Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation Festival; The Soft Boys and Other Puss Music; A Malian Demi-Goddess; Miles Davis; Upright Citizens Brigade

Continuing in the puss vein, the Soft Boys, new wave's least dangerous band, have reissued their 1980 disc Underwater Moonlight. The cult classic plays like the Velvet Underground vs. REM, exclusively for women and guys who dig High Fidelity. The only song you might know if you're not a Soft Boys fan is "I Wanna Destroy You," which is more catchy and ballsy than the rest of their music.

In support of the Underwater Moonlight reissue?which ships with nine outtakes and an extra CD of rehearsal material?the Soft Boys are playing Saturday night at Irving Plaza (17 Irving Pl. at 15th St., 777-6800). A Friday show at Maxwell's is sold out (1039 Washington St. at 11th St., Hoboken, 201-653-1703), but you can always hang in the bar and overhear the band's set. Look for music wonks and twentysomething females with a far-off longing for lead weirdo Robyn Hitchcock.

...Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Animation Festival is only going on for two more days, so you should get to the Screening Room (54 Varick St. at Canal St., 334-2100) if you want to see shorts like "Radioactive Crotch Man," "Coco, the Junkie Pimp" and "Wheelchair Rebecca." These NC-17 cartoons owe a lot to Ren & Stimpy, and tend to fall into sub-John K. murk, but they're also genuinely funny and a few of them might be headed for feature films or tv.

Pixar gives the event a touch of class with "For the Birds," which features impossibly cute CGI sparrows bickering on a power line. Aardman (Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run) provides the understated "Angry Kid," starring a claymation adolescent who grunts through Wonder Years setups. And the rest of the cartoons, mostly independent and some obviously done for $0 in a basement, range from stupid ("Rejected," which somehow got an Oscar nomination) to plotless but visually stunning ("Bowlin' for Souls") to hilarious ("Pussy Da Rednosed Reindeer").

The best short, however, has got to be "Monkey vs. Robot," which boils the whole man-machine Kasparov dilemma down to a tussle between our respective mascots. Monkey and Robot bare their teeth to a hopelessly catchy theme song ("M-O-N-K-E-Y Monkey! R-O-B-O-T Robot!") that hits you somewhere deep. Show times are 3:15, 5:00, 6:45, 8:30 and 10:15, this Wednesday and Thursday afternoon/evening.

?You probably didn't even know they had divas in Mali, let alone mystical demigoddesses like Nahawa Doumbia. In from the French-speaking region of western Africa this Friday and Saturday only, Doumbia will perform at Florence Gould Hall (55 E. 59th St., betw. Madison & Park Aves., 355-6160) as part of the weeklong Francophonie Celebration.

Nahawa Doumbia went through some crazy stuff to get to Florence Gould Hall, like being orphaned and suckled by her own grandmother. According to legend, Nahawa's mother died within days of giving birth to her and her grief-stricken father planned to bury them both. Luckily, Nahawa's grandmother bailed her out and nursed her with miraculously flowing milk as she grew up in Manankoro, Mali.

As a child, Nahawa knew she was destined to become a singer (her mother had predicted so before she died), but, belonging to the Manding caste of blacksmiths, she was barred from the job. Her family did their best to silence her, but in 1980, she was discovered by the Malian Ministry of Culture and brought to the "Youth Biennial in Bamako" contest, where she blew everyone away. Internationally acclaimed albums followed, starting with 1988's Didadi. How has Behind the Music missed out on this woman?

Anyway, Nahawa Doumbia does traditional vocals over the balafon (African xylophone), kamelé n'goni ("guitar of the young people"), djembe (hand drum), bass and acoustic guitar. Tickets are $30; the shows start at 8 p.m. and is followed on Friday by a food tasting ($15 extra). They have some great stories in Africa.

?Crazy-ass nut Miles Davis is honored with 12 hours of his own work at Symphony Space (2357 B'way at 95th St., 864-5400) this Saturday, in a show starting at noon and featuring hundreds of musicians and singers. The selling point: the whole thing is free, with general seating so you can pop in for a half-hour of Miles, which is all any of us really needs, and continue with your day.

Performers include iconoclastic drummer Bobby Previte and his Voodoo Down Orchestra, bassist Melvin Gibbs' Liberation Theology and DJ Logic. Sex Mob who have covered "Ruby Tuesday," "Fernando" and "About a Girl," will also contribute their Miles interpretations. Some artists will stick to a particular Davis phase or album; others will cut across periods and themes?don't expect rigid organization with this many bands and this much material. From noon to midnight.

?The Upright Citizens Brigade has already done the impossible?survived the death of their Comedy Central show and parlayed it into steady gigs performing and teaching at their own theater. They ought to give a course on that. But nah, spring semester classes at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (note wanky "re") focus on improvisation and sketch writing.

The classes run for eight weeks, starting April 16, with one three-hour session per week. For $300, you'll learn long-form improvisation with actors, comedians and businesspeople trying to overcome their fear of public speaking. Upright Citizens Brigade graduates have gone on to legitimate jobs on Law & Order, Sex and the City and those Snickers ads, so it isn't a total waste of money. Get your registration form at the UCB Theatre (161 W. 22nd St., betw. 6th & 7th Aves., 366-9176) or website ([www.ucbtheatre.com](http://www.ucbtheatre.com)) and, after you've filled it out, drop it off or send it in. Do it now, before the class fills up with talentless schmucks.