Roadtrips

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?

Well, post-emo faves the Dismemberment Plan are coming off their big-ticket European jaunt with Pearl Jam, and they'll be stopping by the Lucky Dog Music Hall (508-363-1888) in Worcester on April 29 with the Ivory Coast. And 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 Arts). 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-EAST) 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-NEXT) 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