate their cosmic rock and roll. If anyone lives and breathes ‘rad,’ (I bet it smells like Blow-Pops) it would be this fourtet. Listen to “My Best” below if this is the first time you have heard of the band, and if you like it, go to www.chalaxy.bandcamp.com and pick up their album for a measly $5. –Terra James-Jura

Itching to take your hearing sensitivity down a few decibels? These shows will do it for you:

Friday the 13th: Lightning 100 is hosting their Festivus at Marathon Music Works, with The Features, Wild Cub and The Future. The show is a benefit for the Forgotten Angels Program, so bring a generic toy or item to donate, and pay $10 instead of $20 at the door. There is also a Seinfeld costume contest, which is the perfect opportunity to showcase your ill-fitting blazers and floral dresses. The doors are at 7, the show starts at 8. http://www.marathonmusicworks.com/event/413439-lightning-100s-festivus-nashville/

Local darlings Bully are performing at The Stone Fox at 9pm with Fancytramp and Swearin’. Enter to win a pair of passes HERE.

Saturday 12.14 This will be a powerhouse of local 70’s flavored stoner rock: Fly Golden Eagle, Blank Range, QuicheNight and Majestico. The meandering pathos of this tune, “Last Crash Landing” by Blank Range should be incentive enough to attend; it’s a pretty sophisticated song for a bunch of punks that look barely 21.

Need more screaming metal in your Saturday? Get down to Exit/In to see Voodoo Prophet and Look What I Did instead.

Sunday 12.15 If you don’t want to part with $25 to see Jason Isbell at The Mercy Lounge (hey, it’s for a good cause), The Deli Nashville has already recommended going to The Basement to see Walden, Dylan Lancaster, Charlie Whitten and W.B. Givens.

Walden’s five track album, "Before I Wake," takes the intimacy of the lone folk guitarist and expands into a burst of stratified ambiance. Brown’s bare-bones songwriting style and subdued manner works nicely with the slew of contributing instruments and effects. "Before I Wake" is a cohesive circuit of soothing melodies and swelling crescendos that perfectly animates the albums artwork and motif. Job well done. At times Walden can be a bit too similar to Mumford & Sons for my tastes, but if that’s your thing then this is right up your alley. I’m not sure if the name is a Thoreau reference or not, but the organic, intimate aesthetic is what makes this album worth a listen. He plays The Basement this Sunday, 12.15. -Michael Perry