Heavy Dates

Though it's been a full 32 years since forming, and 27 since their top-10 cover of Tex Ritter's "Hot Rod Lincoln," Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen have, with one brief respite in 1976, continued to roll on across the wide world, dishing out a hot stew of boogie-woogie, Western swing, and rockabilly. This Friday George Frayne (Cody) and his ensemble cast return to the Plantation Club to sing some sleazy roadhouse stories. Over at Commercial Street it's the last chance to catch Swag, who will pack their bags and head for Los Angeles. Also on the bill are Huck, fresh and rested from their recent bludgeoning of the John Entwistle Band. Meanwhile, the Lucky Dog Music Hall features Slipknot (the hippie guys, not the metalheads), and it's a CD-release party for groove/funksters Pork and Beans at the Tammany Club. We got an interesting hunk of mail from a Soviet newspaper in which Durand Wilkerson and the Soul Drivers were featured. While our Russian is a bit rusty, we were able to decipher that "the Soul Drivers make happy joyful bleating, pudding is big beat nice blues," or something close to that. See the international feel-good band who make Boris smile that vodkee smile this Saturday at Gilrein's. Over at the Lucky Dog, it's a one-two punch of the always-punk Pathetics, and the mysterious society of music known as White Knuckle Sobriety. Two great bands who get to open for a Tool tribute. Speaking of tool, get your love machine revin' and ready to rock, cuz the Plantation Club has Clutch Grabwell in the house, and that's an open invite for all gals to work that skirt and fellas to shake some action. Sunday night, and what could be finer than a little metal? God Stands Still, Zao, BHBS, and Dead Eyes Under all blast Commercial Street. Next Thursday features a pretty good selection of pre-weekend fun. It's a minor goth-fest at the Lucky Dog with sets from the Dirg Carolers, mindFIELD, Colorblind, and Megatron. Slattery's has ex-Radio King Brian Templeton's new outfit the Rip Cords, while the Tammany Club gives off a distinct Dave Mathews vibe compliments of Jack and Present Company.

-- John O'Neill

BOSTON/PROVIDENCE

Everyone's having a good chuckle over the rumor that Los Lobos landed big money from Hollywood Records because the label wanted to get in on the current Ricky Martin-led Latin Loca-motive. Motives aside, the band are performing at a creative peak right now, and This Time, their latest disc, finds them at a juncture of critical acclaim and mainstream popularity they haven't had since that cover of "La Bamba." As comfortable in hipster basements as in open-air mass-festival settings, they'll do both this weekend. This Thursday (August 12), they'll play the Middle East, (617) 864-3278, in Cambridge; on the 13th they'll headline the first night of the three-day Berkshire Mountain Music Festival, (888) 245-7081, at Butternut Valley Ski Area in Great Barrington. Day two of the BMMF, on Saturday, features hip-hop's the Roots alongside a bunch of hippies including Strangefolk and Jiggle the Handle; Sunday's gig features NYC downtowniks Soul Coughing, again supported by a bunch of hippies.

Rhode Island assumes the position of jazz capital of the world this weekend with the annual JVC Jazz Festival -- Newport at Fort Adams State Park, (401) 847-3700. It kicks off on Friday the 13th with a less-than-stellar preview featuring Manhattan Transfer and the Royal Crown Revue at the Newport Casino, and Saturday's headliner is that smoothie Harry Connick Jr., but McCoy Tyner leads a trio on Saturday, and Sunday's bill is a stellar one with Diana Krall, Branford Marsalis leading a trio, and Joshua Redman heading a quartet.

In the midst of negotiating a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunion in 1988, Atlantic Records' Ahmet Ertegun -- who had the first three under contract -- was attempting to bargain with David Geffen, who held the keys to Neil Young. According to Frederic Dannen (in his excellent record-industry muckraker Hit Men), Geffen wanted a 50-50 split, even though Ertegun had three-quarters of the band: "`Listen, Ahmet!', Geffen seethed . . . `Crosby, Stills, and Nash are OLD FAT FARTS! The only one with any TALENT is Neil Young!' " Well, it's 11 years later, and over the course of the last year a CSN&Y reunion has been booked, unbooked, rebooked, and scaled down; it has yet to pass -- apparently because the Only One With Any Talent keeps backing out. But if you're really, really jonesing, one of those old fat farts, David Crosby, brings an outfit he's been calling CPR -- we'll have mercy and avoid the obvious jokes -- to the Iron Horse Music Hall, (413) 584-0610, in Northampton, on Thursday the 12th (tonight) and to Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, (401) 272-5876, in Providence, on Friday the 13th.

Ah, those plucky lads from Ireland -- what a sense of humor. Some folks have put together a "Luck o' the Irish" Festival . . . on Friday the 13th. Of course, on a day like that we'll all need all the luck we can get, so a trip to the Pines Theater, (800) 843-8425, in Northampton, to catch the Saw Doctors, Robbie O'Connell, and Rubyhorse mightn't be amiss. If you're feeling superstitious, you can also catch the Saw Doctors on August 14 at Waterworks, (617) 689-0600, in Quincy.

-- Carly Carioli