Heavy Dates

by John O'Neill and Carly Carioli

WORCESTER: There's punk and then there's Punk, but with the Blanks 77 you get P-U-N-K. Hailed as a refreshing return to the authentic, Real Deal laid down by the first wave two (!) decades ago, reviled by others as blood-sucking grave robbers, they are well-worth checking out this Friday along with Bully Rag, Puking Toms, Dimwit, and the Terribles at the Espresso Bar. If you look to the immediate left of this column, you'll see a picture of three old guys. They're the Pathetics. Relatively competent, they're also a return to punk's earlier days in the we-can't-figure-out-anyone-else's-songs-so-we-had-to-write-our-own type of way. Join the burgeoning ranks of the Pathetics Army this Friday at Sir Morgan's Cove. Lightning strikes twice in the case of Barry Tashian's career. Thirty-odd years ago he opened for the Beatles while fronting the Remains, the greatest outfit (with the possible exception of the Real Kids) to hail from the Bay State. And no, we didn't forget about Aerosmith, J. Geils, Mission of Burma, or the Pixies. Now he makes a living for himself on the folk and bluegrass circuit with his wife, Holly. They appear Saturday, May 9, at Cafe Fantastique. Also on Saturday, Sir Morgan's Cove gives a four-star, two-earplug line-up with the BIG sounds of Godsmack, H8 Machine, 7 Dead, and Warhorse. At the Palladium, it's the squealings of that caterwauling alterna-kewpie doll Björk. Another show you could consider bringing earplugs to. For all the wrong reasons. Meanwhile, back on the tuneful side of the street, the Plantation Club braces for the roof-raising sound of the Heavy Metal Horns. And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for happens Thursday, May 14, at the Tammany Club as it's the long-anticipated Worcester Phoenix Best Music Poll Awards Party. Who will win? Come on down and check it out. Last year was a gas as all the social luminaries made the scene, and this year figures to be bigger and better. Besides, it don't cost nothin'.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE: There are two great songs on Four Great Points (Quarterstick/Touch and Go), the latest disc from Louisville sluggers June of '44. But in between "Of Information & Belief" and "Shadow Pugilist," a couple of spare avant-folk melodies, June of '44 ramble on indecipherably about chakras like disembodied Zeppelin geeks stuck in neutral (on "The Dexterity of Luck" and "Cut Your Face"), and later they zone out on dub and other narcotics (on "Doomsday"). It's ostensibly their most coherent effort to date, but our enthusiasm is wavering. See 'em with local followers Victory at Sea on Mother's Day, May 11, at the Middle East (617-864-3278), in Cambridge, and May 12 at the Call (401-751-2255), in Providence.

Modest Mouse got our full attention late last year with The Lonesome Crowded West (Up!). Like labelmates 764-HERO (whom they're releasing a split 10-inch EP with this month on Suicide Squeeze), they trade in a quirky mess of dissonance and melodies that makes them noisier, more tantrum-prone successors to the Pavement/Sebadoh indie axis. Expect scrabbling guitars, a little screaming, a little singing, even a little scratching when they play an all-ages gig at Amherst College (413-542-2000) on May 8.

Frank Black, the artist formerly known as the Pixies' Black Francis, has a new album (Frank Black and the Catholics) that's out overseas but has yet to find a home here. In the meantime, you can catch him as an unlikely reinterpreter of "Mother Popcorn" on Super Bad @ 65: A Tribute to James Brown (Zero Hour), or on the road at Pearl Street (413-584-0610), in Northampton, on May 10, the Call on May 15, and Axis (617-262-2437), in Boston, on May 16.

-- Carly Carioli