Roadtrips

Nineteen ninety-nine was given over to a bit of reflection -- most notably in the number of musical artists who sought to define themselves by making albums out of other people's songs, whether it was punk-generation kids like Mike Ness and Mark Lanegan creeping up on middle age or older hands like John Prine and the singer/songwriter/novelist Bill Morrissey, who finds himself Grammy-nominated for his Songs of Mississippi John Hurt (Rounder). Morrissey -- not to be confused with the former Smiths singer headed this way next week -- is at the Emerson Umbrella (978-371-0820) in Concord on February 12.

The Palladium (508-797-9696) in Worcester hosts an orgy of metal and hardcore this weekend, but if you're still standing after Cannibal Corpse and the Misfits, there's plenty more in store. On the old-school tip, Def Leppard soldier on -- even though the few Mutt Lange-produced tracks on their latest, Euphoria, sound less like vintage Hysteria than the ones Lange penned for his wife, Shania Twain, on her Come On Over. The Def ones remain a draw, we guess, at least as much because of that VH1 special -- wherein a one-armed drummer admits to a little wife beating -- as for any latter-day musical exploits. But they're on a dream bill with Joan Jett -- one of those rare individuals who can move easily from the flimsy world of pop metal to the avuncular riot grrrl underground -- at the Cumberland County Civic Center (207-775-3331) in Portland, Maine, on February 15. There's a little old-school flavor of a slightly later vintage -- namely, late-'80s skate thrash -- built into So-Cal metal phenoms System of a Down, whose homonymous debut has the kind of vintage, crunchy jackhammer appeal that only Rick Rubin could've gotten so right. They're headlining the "SnoCore" extravaganza with Mike Patton's Mr. Bungle, Puya, and Incubus, at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on February 15 and at Avalon (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on February 16. And Boston-to-LA neo-metal stars Powerman 5000 return to the area with the same opening bill that seems to come through with every neo-metal headliner -- Dope and White Zombie clones Static-X. That bill's at Lupo's on February 16 and at the Palladium on February 19.

Another Boston-via-LA success story winds up back East this week. After a couple of years of whining about her label woes and lack of critical acclaim, Aimee Mann got her wish -- a lauded set of songs on the soundtrack to Magnolia, which sets the stage for a long-delayed new album to be released later this year. Mann's on a theater tour with husband Michael Penn in a together-and-alone setting that mirrors the pair's popular residency in LA; it brings them to the Somerville Theatre (401-331-2211) on February 12 and to Lupo's on February 13.
-- Carly Carioli