Heavy Dates

They've been laying low of late, but Seven Hill Psychos are back and ready to rock at Ralph's this Friday night. Officer Down and Dirt Junkie open. We recommend a swing by Cool Beans to check out Philly's whacked-out minstrel Adam Brodsky. He'll make you laugh; he'll make you cry; he'll make you wonder why you gave up guitar lessons. Other Friday highlights: Clutch Grabwell pull monthly duty at the Plantation Club; and the wonderful Nancy Hewitt plays for free at Borders. What with labels folding and absorbing each other, it took nearly a year for Atlanta's Forty-Fives to get their excellent debut disc, Get It Together (Artemis), into record stores. Meanwhile, the band -- our pick for the First Great Rock Band of the 21st century -- have just wrapped up recording disc number two at Memphis's legendary Sun Studios. They swing by Dinny's Saturday with opening sets from Huck, the Deal (who may or may not be playing their last gig), and Carry the Zero. Over at the Lucky Dog, the mighty Dismemberment Plan tune up before hitting the road this summer with some band called Pearl Jam. Elsewhere, the Swinging Steaks celebrate the release of their new disc at the Plantation Club, Sugar Ray and the Bluetones kick it at Gilrein's, and Dan Hart returns to the Java Hut. Sunday night brings (Glen) Danzig to the Palladium. You may remember him from his lousy hit a half-dozen years back, "Mother," a career low-point in our opinion. Alice Cooper was cooler and Rob Zombie has a better make-up artist, but Danzig is far and away the buff-est of all the metal/hardcore/horror dudes. Six Feet Under, Converge, and Disturbed also play. On Tuesday, the Deal's Bill Nelson teams up with John Coco for an acoustic gig at the Lucky Dog, and even though the Dog bills Wednesday as "Headbanger's Ball" night, it threw Providence's promising young-guns Walker on the bill. They're a little bit punk, a little bit emo, a little bit indie rock, and a lotta bit heart. Sloppy Joe and Lunar SX also share the stage.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

All your big-ticket items are sold out: Nine Inch Nails with Maynard "Tool" Keenan's A Perfect Circle at the Worcester Centrum, (617) 931-2000, on May 2 (at press time, a few tickets were left for the NIN gig at the Providence Civic Center on May 3); the new, spooky-kid Smashing Pumpkins at the Tsongas Arena, (617) 931-2000, in Lowell, on April 29; and Oasis and next-Britpop-thing buddies Travis at the Orpheum, (617) 931-2000, on April 27 -- though Travis will headline their own gig here on May 16 at the Berklee Performance Center, (800) 477-6849. In any case, what's a discriminating, procrastinating rock fan to do?

Just when we were about to give up waiting on the junk-shop art pop of the Elephant 6 collective, the heretofore Pet Sounds-obsessed Apples in Stereo switched gears and made another great record (see "Off the Record," in Section One). They join up with Doug Martsch's psychedelic guitar platoon Built To Spill for an ace double bill at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence, on April 29, then headline their own gig at the Middle East, (617) 864-3278, on April 30. And our favorite new Boston punk band, the Explosion, whose stellar debut, Flash Flash Flash, is due this summer on Jade Tree, continue their across-the-board dominance of local gigs by commanding the opening slot on shows by generation-next New York hardcore dudes H20 at Axis, (617) 423-6398, on April 29 and by street/skate-punk legends U.S. Bombs on May 4 at the Middle East. Meanwhile, Agnostic Front are at Lupo's on April 28.

Or, in the spirit of High Fidelity, you can just go crate digging. Rumor has it that corporate biggie CD Now is so enamored of the indie Web retailer Insound that it's commissioning its own knockoff. In a year when Napster and mp3 are buzzwords, Insound has gained a foothold in cyberspace by selling old-fashioned vinyl records -- essentially they're the centralized on-line version of ye olde indie-rock mail-order catalogue. This month the DIY site, which also features zine content and indie film partnerships, promotes itself the old-fashioned way -- to paraphrase Hank Rollins, by getting in the van and hitting the road. The van's full of obscurities and standards on seven-inch, 12-inch, and occasionally 10-inch or five-inch black plastic discs, and it'll be bopping around Boston-area campuses on April 29 before parking in Harvard Square around 3. Visit www.insound.com for more info.

-- Carly Carioli