Neon Trees, Hoots & Hellmouth, Mister Joe Black

A wry Americana quartet with roots in blues, folk and even gospel-tent revival music, Philadelphia's Hoots & Hellmouth should be on your radar if Little Feat and the Band do it for you; singer/songwriter Sean Hoots and his crew are galvanizing with the groove and literary with the lyric, and they're not afraid to sacrifice one for the other if it serves the song.

H&H have an ambitious new full-length, Salt, that would fit nicely on your shelf alongside such folkie futurists as Deer Tick and Modest Mouse.

The album was funded by an uber-successful Kickstarter campaign, and is the band's first without co-founder Andrew "Hellmouth" Gray. "Overall,the album plays a little quieter than our previous efforts," Hoots says. "but I feel like the subtleties and dynamics have been expanded and became more nuanced with our new approach."

NEON TREES

At 8 p.m. Friday, April 13

Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St. $27

Before 2008, the only people who knew about this synth-driven, all-Mormon new wave band were in Provo, the group's Utah hometown. Then came the offer to open a North American tour for the red-hot Killers, and suddenly, in the age of instant Internet access and word-of-mouth, Provo became the center of the musical universe (insert Osmond Family joke here).

Rolling Stone, in 2010, made Neon Trees its "Artist of the Week" and said, among other things, that the band's debut album was "filled with Eighties pop meshed with bombastic alt-rock choruses — like the Killers playing backup for Duran Duran." Indeed, the music is a fun, retrio, imminently danceable concoction.

The band's latest single, "Everybody Talks," is currently No. 14 on Billboard's "Alternative" chart. It's from the album Picture Show, due April 17 on Mercury Records.

MISTER JOE BLACK

With This Way to the Egress

At 9 p.m. Friday, April 13

Wormhole Bar, 2307 Bull St.

A show of gypsypunk cabaret, balls-out burlesque and twisted theatricality (think Hellblinki), on Friday the 13th no less.

The comedic Philadelphia trio This Way to the Egress has plied its tarty trade on the Wormhole trade before, but the other artist on the bill is a newcomer to Savannah.

They're all on the road together, calling their dog, pony and cadaver tour A Series of Unfortunate Recitals.

Mister Joe Black is a British cabaret artist who performs dark, weird songs, some nightmarish and some cartoony, with ukulele, accordion and musical saw. He's toured with the American vaudevillian Voltaire, whose presentation is similarly musical. Sometimes Joe growls like Tom Waits and wears Marilyn Manson makeup - pancake white and black lipstick - and sometimes he's got fey Boy George hair and Adam Ant cosmetics, and sings twisted little ditties as if he were Noel Coward.

His recorded releases include Showtunes For the Recently Deceased and the Halloween collection Vile Volumes for Villainous Children.

NEON TREES

At 8 p.m. Friday, April 13

Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St. $27

Before 2008, the only people who knew about this synth-driven, all-Mormon new wave band were in Provo, the group's Utah hometown. Then came the offer to open a North American tour for the red-hot Killers, and suddenly, in the age of instant Internet access and word-of-mouth, Provo became the center of the musical universe (insert Osmond Family joke here).

Rolling Stone, in 2010, made Neon Trees its "Artist of the Week" and said, among other things, that the band's debut album was "filled with Eighties pop meshed with bombastic alt-rock choruses — like the Killers playing backup for Duran Duran." Indeed, the music is a fun, retrio, imminently danceable concoction.

The band's latest single, "Everybody Talks," is currently No. 14 on Billboard's "Alternative" chart. It's from the album Picture Show, due April 17 on Mercury Records.