It's a new week, which means it's time for a new installment of Bobble Tiki's South Sound music news and notes column. Without further ado, let's get rolling ...

Bobble Tiki knows you're busy. Bobble Tiki knows you're running around, high on eggnog lattes, caught in the season and purchasing like mad, visions of sugar plums and Visa bills dancing in your head.

Bobble Tiki also knows it may feel like there's simply no time for a night on the town, enjoying the live local music emanating from stages across the South Sound - what, with all the merriment, caroling and thoughtless gift purchases for members of your carpool to be found.

Well, good reader, Bobble Tiki suggests you realign your priorities. Sure, the holidays are important - we all know that. But they don't have to be the be all and end all, if you know what Bobble Tiki means. Take a time-out from the Santa and sleigh bells and silly-ass Lexus commercials with bows fit for SUVs, and give the gift of giving a crap about the local musicians who work for us all year long - spending nights on stage so we can spend nights out listening to them and forgetting our troubles. It's their job (or one of their jobs, as the case usually is), and they're just one more thing to be thankful for this time of year. Show them some love.

If you're looking for a show worth supporting this weekend, fans of soul, funk and the blues need look no further than Saturday night at Jazzbones in Tacoma, when Seattle's the Staxx Brothers, a strange and intriguing cross-breed of classic style rock tropes, spazzed-out funk and straight-up soul share a bill with the throwback, Motown-style groove of fellow Seattle band Cold Note. With a number of tricks up their collective sleeve, Cold Note can't be pegged as one thing - and certainly have the ability to funk it up and turn it up - but the band's best quality is perhaps its most obvious: the slow, smooth groove that seems to come pouring out of the five-piece when at its most natural. Bobble Tiki's talking about some real dank stuff here, the kind of s*** you could burn some serious candles to ... dunk some serious strawberries in chocolate to ... draw a serious bath to.

In fact, Bobble Tiki's licking his lips and pawing for the bubble bath just thinking about it.

"OK," you say, "so both these bands have chops. That's nothing new ..."

True, many bands out there have talent, and many can inspire the dance floor to move, but few shows have the potential to so thoroughly soak revelers in the sweet sweat of grooving and grinding as this one.

And better yet, we're talking about originals here! No fronting - The Staxx Brothers and Cold Note aren't bands simply copying a pre-existing sound. They've created, and are creating, their own - and doing it in a way that comes off fresh and familiar.

The Staxx Brothers, in fact, just might be best described by their own band bio ...

"The Staxx Brothers are a high energy American band, hailing from Seattle, Washington, that has spent the last seven years crafting an incredible new sound they've branded Hard Ass Soul. It's quite simply the most danceable and hip shaking brand of rock & roll to hit US streets since Motown left Detroit. Where modern Rock most often has forgotten its Roll, The Staxx Brothers make it back to the juke joint, and take you back to the black church, dragging modern rock by its collar right back to its birthright - with an epic flare that matches any of the classics."

Bobble Tiki couldn't agree more. Mix the Staxx Brother's pomp with Cold Notes circumstance and you've got a show worthy of that proverbial note home to ma.

Bottom line: If you're the kind of cat that likes to dance, and remembers the days when dancing was king, Cold Note and the Staxx Brothers should pull off just the show for you.

And go ahead and draw that bath and light a few candles for afterward.

BOBBLE TIKI'S UNDER-THE-RADAR SHOW OF THE WEEK

Just can't get enough of the groove, even after seeing the Staxx Brothers and Cold Note Saturday night at Jazzbones? Well, finish off your weekend in style at the Spar in Old Town Tacoma with the always-infectious Bump Kitchen. No strangers to getting the party started themselves, Bump Kitchen has been around the block almost as many times as Bobble Tiki - and they've held up far better than the Volcano's salaried Hawaiian themed souvenir. Maybe it's Botox? Maybe it's that ten tons of funk and flair and showmanship never get old? Either way, consider yourself warned and informed. The action starts at 7 p.m., and word on the street is it's drummer Everett's birthday.

See you next week.