Roadtrips

The songs remain the same, but the lyrics get a Latin overhaul on Christina Aguilera's new Spanish-language disc, Mi reflejo (RCA). The Pittsburgh native and former Mouseketeer delivers hits including "Genie in a Bottle" ("Genio atrapado") and the unexpectedly-difficult-to-translate "What a Girl Wants" (which gets watered down to "Una mujer" -- what was wrong with "Lo que quiera una mujer"?) alongside a handful of new tunes geared to the burgeoning Ricky Martin market. Still, it's a risky move: unlike fellow teen queen Britney Spears, Aguilera didn't immediately sell out her current headlining tour (her first), and tickets remain for her show at the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on Saturday, even though the outstanding (if unstable) neo-R&B girl group Destiny's Child are on the opening bill. After Aguilera's concert, the Tweeter's summer season winds to an end with two sold-out shows by jam-band kings Phish; if you don't have tickets, there's a concert film, Bittersweet Motel, due this fall.

The punk label Vagrant is the latest beneficiary of Napster, with the embattled file-sharing software company ponying up to sponsor two "Vagrant Across America" tours -- the first of which makes its way here this week as part of the Worcester Palladium's "Skate 2000" fest, a kind of mini-Warped date. On Sunday, the Palladium (508-797-9696) augments the Vagrant bill -- Face to Face, Saves the Day, the Alkaline Trio, and A New Found Glory -- with local punkabillies the Amazing Crowns, Weston, Reach the Sky, Shai Halud, Shut Down, One King Down, Right Brigade, Sinners & Saints (a new band comprising members of the Ducky Boys and Blood for Blood), Stryder, Hopewell, 6gig, Cave In, and a bunch of participatory skate ramps. (The second Napster-sponsored Vagrant tour, featuring the Get Up Kids, the Anniversary, and Koufax, will hit the Palladium in October). You can also catch the Crowns and Sinners & Saints at Bill's Bar (617-421-9678) in Boston on Friday. Local mod-pop stars the Pills hit the Green Room (401-351-7665) in Providence on Friday, then move on the next night to Lilli's (617-591-1661) in Somerville, where they headline the 19th-anniversary party of the Noise, the unofficial bible of Boston rock, along with femme punks Heidi and the Sugar Twins.

In guitar-hero land, former Allman Brothers ax man Dicky Betts brings a solo band to Pearl Street (413-584-0610) in Northampton on Tuesday and to Avalon (617-423-NEXT) in Boston next Friday, September 15. Mick Taylor, the Rolling Stones' secret rhythm-guitar weapon on Let It Bleed and other albums from that era, is at the House of Blues (617-491-BLUE) in Cambridge on Saturday, as well as at the Stone Coast Brewery (207-773-2337) in Portland, Maine, on Sunday. And latter-day King Crimson guitarist Trey Gunn (whose eight-string guitar was made by a guy named Mark Warr -- a little militant, no?) brings a solo band to the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on Tuesday and to the House of Blues a week from Monday, September 18.
-- Carly Carioli