“Tired of Being Cold” — yeah, that sounds like a song somebody would write during a yearlong exile in Siberia. But most of Norwegian Arms’ debut album, Wolf Like a Stray Dog — written while singer/mandolinist Brendan Mulvihill was in Tomsk, Russia, on a Fulbright Scholarship — is counterintuitively sunny and upbeat. This Philly band specializes in oddball song titles to fit their “weirdo-folk” sound. “She Lives in a Secret Town” is a rootsy little pop tune with lightly spacey accents. “And Then I Found Myself in the Taiga” cascades with thin strings and reverberating vocals. “At the Formerly British Council Supported English Centre” has a jaunty, rhythmic Vampire Weekend thing going on. This Friday’s release party doubles as an end-of-the-Mayan calendar/world party, and the weirdo folks at Little Baby’s Ice Cream will be around serving up some sort of apocalypse flavor.

Fri., Dec. 21, 9:15 p.m., $10, with Mister Not Pavement, Laser Background, Night Panther and DJ Eddie Austin, Johnny Brenda’s 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.