WINNER’S CIRCLE: Songwriter, composer and reigning Vic Chesnutt Songwriter of the Year Award winner Lydia Brambila will celebrate the release of a new album Saturday, Dec. 14 at Flicker Theatre and Bar. The new record, of which I’ve only heard the publicly available preview tracks, is named Ars Apparatus, and fans of Brambila’s previously released material should not be disappointed. Indeed, the two tracks online now—“Aster” and “Marlene”—are flawlessly performed, arranged and recorded, which bodes well for the rest. Also on the bill are Athens experimental artist Ariel Ackerly and a combo named Acnestis, which is composed of Brambila, Ackerly, Lisa Lipani and Bridget Dooley. Listen in at lybram.bandcamp.com, and follow along at facebook.com/lybram.music.

LAST CALL: OK, folks, this is it. You’ve only a couple of days left after this notice to purchase raffle tickets for the 2020 Nuçipass. This pass gets the winner plus a guest into an absolutely astounding number of venues in Athens, Atlanta and Macon for free all year long. Featured venues include Eddie’s Attic, the Hargray Capitol Theatre, Georgia Theatre, 40 Watt Club, Caledonia Lounge, Terminal West, Smith’s Olde Bar and many more. Tickets are only five bucks, and you can buy multiples, obvs, for multiple chances to win. The drawing will happen Friday, Dec. 13 at 12:30 p.m., so don’t slack, jack. All proceeds from this raffle go to support the mission of Nuçi’s Space. For more information and tickets, see nucipass.org. 

ACT LOCAL: A new punk and hardcore compilation featuring Athens and Atlanta bands named Absent Control Vol. 1 just came out, and it’s worth a couple of spins, for sure. It’s a benefit to, and I quote from the album notes, “help fund the access to reproductive care in the southeastern region of the United States.” That’s both sufficiently inspirational and sufficiently vague to place this solidly in the tradition of most punk benefit projects. That said, the specific tracks by McQQeen, who covers Flipper here; Apparition, who covers—of all things—Youth of Today; Blue Bodies; and Rottweiler are all pretty ace. This’ll run you $10, and there’s no option to purchase individual tracks, so drop your dollars in the collection plate at absentcontrol.bandcamp.com. 

JAZZ FLAVORS: I meant to tell y’all about this Razzi King album named Timeless that came out a handful of weeks ago. You can forgive me, though, because the volume of material this man puts out is just totally outta hand. Anyway, this is another of his collaborations with Justin Case, and the record is credited to them both. Unlike the overwhelming majority of King’s releases, this one didn’t grab me until the fourth track, “Power of Love,” and that’s out of only six tracks on the whole thing. Between the smooth jazz of that tune and the late-night bump of the final song, “Know You Want It,” this could have been edited down to a nice two-song single. I’m willing to give King a pass on four less-than-stellar tracks, though, because his output is so prodigious and generally 100% top-notch that it’s only natural to miss a few times. Keep curious and dig into his whole catalog at echobassrecords.bandcamp.com. 

KEEP COOL: Dark ’n’ synthy band Midiskirts have a new song coming out Saturday, Dec. 13. Tilted “1600 Penn Ave,” the track is most notable for its unprocessed drums and top-line melody. Reminiscent of the earliest, very raw tracks from the likes of OMD, this is enjoyable on a purely aesthetic level absent any further meaning. In an email, the track was described to me as an “impassioned response to our political times.” And it very well may be. Decide for yourself by finding this on Spotify or at soundcloud.com/midiskirts.