Heavy Dates

Heavy Dates and Light Reading

Yes, it's the July Fourth weekend, that annual black hole of gigdom where music writers across this great nation ask, "How the hell am I ever going to fill a whole page?" The answer to that, gentle reader, is by either waxing nostalgic about summers past (including music references to frame it in), doing one of those short observation lists of things that excite/bug us (big with the so-called social commentator-types and parlayed into huge money by Mike Barnicle), or expanding the playing field to include the entire entertainment spectrum. With that said, things certainly start with a bang this Friday at the Lucky Dog. Puddle celebrate the release of their newest, and final baby, Codenapity (Apostrophe). Also on the bill are Wormtown's chief practitioners of sweet shoegaze pop, Curtain Society, pop-rock phenoms Huck, and Boston's Full Powered Halo. Speaking of Puddle, I fully expected to whiz my pants at Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Alas, after ponying up the dough for tickets, popcorn, and soda, I felt it was more like The Spy Who Shagged Me Out of Twenty Bucks. I mean was even one new non-crank joke written for this thing? Elsewhere on Friday, the Space has a show of shows with Converge, Buried Alive, and Saves the Day, while it's that never-ending ode to the Fab Four Beatlemania at the Palladium. Which brings us to Paul McCartney, who, through some deal with the Devil was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for his post-Beatle work. This of course is a big, fat, joke, as well as an insult to anyone who ever played in a band for more than two weeks. You'd like to think that carrying that no-talent wife around for so many years may have just slowly wore him down, but unfortunately history shows Paul sucked straight out of the gate. Along with Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, and Sting, McCartney and his pals are my pick for the four horsemen of mediocrity. Elton John finishes a close fifth and could vault to prominence should Clapton ever right his wayward ship. On Saturday, the Commercial Street Concert Club features the always-tuff Eastcide, Six Cents, and God Stands Still. And, if He is standing still, I'd like to think He's covering His ears over this whole Ricky Martin thing. At least with the Macarana you got the amusement of watching your drunken relatives at the wedding reception. This guy's like Buster Poindexter's annoying Latin cousin. It's the last outing for Woodgrain Theory before they shift to Phase II. See them off in style when they play the Lucky Dog. Providence's Andah open the night, and Boy's Attic also do a set. Sunday is the Forth of July, and what better way to celebrate than with All-American music man Stan McDonald? He plays a clambake/fireworks shindig with his Blue Horizon Jazz Band at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Natick. If you're in a more countried frame of mind BlackHawk play at Indian Ranch in Webster. Or you could get a copy of the new Townes van Zandt tribute album, which contains a who's who of quality (meaning non-Nashville) country artists. Other recommended Summer listening stuff: Beach Boys Today!, (anybody who caught Brian Wilson's solo gig two weeks back is still buzzing) Gigolo Aunts' Minor Chords and Major Themes, Mavericks' Music for All Occasions, Ramones' Rocket to Russia, Dwight Twilley's Twilley Don't Mind, Otis Redding's The Very Best of Volume II, Biz Markie's The Biz Never Sleeps, Don Walser's Down at the Skyview Drive-In, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Damn the Torpedoes, and Bobby Fuller Four's El Paso Rock.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

Barely out of high school when their Rage Against the Machine-ish metal caught the ear of Elektra, Massachusetts's Reveille are starting to take their first tentative baby steps out into the wide world of "touring." The label's hoping the band's friendship with Godsmack will translate into record sales, but for now they're letting the kids find their legs with a few choice gigs at suburban rock clubs. The product: Laced, an album of fair-to-middling rap-metal tunes, with a guest appearance from Cypress Hill's B-Real -- who signed on after his guest appearance on Korn's last album (produced, as was Laced, by Steve Thompson) wound up on the cutting room floor. You can catch Reveille at the New Rockpile, (781) 233-7400, in Saugus, that notorious bastion of cheeseball hair-metal revived with a series of WAAF new-metal gigs. A slightly more intensive tour is in progress by New Orleans grindcore dudes Soilent Green -- whom even those old fogeys at SPIN singled out as among the 10 best metal in the land -- which brings them to the Met Cafe, (401) 831-4071, in Providence, on July 2 and the Middle East, (617) 864-3278, in Cambridge, on July 7 with Isis and Dissociate.

If you can't head to Jamaica, the island will be brought to you this weekend. The 72-year-old grandaddy of ska, Laurel Aitkin, has tapped our own Allstonians as his backing band, and they hit the road together beginning July 8 at the Middle East. Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff -- of The Harder They Come (1972) fame -- is at the South Shore Music Circus, (781) 383-1400, in Cohasset, on July 2 and the Cape Cod Melody Tent, (508) 775-9100, in Hyannis, on July 3.

For those who can't get enough of him through reruns of Sesame Street, James Taylor presides over Independence Day weekend with shows on July 3 and July 4 at Tanglewood, (617) 266-1200, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in Lenox. And week three of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, (413) 243-0745, brings the Trisha Brown Dance Company to the Ted Shawn Theatre in Becket -- including the world premiere of Brown's Five Part Weather Invention, with original score provided, in person, by the Dave Douglas Ensemble -- beginning Wednesday, July 7, and continuing through July 10.

-- Carly Carioli