We've talked a bit about local legend Billy Sedlmayr's forthcoming solo debut previously in a piece by Eric Swedlund last month.

Well, it's getting to be crunch time for his Kickstarter project, folks.

The project is less than halfway to its goal of $10,000, with 7 days left before it closes. If you've got an itch to help out a great musician of the Sonoran, here's your chance. Check out the videos above and below for a taste of what Billy is all about.

Anakim will be playing at Club Congress in a free show that went largely unannounced. It isn't on Congress' website or Facebook page. Anakim placed third in the 2012 Tammies awards for metal and I have enjoyed the few times I have seen them. I will have more on Anakim when I finish my review on the 2012 Terrorfest that was held at the Rock a few weekends ago. You can preview and download their EP here.

Interestingly enough, I learned bassist and singer, Ed Slocum, also operates Tattoo Artistry, Best Of Tucson®'s runner up for Best Tattoo Parlor and makes some pretty neat custom tattoo foot pedals:

Kvasura will be playing their first show ever and AM.ARE.IS will be playing as well. This free show begins at 9:00 p.m. at Club Congress, 311 Congress St. and is 21+.

Local music fans might remember Jason Willis from his time in such late, lamented bands as The Weird Lovemakers and The Knockout Pills.

But lately he's been getting loads of Internet love for his brilliant short film Catnip: Egress to Oblivion?, a spot-on parody of "classroom drug educational film(s)" that was selected to screen at the American Film Institute's AFI Fest, which takes place from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8, in Los Angeles.

The video above is his latest creation, a stop-motion music video (his first attempt!) for the song "Can't Play Dead" by British rockers The Heavy.

According to a post on Entertainment Weekly's Music Mix blog, which premiered the video yesterday, the band commissioned the video after coming across a video he made last year for the classic song "Halloween" by Kay Lande Selmer and Wade Denning:

”This video is really all about the genius and dedication of animator Jason Willis from Arizona,” guitarist Dan Taylor says. “We stumbled across a beautiful film of his called 'Halloween on YouTube' made on his iPhone and immediately fell in love. We just had to track him down.”

Yes, you read that correctly. He made the thing on his iPhone. Prepare to have your mind further blown.

The music he's playing now is a long ways off from the punk rock bands he came up with in Tucson three decades ago.

But in those years, Billy Sedlmayr has amassed a lifetime of stories that he's putting into song. And he's captured the attention of a new generation, forging an unlikely collaboration with Gabriel Sullivan (Taraf de Tucson and lately Giant Giant Sand).

"Billy Sedlmayr represents everything about Tucson that I have come to love. The first time I heard him sing, I knew I had never heard anyone with such grit and conviction behind every word," says Sullivan, who's helping to produce Sedlmayr's first solo album and a documentary film about the project.

"His autobiographical songs are the stories that are never told in life, but carry more soul and passion than most can fathom. This record and film are just the beginning of tapping into a wildly talented man."

Sedlmayr and Sullivan began playing music together a couple years ago in the (late, lamented) Red Room, a cross-generational collaboration that proves the enduring strength of Sedlmayr's songs.

Sedlmayr has played with punk pioneers The Pedestrians as well as Giant Sandworms and he's been associated with musicians like Rainer Ptacek, Rich Hopkins, Van Christian and Dan Stuart.

To finish the album, Sedlmayr and Sullivan launched a Kickstarter project, seeking $10,000 to fund week-long recording and mixing sessions, additional filming of the recording process, editing of two years of already captured footage, hiring studio musicians and mastering and producing the record.

"For over 30 years now, Billy Sedlmayr has been deep in the fabric of Tucson music," says music writer Carl Hanni (a Tucson Weekly contributor), narrating the brief introductory video.

"To me Billy Sedlmayr is as Tucson as Sonoran dogs, saguaros and those monsoon sunsets that break your heart," Hanni says. "He's pretty much seen it all, from top to bottom, from dark to light. So, Billy's got some stories to tell and he's just looking for some help to get it done."

Check out the video for "Tucson Kills" below...

This is the last of these reminders I'll subject you to, but this is the final notice that submissions are due tomorrow — Friday, Oct. 19 — if you're interested in participating in this year's Great Cover-Up.

This year's event will take place at Plush on Thursday, Dec. 13, Club Congress on Friday, Dec. 14, and the Rialto Theatre on Saturday, Dec. 15, and all proceeds will be donated to the Southern Arizona Artists and Musicians Healthcare Alliance (SAAMHA — formerly TAMHA), which you can read about here.

