"Locally, when people think of rap, they think of Cash Money and No Limit," BIONIK BROWN (left) says. Brown, who is performing at The Howlin' Wolf (828 S. Peters St., 529-WOLF) on Saturday with C.O. and Knowone, draws a distinction between rap and hip-hop though, and sees himself as a hip-hop artist. "Hip-hop is more about a culture," he contends. "Rap's more about the party." When he plays outside New Orleans, audiences expecting bounce or Dirty South are surprised. "They say, ŒYou're doing East Coast rap,'" he says. Brown took much of last year off from live performance, and during that time, he met his new DJ and producer, Quickie Mart (right). The collaboration paid off as the duo started writing at a furious pace. "We wrote at least 40 songs last year," Brown says, "almost one a week, and sometimes more than one a day." Some of the results are now available on Cold Gumbo, an EP only available at shows. On the CD, Quickie Mart's grooves are a spare with a dub sensibility, and they're most effective on "The Last Days." The song is Brown's sweeping indictment of America's sins, starting, "Oh say can you see/Why we keep taking over countries randomly." He moves almost immediately from foreign policy to civil rights, saying, "I pledge allegiance to the flag/Even though my nation treats me bad." The chorus gives the whole piece the feeling of a biblical judgment as he declares, "It's all going to fall here in the Last Days." Brown's not always that conceptually ambitious. He tells the oft-told story of gun-driven violence in "Keep Your Hand on Your Gun," which features Brown swapping lines in the chorus with the singer of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti-western classic "A Gringo Like Me." This year's Jazz Fest gave Bionik Brown hope. "I got my fire back," he says. He had become frustrated as a hip-hop artist in New Orleans, but the response to his set the first Friday on the Congo Square Stage encouraged him. "It was a really diverse crowd. Not a rap crowd, not a hip-hop crowd. It was people of different ages and different races. I'm excited." Tickets $6; showtime 10 p.m. -- Alex Rawls

Supersuckers Country Hoo-Haw 10 p.m. Tuesday, June 22 The Howlin' Wolf, 828 St. Peters St., 522-WOLF This Seattle-based quartet was once only a coin toss from relocating to New Orleans, and since the late 1980s it has consistently brought the rock in the most honest and exuberant way possible. Punk rock and outlaw country music have always formed what you might call a core ideology, and this self-proclaimed 'Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World' has most recently settled in the sweet spot where that twain meet with 2003's Motherf--kers Be Trippin'; (Mid Fi). The Howlin' Wolf show is billed as a Supersuckers-style country stomp, so expect the show to start with front man Eddie Spaghetti playing boozy covers and songs from his own country solo opus, The Sauce. Members, electricity and volume increase until the music becomes a full-on soundtrack for getting a black eye, a painful hickey or a Miller High Life hangover -- or likely, all three. Tickets $10. -- Alison Fensterstock

James Beard Centennial Dinner: "Charles-Camille Heidsieck: His Life in Antebellum Louisiana" 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 23 Muriel's Jackson Square, 801 Chartres St. Nicknamed 'Champagne Charlie' by the American press, French Champagne maker Charles-Camille Heidsieck made four trips across the Atlantic between the years of 1852 and 1863; according to his journals, New Orleans was one of his favorite ports. Add that bit of history to the centennial celebration of the birth of James Beard, the man widely recognized as the father of American gastronomy, and you've got the makings for a wine dinner that comes around only every 182 years or so (the birthday Champagne Charlie would be celebrating). Regis Camus, the current winemaker at Champagne Charles Heidsieck, is traveling from Reims, France, with Champagnes from the winery's 2,000-year-old chalk cellars to complement dishes prepared by seven outstanding Louisiana chefs, including Muriel's Jackson Square's Eric Veney and Ben Marrett. All proceeds will help preserve the James Beard House, a culinary performance space and home to The James Beard Foundation. Tickets $170 for Foundation members, $195 for non-members. Call 568-1885. -- Sara Roahen

The Mikado 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, June 24-26; 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, June 26-27 Tulane University, Dixon Hall, 865-5269 William Schwenck Gilbert was feuding with his partner Sir Arthur Sullivan in the year 1884, following the production of their seventh operetta Princess Ida. Feuding was nothing new to this odd couple. But this time (if we are to believe scuttlebutt, bio-films, etc.) the composer had really had it. No more fairy tales! No more improbabilities. This, despite the fact that the two had already written such smashing successes as H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. At any rate, a ceremonial Japanese sword hanging on the wall of Gilbert's abode fell off its perch, and a classic comic idea was born -- an idea that only Gilbert perhaps could describe as probable. But somehow he convinced the composer. The Summer Lyric Theatre at Tulane offers a new version of The Mikado to start off its season. Michael B. Howard directs what sounds like a great cast with Ricky Graham as Ko-Ko, Kyle Malone as Nanki-Poo and David Stone as the mighty Mikado, himself. -- Dalt Wonk

