Arielle Kubie photo

Milford's Twenty to Twelve at CCSU.

This past Monday, I tried to duck in for a few songs by the Shinolas, the supergroup who won our Grand Band Slam's Best Country award roughly seven minutes after their inception. I learned the hard way that one does not "duck in" to a Shinolas gig. Tapas on Ann, the group's Hartford homebase, was stuffed to the rafters. Even the seats at the bar had been reserved and filled. A kind waitress offered to let me make reservations for next week's show. I slunk away in defeat just as the band began to cover a Ryan Adams song. Dammit! Let that be a warning to anyone else hoping to sneak a peek at these award-winners in the near future.

The nice thing is that Hartford is loaded with musical options on Monday nights. I opted for the Hartford Jazz Society's Jam at Black-Eyes Sally's, which has become quite a magnificent event. The late-dinner crowd gets treated to long sets by a featured band. Afterward, the stage opens up to the local adepts, who join the evening's band in an open mic format. There's no cover, the music runs late, and the crowd is a relaxed who's-who of Hartford arts and music notables.

The featured band at Sally's was a forward-thinking quartet convened by Dezron Douglas. An energetic bassist, Douglas is one of the central figures of Hartford's young jazz movement, and his audience's admiration was palpable. Monday's quartet carried a sharp left hook thanks to Brandee Younger, a harpist who integrated seamlessly into a jazz context.

Despite being easily recognizable, I suspect that for most people the harp is limited to introducing dream sequences in film, and possibly accompanying medieval and Celtic music. In fact, Britain's trip-hop ensemble the Cinematic Orchestra are the only musicians I can think of who use harp in the context of modern music. So I suspect I was not the only one astounded by the range and depth of sounds Younger was able to present. Her harp's timbre could mimic a number of other instruments, including piano, guitar, and even Japanese shamisen. Other times, it was inimitably a harp, especially during Younger's dazzling solos. The quartet ended their set with a hip-hop groove featuring a freestyle by Hartford's spoken word laureate Krishna. I'm still chewing on it.

As the end of the fall semester approaches, exams herald impending doom and the need for despondent partying. Central Connecticut State University attempted to rescue its students with a huge bill of upbeat music this past Thursday. Milford's Twenty to Twelve opened the show with a blast of dance rock straight from the past — 2006, to be exact. They must have missed the memo that said Death From Above 1979 broke up and nobody cares about !!! anymore. Still, they thumped anachronistically away; energetic bassist Brutus single-handedly generated enough thunder to make the female students ass-shake in their dining hall chairs. Lewis' drumming was raw and furious, although I'm not sure whether to fault him or the genre for his over-reliance on the disco drumbeat. (Three of their five songs contained it; two relied heavily on it.) It's a good thing they didn't have any of those clap-your-hands-over-your-head parts. Otherwise I would have had a full row on my Hipster Bingo card.¦

Looking for some music wash your turkey down with? Friday: Johnny 9 and the Racers bring the ska to Bohemian Pizza/Ditto's in Litchfield (342 Bantam Rd.; 9 p.m.; 21+). Band Slam Acoustic winners The Citizen Spy and poet/author David Leff collaborate at The Buttonwood Tree (605 Main St., Middletown; 7:30 p.m.; $8 advance, $10 door). And Café 9 features the release of "Everybody's Scene - The story of Connecticut's Anthrax Club" with performances by old school hardcore punks like Powersurge, Lost Generation, CIA, and Crippled Youth (250 State St., New Haven; 8 p.m.; $5).

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