The inception of the Carolina Chocolate Drops sounds like the opening of a kung-fu movie: Three young band members travel into the mountains to learn a long-practiced craft from a wise master.

But instead of learning roundhouse kicks and exploding-heart techniques, the band learned how to play the bones -- two 5-inch percussion instruments made from dry wood or animal bones -- and the water jug.

The Chocolate Drops, who will perform at 8 tonight at the State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave., learned about African American string music from Joe Thompson, one of the foremost black traditional fiddle players.

The band members met Thompson at the Black Banjo gathering in North Carolina, said Dom Flemons, multi-instrumentalist for the group.

Thompson served as a mentor of the band, teaching the young members the way of pre-blues music, Flemons said.

Flemons said he became attracted to pre-blues music because of its powerful lyrics and the seemingly forgotten musical arrangements.

"I liked Sublime and Green Day growing up, but when I started hearing the folk music at first, it moved me in a way I wanted to start playing," Flemons said.

The musicians in the Chocolate Drops are versatile in that they can play multiple instruments, including the kazoo, water jug and the bones.

Flemons said learning an instrument is like learning a new language: You can't say a word without knowing how it fits in the context of the speech.

The Chocolate Drops also starred in the Denzel Washington film The Great Debaters, in which they played a band at a juke joint on the border of Louisiana and Texas during the Great Depression. The band also contributed to the film's soundtrack.

"I was asked if we wanted to do a Denzel Washington movie and I said 'Yeah!' " Flemons said. "We knocked our tunes out in a week and we went on the set on the border of Louisiana and Texas."

State Theatre Executive Director Mike Negra said tickets are still on sale for the event, and he expects a diverse crowd at the show.

"I think it's going to cross the entire spectrum ... from students to older folk," Negra said.

The band is currently doing a tour of college towns like Columbus, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Mich.

Flemons said it would have been impossible for the band to do a tour like this 10 years ago.

However, he has noticed that students have become more curious about discovering new genres of music.

Though he said this change in the mainstream seems to be running underneath the surface, he has noticed people becoming so unhappy that they are trying to make their own music.

"A lot of the same situations are coming up with people becoming dissatisfied with being an American, and people are trying to find new ways to be proud to be an American," Flemons said.

"You're seeing a lot more banjoes and a lot more guitars in general."