The RAIN Event: Postcards to the CAC 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, June 25 Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St., 528-3800 There will be unlimited cocktails, compliments of RAIN Vodka and dinner courtesy of La Cote Brasserie, when the Contemporary Arts Center celebrates its third annual RAIN Event: Postcards to the CAC. Guests at this gala can enjoy soothing sounds from jazz siren Samirah Evans while socializing and shopping for postcard-sized artwork by established and emerging artists, celebrities and schoolchildren. The catch for this spree: The identities of the artists will be withheld until the postcards are purchased (at $50 a pop or five for $200). The sales from the show will benefit programming at the CAC. The RAINmaker award also will be presented to a special, local woman who assists in the development of women as leaders in the community. Tickets $25 CAC members, $45 nonmembers; call to purchase in advance or visit www.cacno.org. -- Katie LaCorte

Yellowman 10:30 p.m. Friday, June 25 Tipitina's, 501 Napoleon Ave., 895-TIPS Yellowman can't help it; even when he's trying to be seriously sexy, he strikes a strange balance between joke and juke. On his latest, New York (RAS), he comes off like a Jamaican Johnny LaRue with the sexercise track 'Work Out.' Then, on 'Spanish Girls' and 'Do Me,' he sounds like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog with the sidesplittingly salacious dirty talk set to slippery dance beats. But then Winston Foster, an albino Jamaican, was always different. After being taunted as a child for his skin color, he created the comic book superhero Yellowman, the bad boy of reggae. During the height of reggae's golden age he avoided 'conscious' themes in favor of risque toasting and taunting. His gaunt, blond figure always evoked an otherworldly image; now, with his post-cancerous left jaw truncated, he cuts an even more cadaverous stage presence. Here's hoping he does his version of 'Blueberry Hill.' Tickets $15. -- John Swenson

Skinny Puppy 9 p.m. Saturday, June 26 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE Skinny Puppy stood precariously on the shoulders of '70s industrial electronica groups such as Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, and then watched as Ministry and Nine Inch Nails blew right by them in the '90s. What's a socio-politically conscious dance band to do? Well, co-founders cEVIN Key and Nivek Ogre overcame label troubles, the death of Dwayne Goettel and what became an eight-year drought of original material to return with this year's release, The Greater Wrong of the Right (SPV). (The pair was inspired by the reaction to a 2000 reunion show in Dresden, Germany.) Wrong feels so right after all these years, with Uzi-like raps riding the driving rhythms of songs like 'Pro-test,' one of those sweet moments where a dance floor can once again feel like a soapbox for good old-fashioned lefty rantings. Guest performers include Tool's Danny Carey and Wayne Static of Static-X. Dubya beware; this Puppy still bites. Tweaker and Otto Von Schirach open. Tickets $23. -- David Lee Simmons

Young Heart Attack 10 p.m. Sunday, June 27 One Eyed Jacks, 615 Toulouse St., 569-8361 For those who despair at the recent proliferation of floppy-haired rockers producing technically perfect, late '60s/70s-style rock that still somehow seems hollow, meet Austin, Texas' Young Heart Attack. If the members aren't Tiger Beat picture-perfect, it's because they were too busy having fun to shrink their skinny jeans to fit or practice Robin Zander faces in the mirror. At a sparsely attended South By Southwest gig, they played muscle-car hard rock with the energy at a sweaty, do-or-die level, much of which appears on the new album, Mouthful of Love (XL). The band also knows showmanship, with antics like a perfectly executed mid-song guitar switch (that is, throwing the guitars 10 feet through the air) and winging picks at the heads of audience members. Tickets $8. -- Fensterstock

In Celebration of Light: Photographs from the Collection of Cherye R. and James F. Pierce Through Aug. 15 New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park, 488-2631 Why do art collectors collect? Sometimes collections just "happen" as a result of personal impulses that evolve over time. When big-time Hawaii photography collectors Jim and Cherye Pierce bought their first Ansel Adams photograph as newlyweds (who met at a party in New Orleans) in 1973, photographs were the most affordable art form. Hawaii residents since 1976, they used trips to the mainland and family visits to New Orleans, with its outstanding galleries, as opportunities to buy more. Now, some three decades later, their photography collection is Hawaii's finest, the basis of museum shows here and in Honolulu. Focusing on vintage and contemporary masters, with an emphasis on Southern photographers, the Pierce Collection illustrates how photography's appeal to the senses can be addictive in the best possible sense. -- D. Eric Bookhardt