This weekend on a shoestring

Thursday, Jan. 26

• Rootsy singer-songwriter Alex Krug, host of One Stop Deli and Bar‘s weekly Brown Bag Songwriting Competition, is best known for performing with the Alex Krug Trio. But this week, Krug takes things in a slightly different direction for a performance with local fiddler Lyndsay Pruett at Firestorm Cafe and Books, 48 Commerce St., as Alex’s Sidecar Project. 7 p.m. Free.

• “The Asheville Art Museum is pleased to present ‘Ready for Prime Time,’ a preview party celebrating Prime Time: New Media Juried Exhibition, the inaugural exhibition of the New Media Gallery scheduled to open in the Museum’s newly-expanded East Wing in March 2012,” begins a press release on the museum’s website. ” … The Museum invited submissions from North Carolina artists working with screen-based, new media art work, such as video art, experimental animation and time-based media, to be featured in the inaugural exhibition … One work by each submitting artist will be screened during ‘Ready for Prime Time.’ Held at CityMac, 755 Biltmore Ave. 7 p.m. $5.

Friday, Jan. 27

• It might be dreary and cold, but you can still bask in the splendors of the natural world vicariously as City Lights Bookstore, 3 East Jackson St., Sylva, hosts a release party and reception for High Vistas, Volume II, a collection of “nature writing focused on Western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains,” according to the store’s website. “Arranged chronologically, the pieces range from 1900 to 2009. George Ellison will present the book and talk about the importance of nature writing. Featured writers and artists will include Elizabeth Ellison, Jim Casada, Jim Costa, Thomas Rain Crowe, John Lane and Bill Hart.” 6 p.m. Free.

• According to the organization’s website, “The goal of Trips For Kids WNC is to provide mountain bike outings and environmental education for kids who would not otherwise be exposed to such activities. … Now nearing the one year mark, Trips For Kids WNC has facilitated over 350 kids on trips in the community and we look forward to offering our services to many more in the future.” Help ensure that the project continues at a benefit for the organization, featuring local “pop psych-rock” sextet Sunshine and the Bad Things, Ryan Sheffield and Total War. 8 p.m. $5.

• The Classic World Cinema Foreign Film Series, a weekly screening hosted at the Courtyard Gallery‘s upstairs Railroad Library, 109 Roberts St., presents Strike (Soviet Union 1925) by Sergei M. Eisenstein, often referred to as the “father of montage.” A synopsis on the series’ website describes the movie as a “brilliant silent film and complex recreation of a factory strike in Tsarist Russia, and its savage destruction by agents, provocateurs, police and mounted troops..” 8 p.m. Free.

• From an Xpress profile of Kings of Prussia, “It’s not often you hear a rock band describe its music in cinematic, Guillermo del Toro-esque themes like ‘innocence colliding with brutal reality.’ But that’s Kings Of Prussia for you. … Oddly enough, it’s a pretty spot-on description of KOP’s giddily-schizophrenic sound. Their new debut album, …Occurring before in time…, is part Dr. Jekyll, part Mr. Hyde, an instrumental rapid that lulls listeners in with beautiful, soaring guitar melodies and rushing waves of Ratatat-like synths and beeps, before exploding into thrashing distortion and pummeling double-bass drum kicks. So yeah, it’s like a dream, if you dream of electric sheep with a side of kick-in-the-balls.” This weekend, the band brings its cinematic stage antics to One Stop Deli and Bar, 55 College St., for an all-ages performance with Zombie Queen and As Sick As Us. Read more about the band here. 10 p.m. $5/$7.

Saturday, Jan. 28

• Learn about the Civil War’s impact on the Appalachian region when Dr. Steven E. Nash presents “Rebels and Tories in the Mountains,” the second in a three-part lecture series hosted by UNCA. According to a release for the event, “Topics for the series are loosely based on subjects covered in John Inscoe’s War, Race and Remembrance. Held in the university’s Reuter Center. 2 p.m. Free.

• Join pianists Vance Reese, Karen Boyd and Scott Camp for an afternoon of classical music to benefit Project Access, “an innovative physician volunteer initiative providing access to comprehensive medical care for low-income uninsured Buncombe County residents,” according to the organization’s website. “Through Project Access physicians and community partners donate their services to patients without receiving reimbursement or compensation. Project Access is not health insurance, it is however a way to help our community members stabilize their health so that health insurance is more attainable. Project Access physicians donate services from routine annual physicals to open heart surgery.” Hosted by Oakley United Methodist Church, 607 Fairview Road. 3 p.m. $5.

• “Crackerjack musicianship goes a long way toward a band’s greatness, but showmanship seals the deal,” asserts Woody Pines’ website. “Pines, on stage, is an old soul and natural performer, storied and steeped in the best of American music. Live, the group infuses a hundred years of American music into their performance — everything from early 20th century acoustic blues and rockabilly to the sounds of The White Stripes and The Black Keys. They’ll even drop some hip-hop vibes in the mix. It’s a fast-paced, swinging, high-energy show.” Catch Pines at Jack of the Wood, 95 Patton Ave. 9:30 p.m. $5.

• “Wooden Toothe plants its feet firmly in the fuzzy-and-aggressive territory between country and punk,” according to the band’s bio. “Yet this is no country-punk outfit. The quartet nods to both Uncle Tupelo and the Sex Pistols with neither a twang nor a sneer to be found. Instead, it’s a core of both genres that ultimately prevail: the raw power of instrumentation, vocals and lyrics harnessed within the constraints of tightly crafted three-minute songs.” The band plays Emerald Lounge, 112 N. Lexington Ave, with Hillside Bombers. 10 p.m. $5.