HOLIDAY SHORES, WILD MOCCASINS, BUXTON, NEW YORK CITY QUEENS

At 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14

Muse Arts Warehouse, 703D Louisville Road.

$5 public, free with SCAD ID

The Savannah Record Fair has moved into the Civic Center's Martin Luther King Arena this year (it's Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.), and sponsoring SCAD has put together this four-band concert the night before, presumably to whet a few appetites, in the Muse Arts Warehouse parking lot.

Formerly known as Continental Divide, Florida's Holiday Shores is a no-apologies pop band fronted by singer/songwriter Nathan Pemberton. The music has kind of a quirky, catchy Beach Boys-on drugs sound, with synth-y keyboards and bubbling percussion. The band's compelling new album, on twosyllable Records, is Columbus'd the Whim.

The Houston-based Wild Moccasins features twin vocals by Zahira Gutierrez and Cody Swann - it's an eclectic power-pop band whose album Skin Collisions Past has just been reissued by the not-unimpressive New West Records.

The bill also includes Buxton (another Houston band, folkier and acclaimed for its sharp lyricism, also newly-signed to New West Records) and New York City Queens.

AMERICAN AQUARIUM

At 11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, with the Kenneth Brian Band

The Jinx, 127 W. Congress St.

The big news is that Raleigh's favorite arena-ready club band (and one of Savannah's all-time biggest nightclub draws) is heading into the studio come January, to make a new album with ace guitarist (and former Drive-By Trucker) Jason Isbell producing. American Aquarium will be moving lock, stock and cracker barrel to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Isbell lives (the famous studio is right across the street from his house).

"We've probably got eight or nine of the new songs done," the aquarium unit's singer/songwriter B.J. Barham told us this week. "We've been playing them live for the last couple of months. It seems to be going over really well. It's got a real Dances For the Lonely feel, only bigger. And I just think the songs are better."

(Chris Stamey produced that benchmark 2009 album for the band; Andrew Ratcliffe handled 2010's Small Town Hymns, the most recent collection to date.)

Our fair city last heard the roots-rocking, heavily electric Americana AA at an August concert in the Johnny Mercer Theatre. Barham and company opened a Corey Smith show.

"We've been playing with Corey off an on for three years now," explains Barham, "and every time, it seems we get to play somewhere we shouldn't be playing! We've played the 9:30 Club in D.C. with him. You walk into some of those shows and you're like ‘Why the hell are we even allowed in this building?'"

And American Aquarium snagged some new fans with the Mercer performance. "The thing is, a lot of Corey's fan base is under 21," Barham adds. "The last time we played the Jinx, they had to turn away like 15 kids." See americanaquarium.net