Roadtrips

Transplanted garage-pop cads the Figgs earned a permanent place in the canon for backing Graham Parker on tour a few years back, but they've proved consistent and inspired reinventors of the form on their own. Their latest, Sucking in Stereo, is indeed a dual-channel effort. The band are at the Skinny (207-871-8983) in Portland, Maine, tonight (December 21) with Hellicopter-Hellicopter and at the Metronome (802-865-4563) in Burlington, Vermont, on Friday before heading to T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on New Year's Eve. Transplanted Southerners Quintaine Americana -- who have a scathing new EP called The Devil Went Down to Mississippi (Polterchrist/Curve of the Earth) -- join the mammoth blues-punk duo Throttle and Delta Clutch tonight (December 21) at Lilli's (617-591-1661) in Somerville. Next Thursday, Quintaine pop up again at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge with local hardcore vets Tree, motör-headed ZZ Top-ical rock fiends Lamont, and hillbilly-boogie wildmen Bottleneck Drag.

Corrosion of Conformity, the early-'80s punk-metal crossover act whose mix of Southern boogie and Sabbath bombast has influenced Kid Rock and Metallica (among others), show up with elephant-hunting sludge-metal vets Clutch, 60-Watt Shaman, and Flybanger in a proto-stoner-metal bill. That's at the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester on Friday.

Flywheel (413-527-9800) in Easthampton has a full schedule this weekend. Tonight (December 21), it's a New England emo-indie convergence with the Warren Commission, Hartford's Halo Altera, Providence's Mini-Watt, and Eastie locals Pazza Ragazza. On Friday check out Pennsylvania's Numbers Are Neutral and Proverbs of the Illest, along with locals Last Forty Seconds, and Connecticut's River City Rampage.

There's more punk in the suburbs, and it stars a couple of up-and-comers on the Revelation label. On Friday, Massachusetts's own Garrison headline a bill in support of their new A Mile in Cold Water, along with the Farewell, Again Without Feeling, Just for Today, Fairhaven, and Six Billion Dead at the Portuguese American Club (508-222-9748) in Attleboro. The following evening, Garrison move on to the Knights of Columbus Hall (978-687-9834) in Lawrence with Jericho, Euclid, the National Blue, the Migration Trap, Phil, My Life with Her Ghost, and the Pearl Machine. Meanwhile, New York's the Movielife have a new Brian McTernan-produced disc, This Time Next Year (Revelation), and they headline a bill at the same Portuguese American Club on Saturday, along with As the Sun Sets, Pushing for Summer, Moment, and Easel.
-- Carly Carioli