To submit an application, just send your band name, what type of music you normally play, your top three choices of acts you'd like to cover, contact info (name and email address or phone number) to greatcoveruptucson@gmail.com.

And, in case you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, read all about the event here.

Hey folks, a quick item for those of you who dig Calexico's live performances: NPR Music has a near-40 minute set of their performance at Wold Cafe Live at the Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, accompanied by a set of high-quality photos.

I can't find a way to embed the audio and photos, unfortunately, so a link will have to do. Give it a listen if you've got the chance, folks.

NPR Music - Calexico In Concert

Another call-out to all local bands and performers:

Time is running out to get your submissions in for the 15th Annual Great Cover-Up, the three-day blowout in which local acts that normally perform original music cover other, more famous acts, in 20-minute sets, all in the name of charity.

This year's event will take place at Plush on Thursday, Dec. 13, Club Congress on Friday, Dec. 14, and the Rialto Theatre on Saturday, Dec. 15, and all proceeds will be donated to the Southern Arizona Artists and Musicians Healthcare Alliance (SAAMHA — formerly TAMHA), which you can read about here.

More information about the event itself is here.

To submit an application, just send your band name, what type of music you normally play, your top three choices of acts you'd like to cover, contact info (name and email address or phone number) to greatcoveruptucson@gmail.com.

The deadline for submissions is one week from today, Friday, Oct. 19.

Please remember that this is a populist event, so try to steer away from obscurity, and toward something the audience will recognize. (Bonus points for dressing the part, etc.)

The event's organizers (of which I'm one) are patiently standing by, waiting for your awesome ideas.

As for that video at the top, it's Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum performing "Darling Nikki" as Princess, backed by The Roots at the Brooklyn Bowl (though for those who hate watching live performances with cell phones in the way, Gawker has their performance from the Jimmy Fallon show here). I hate spoilers, so I won't blow the surprise. But you should definitely stick around to catch the end.

Grupo Tradiciones, or Group of Traditions, is new to Tucson Meet Yourself. Last year, they performed for the first time and it was a huge success. Here's a video they made of last year's performance. It's kind of long but it'll give you an idea of what they do.

I didn't get a chance to see them at TMY last year, but I have seen them at a couple of times at Peruvian heritage events here and in Phoenix.

The group is divided in two parts: the musicians and the dancers. The musicians play songs that are traditional to different areas of Peru, from the Andean region to the coast, and the dancers perform the dances that are paired up with the specific style of music.

I spoke with one of the dancers, Siby Quiroz, and she said this year they will be performing a dance called Virgenes del Sol, Virgins of the Sun, which is an Andean ritual to Inti, the Incan sun god. The second one is called Zamacueca, which is an Afro-Peruvian style dance.

Grupo Tradiciones will perform at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13 at the Global Rhythms stage. I hope everyone is able to check them out, and learn more about the Peruvian community here in town.

A celebration of film, music, and films by, for and about music and musicians previewed with with a double feature in the gently tree-lit and bustling La Cocina patio. The festival continues today through Sunday, Oct. 14 with screenings at Cinema La Placita, the Loft Cinema and Century 20 El Con. Look for highlights to be Friday's screening of Strutter, the third in the Border Radio trilogy by Allison Anders and Kurt Voss; Give Me the Banjo, narrated by Steve Martin; and a collection of short films including several local and regional entries.

Here's the whole schedule A festival pass is $50; individual tickets are $7.

Oct. 9, Andrew Bird Fever Year gave as as intimate a view of an artist, his motivation and his process as any on film, perhaps owing to Bird's natural unguardedness, and a genuine desire to be understood. The 81-minute film has only been available at qualifying house parties throughout the country since its September, 2011, debut at the New York Film Festival. It is not available in DVD, so Tucsonans who turned out got an extremely rare visual and musical treat accompanied by La Cocina's selection of local brews and fresh, original menu.

Andrew Bird Fever Year

The second feature, The Big Easy Express is aptly described on the festival site: "Indie folk heroes Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Tennessee’s Old Crow Medicine Show, and Britain’s acclaimed Mumford & Sons, climbed aboard a beautiful vintage train in California, setting out for New Orleans, Louisiana on a 'tour of dreams.' The resulting film from this journey is nothing short of magical."