LITTLE ROCK — Another Arkansas emerging talent

The Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival is bringing its four days of music to Mulberry Mountain Lodging and Events in Ozark on Thursday through Sunday - the sixth anniversary of the foot-stomping good time and the first in Arkansas. The party includes activities such as disc golf, morning yoga, a Friday night costume contest and balloon rides along with musical acts such as Gov't Mule, Les Claypool, Yonder Mountain String Band, Galactic, The Black Crowes and STS9.

But among the lineup of jam, rock 'n' roll, funk, country and bluegrass bands will be Conway's Damn Bullets, with their Americana mix of rock 'n' roll, bluegrass, delta blues, rockabilly and folk. The band will deliver their "Electric Folk Boogie" (also the title of full-length debut album released in October 2008) at the Revival Tent on Friday from noon to 12:45 p.m.

The group - Paul Morphis and Joe Sundell on vocals and guitar, DJ Bennett on bass and vocals, and Graeme Higgins on drums - earned a spot in the Revival Tent by winning the Wakarusa Winter Classic. The band entered the contest in January, facing off against acts from Texas, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma. Sixty bands were chosen to compete in groups of four at 15 venues across the region with Damn Bullets winning their round at Sticky Fingerz. The band was then chosen to play Wakarusa through Internet voting.

"We are absolutely thrilled by this opportunity," Morphis said. "We're very grateful to our fans who made this possible and look forward to uniting the festival grounds in a joyous celebration of energy and music."

The 4-year-old band will kick off a day of music at the Revival Tent along with Langhorne Slim, Railroad Earth and Perpetual Groove later in the day.

"It's music that people can actually [care] about," Sundell said. "Wherever we go, people are excited to share in the passion and energy we bring to our performances. The songs deal mostly with timeless subjects, such as love, death, the afterlife, and friendship, and many of them tell stories or describe larger than life characters like Georgia Brown or Good Time Charlie."

The battle of the cover bands

Little Rock has a number of cover bands, but perhaps the two biggest cover bands in town are The Gettys and Tragikly White. Well, what's the difference? Okay, here's a brief rundown:

The Gettys are self-described as the No. 1 party band in Little Rock, covering artists as dissimilar as Prince ("Purple Rain"), David Allan Coe ("You Never Even Called Me by My Name"), Beastie Boys ("Fight for Your Right"), Elvis Presley ("Heartbreak Hotel") and Pearl Jam ("Yellow Ledbetter"). So the band's sound is a musical potpourri of pop, rap, country, rock and oldies plus a handful of originals.

Voted best dance band and best cover band, Tragikly White formed in 1993 and is known as Arkansas' premier dance band with a mix of dance favorites from the '70s to 2009. The trio's musical landscape journeys from Kanye West's "Stronger" to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" to Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me."

Even though they are both cover bands, The Gettys and Tragikly White play nice, even joining forces a handful of times a year to play as Tragikly Getty. It's double the drums, double the guitars, double the bassists and double the frontmen as the two play Revolution Music Room on June 12.

Battle of the venues: Revolution Music Room versus Sticky Fingerz

Owned by the same people, the two establishments bookend the River Market. Sticky Fingerz is the elder of the two, but smaller and known for bringing in up-and-coming, and smaller acts. Bands visiting Sticky Fingerz in the future include Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Cotton Jones and Gringo Star.

Once a band has established itself as a draw in Little Rock, they often graduate to the larger but newer Revolution Music Room, aka Rev Room. Bigger names visiting Rev Room in the future include Billy Joe Shaver, Hill Country Revue and Big Smith.

Best place to listen to local music without leaving your car or house

Every Friday at noon Jeff Riggs and Roy D. Doyle take to the air on KABF 88.3 to place the spotlight on unsigned musical artists from Arkansas. Bands featured on the show include Shannon Boshears, Machina, Le Kid, Ben Rector, Ashleigh Rogers, HWY 5 and others. Beyond the music, the duo also conduct interviews with local acts.

So what does it take for a local act to get on the show? Not much. The guidelines are: The music must be original, must be professionally recorded and must be edited for radio. And, of course, it must be from Arkansas.

Our favorite local band names

Ace Spade and The Whores of Babylon

The name has something to do with a 1952 plane crash and a 2006 meth lab explosion, but the music is a roaring, uppercut of horrorbilly in all its blood-splattered glory in an effort to save rock 'n' roll from emo, art rock and the like.

Don't Call Me Shirley

Leslie Nielsen's "I am serious ... and don't call me Shirley" reply to Robert Hays' "Surely you can't be serious" quote in Airplane! placed at No. 79 on the AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes. But apparently the quote was No. 1 with the five members of this Sherwood punkish, pop-flavored rock outfit, and the perfect name for their band that delivers an energetic, punchy sound.

Flameing Daeth Fearies

The one band name guaranteed to trigger spell checking software kicked off its musical existence as a stoner, death emo band. The band's sound is punk music cut with metal, rock and funk, and heavy on the comedy, pop culture references and parodies of well-known tunes with crazy lyrics.

The Science of Sleep

What came first: the Michel Gondry film or this Maumelle experimental rock band? More than likely the Gondry film, but this band is just as wonderfully weird, mixing and matching metal, hardcore, electronica, pop and even rap.

An Orangutan

The story goes a band member and friend were listening to The Appleseed Cast's tune "An Orange and a Blue" on a car stereo when the song title scrolled across the stereo's display. Since only eight spaces were displayed, the band member mistook the Lawrence, Kan., indie rock band's tune for An Orangutan. The result is the name for this Little Rock dark, dancey progressive rock band.

Good Name for a Band

Lazy or pure genius? The jury is still out on this band's name, but the Conway quartet creates Christian-flavored alternative rock with lyrics filled with hope, faith and love.