Steppin' out: Solo takes from Tucson bandmembers

With this new column, named after Tucson's decades-old and defunct local music public access television show "Let's Get Into Trouble, Baby," TucsonSentinel.com is your solid source for serious coverage of our weird and wonderful homegrown monster of a music scene.

My paradise

If there's a common thread between some of the upcoming week's most notable shows, it's the solo showcasing of musicians best known for their work with their primary bands.

Ryan Chavira, the 29-year-old guitarist with one of Tucson's best rock bands and brightest hopes, Prom Body, is an accomplished and spellbinding artist in his own right. He's been a staple of Tucson's underground all-ages scene for years, and the finest characteristic of that community — namely, its anything-goes aesthetic — is present in all of Chavira's work.

Lately, Chavira has been taking his ambient parenthetical guitar-scapes to the stage more frequently than in recent memory, usually opening multi-act bills of more conventional rock 'n' roll music than his own. His latest solo record, "Waves for Daze," is some of the most gauzy and undefined musical work around today, anywhere, and it's a perfect encapsulation of his live sound. It was issued on cassette and online in January.

Chavira's womb-like, narcotic atmospherics have many precedents — in the work of Brian Eno, My Bloody Valentine and most first and second-wave Krautrock — but when you, as the listener, are inside this infinite cave of spectral beauty, you don't ask questions like "does this music have precedents?" Ryan Chavira invokes the holiest of holies over at Exo Roast, 403 North Sixth Ave., on Sunday at the odd hour of 11 a.m. No word on when his set finishes, but his music is fitting for the haze of Sunday morning. Admission is free and more info can be found at exocoffee.com.

Bite yer lip

With her fine and locally popular trio, Copper and Congress, Katie Haverly has traveled through the stylisms of folky Americana into far more layered jazz and soul-tinged territory — not unlike Portishead and other torchy '90s soul groups known as "trip-hop" at the time — in the span of a few years and two albums. It would stand to reason that a leap of such magnitude is indicative of what Haverly's been up in the last few months — performing solo shows.

Though Haverly has not released any recordings on her own to date, it would be a good idea to check out this fantastic singer/songwriter — with a voice to match — as she evolves at light speed. Haverly performs at La Cocina, 201 N. Court Ave., next Saturday, April 18 from 6-9 p.m. She's co-billed with Jillian Bessett of Jillian and the Giants, so it's a safe bet that they'll be alternating sets throughout the night. Cover charge is zero and details are available at lacocinatucson.com.

Here come treble

Local label Baby Gas Mask Records, run by Seth and Melissa Mauzy, the married couple and creative force behind Tucson rock band Deschtuco, get off on the good foot with the label's "West Foot Forward" series of split 7-inches from homegrown acts. The first West Foot Forward release features a non-album track from Sun Bones — fresh from a rare coup that saw a song of theirs picked up by an insurance company for advertisements that presumably brought large amounts of well-deserved money to continue their new wave-funk with four-part harmony sound.

Also on the record with a song unreleased elsewhere is Best Dog Award, whose EP "Faith-Based Space Place" was one of 2014's most outstanding releases. Best Dog Award is less explicitly celebratory than Sun Bones, which is another way of saying they're more arty on the surface. And if there's one thing Sun Bones is, it's arty. Still—Best Dog Award has sly, insinuating humor that wraps around its keyboard and echo-heavy sounds, which are as emotionally remote as they are emotionally moving.

Sun Bones and Best Dog Award, with local openers Head Over Heart, celebrate the release of their record at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., next Friday, April 17 at 9 p.m. Additional info can be found at hotelcongress.com.