Sound Advice

Andy Bey

Last week, Andy Bey played a week at New York's Village Vanguard, in a group led by Dave Douglas and featuring song-settings of poems by the likes of Stanley Kunitz and Gwendolyn Brooks. It's an admirable risk for the silk-voiced baritone, who hasn't recorded in several years. Here he'll do standards -- but they'll be no less poetic.

--Kyle Parker

Fri., Oct. 31, 8 and 10 p.m., $25, Zanzibar Blue, Broad and Walnut sts., 215-732-4500.

Helicopter Helicopter

The year's best Tom Petty song belongs to Boston's Helicopter Helicopter. "Harsh Light" has the hooks and raises the stakes with a taste of the edgy boy-girl harmonies that singers/guitarists Chris Zerby and Julie Chadwick pile on elsewhere. Wild Dogs with X-Ray Eyes, the quartet's fourth album, merits other strong comparisons: Rainer Maria when it rocks, Elliott Smith in quiet moments. Zerby's angsty lyrics are swell, too.

--M.J. Fine

Sat., Nov. 1, 9 p.m, $8, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.

These Arms Are Snakes

Care for a bit of the post-punk ultra violence? TAAS spray blood on their tracks the way Phish pours on the patchouli. On record, the sound's dense and spring-loaded, crammed with spacy keyboards, reeling guitars and a rhythm section that pulsates like a head wound. Live, the band drives like Jehu, maiming its meandering passages of artful aggression. Beautiful noise if there is such a thing.

--Andrew Parks

Sun., Nov. 2, 8 p.m., $12-$13, with Hot Water Music, A Static Lullaby and Lawrence Arms, The TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1011.

Visqueen

The breakup of the legendary Fastbacks took fans of breakneck sing-along power pop -- not to mention songwriter Kurt Bloch -- by complete surprise, as did the news that bassist Kim Warnick had decamped to join an as-yet-unheard-from outfit called Visqueen. To say this puts a lot of pressure on Rachel Flotard, the band's singer and songwriter, is to say that people were slightly curious what Wings would sound like. Luckily, King Me is an infectious, fuzzed-out trip that'll put a smile on the face of anyone who ever loved The Muffs. Maybe it doesn't make up for the loss, but at least it helps you dance at the wake.

--Sam Adams

Mon., Nov. 3, 8 p.m., $7, The Fire, 412 W. Girard Ave., 267-671-9298.

Kila

Everyone is comparing Kila to Afro-Celt. They do have the numbers (there're seven of them) and the attitude, but they substitute things like hammered dulcimer for the drum machine. Like a distant echo of Clannad -- and with a lead singer who sounds like The Incredible String Band singing in Irish -- Kila is a very contemporary definer of Ireland.

--Mary Armstrong

Mon., Nov. 3, 8 p.m., $15-$18, Arden Club, 2126 The Highway, Arden, Del., 302-475-3126; Wed., Nov. 5, 5:30 p.m., free with admission, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. and The Parkway, 215-763-8100.