A+E

Singer and songwriter Dave Alvin specializes in a hybrid-genre style of distinctly California music with noirish lyrical qualities. The results are songs that create scenes, steeped in speedway country, boogie blues, surf rock and lo-fi trip tunes. He’s also a road dog with his band The Guilty Ones, who have counted Tom Waits, Bobby Rush and Los Lobos among their admiring peers. Tonight at 8 p.m. the group headlines the stage at the Arcata Theatre Lounge, with support coming from Los Angeles’ dark Americana group Dead Rock West ($45).

I saw one of its members the other day, which reminded me to remind you about the Opera Alley Cats, a jazz group that plays to fill its surroundings, two places in particular being just about perfect for heightening the ambience: the Basement and the Speakeasy. Tonight at 7 p.m. the group will be at the latter place. Bring some coins for a cocktail and some scratch for the band.

Bella Union Records was founded in the U.K. 25 years ago by the bassist and guitar player for the highly influential band Cocteau Twins, whose dreamy pop sounds trickle across the label’s artist roster. One such act oozing that sound is Toronto’s Tallies who will be making a pit stop at the Miniplex tonight at 8 p.m. to share some mystic and treated reverb-rich tones. The tourmates are Portland’s Shady Cove which has a similar approach to songcraft, while the new kids on the block are locals Natural Blasters, fronted by White Manna’s David J. ($15, $12 advance).

Baltimore’s Pigeons Playing Ping Pong is a funk-centered jam band whose musical palette is defined by the genre-skipping qualities of the group’s chosen jam genre. If that sounds reductive and circular, then howdy, and welcome to the world of jam music, a playful and self-referential place that tends to treat live music as a moveable feast. And why not? Someone should be having fun these days. You can be one of those merry pranksters if you roll up to the Van Duzer Theatre at 7 p.m. and fork over $40 — or no money at all if you’re a Cal Poly Humboldt student with an I.D. Dogs in a Pile opens, so it’s a carnival of animals tonight.

A jazz night tonight sounds just about right, especially considering the dramatic weather we’ve had pouring down on our hat brims and pooling around our gumshoes recently. Let’s start with the double bill at the Basement, where from 6 to 8 p.m. you can listen to Gil Cline’s Midnight Jazz-Tet do it right. Afterward, sax player Russ Thallheimer will scoot over to trumpeter Nick Talvola’s quintet to set us up with the goods for the rest of the evening. Buy some bevvies and tip the staff.
If you want a smaller combo, stroll over to the Arcata Playhouse by 8 p.m. for the avant-stylings of a duo of Bay Area heavies, drummer Scott Amendola and saxophonist Phillip Greenlief, whose three decades of collaboration have yielded some very adventurous sonic travels, eclipsing the regular limitations of a beat and woodwind duo with remarkable ease. This one will cost you $20 — two bucks cheaper if you’re a Playhouse club member — but the price is worth seeing some returning champs.