Sound Notes Pick o’ the Week

The White Elephant — pride of Wapello, Gross Domestic Product alums and frequent rockers of Des Moines’ finer establishments — are crowd-sourcing their second album. The swamp rock trio launched a Kickstarter campaign on Nov. 19, looking to raise $5,000 to cover recording and pressing costs. The more you donate, the more SWAG you take home including free CDs, shirts and even naming rights to a White Elephant song. As of this writing, the guys have picked up enough backers to get them one-fifth of the way home, with 23 days to go. If you’ve got a few bucks to spare, check out http://www.facebook.com/thewhiteelephantband. There’s a link there to the band’s Kickstarter campaign where you can listen to its excellent first album as well.               

The good folks at Mars Café are launching a new acoustic-only music series they’re calling “Sound Rover.” For two hours on Friday and Saturday nights, central Iowa musicians will perform original music for Mars patrons. In addition, performances will be recorded and shared on the Sound Rover SoundCloud page and featured on the Café’s blog. Anyone interested in performing should drop a line to booking@marscafe.net for more information.                 

Nate Niceswanger at Zzz Records has put together another music collector’s show at the downtown Holiday Inn. The gathering takes place on Sunday, Dec. 2, and admission is $1, with all admission proceeds being donated to the Food Bank of Iowa. Head down from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and buy, sell or trade to your heart’s content.              

On Thursday, Nov. 29, the Vaudeville Mews welcomes the best thing to come out of Detroit since “Home Improvement,” The Sights. The Michigan rockers’ show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets are $7. H. D. Harmsen and North of Grand open.                

Sound Notes Pick o’ the Week: Bonne Finken and the Collective take the Gas Lamp’s stage on Friday, Nov. 30, along with Peace, Love and Stuff and Rae and the Honeybees. The show starts at 9 p.m., and $5 gets you in the door.               

Wooly’s kicks off December right, with a show on Saturday, Dec. 1 that features a trio of central Iowa rockers. Starting at 8 p.m., you can check out Mint, playing alongside Holy White Hounds and Diamonds For Eyes. Tickets are $7 at the door, or you can score them in advance through www.ticketfly.com.            

Also on Dec. 1, The Nadas have its annual holiday concert to collect donations for Toys for Tots. There will also be a silent auction to raise money for a local charity. The concert is at Hoyt Sherman place at 8 p.m., and tickets are $22.50 in advance, $27.50 day of show.            

Finally, on Sunday, Dec. 2, House of Bricks has some sweet, all-ages action for those of you being locked out of late shows by The Man. For $6 at the door, you can check out Screaming for Silence, No One and Another Lost Year. That show kicks off at 5 p.m. Mahalo. CV