Roadtrips

Looks as if somebody's marketing director had decided that snowboarders break down into two distinct categories: skatepunks and hippies. So there are now two distinct editions of the Sno-Core Tour, both of which make their way here this week. Industro-goth-metal conscripts Fear Factory headline the metal edition, with teeny-deathmetal gals Kittie, Slaves on Dope, Boy Hits Car, and the awful Union Underground. That show hits the Palladium (508-797-9696) in Worcester this Friday and Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence next Friday (February 16). For the hippie leg of the tour, the New Orleans groove act Galactic -- fronted by storied Louisiana soulman Theryl "Houseman" De'Clouet, who also has a solo disc out on Rounder -- join Les Claypool's Frog Brigade, in which the former Primus bassist indulges his Zappa-hippie-wanker side as opposed to his Zappa-funk-metal side, and the self-explanatory Drums and Tuba, who play dance music. The hippies are at the State Theatre (207-775-3331) in Portland on Sunday, the Burlington (Vermont) Memorial Auditorium (802-864-6044) on Monday, and Avalon (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Valentine's Day.

Alan Jackson's one of them new-fangled Nashville pop-country stars that everyone in alterna-country-land's always bitching about: he gets played on the radio, he sells a gazillion records, he performs to arenas. Well, if he's nothing but a lowdown, postmodern cowboy, at least he done knowed it. The first single off his new album is called "www.Memory," and there's another called "Three Minute Positive Not Too Country Up Tempo Love Song." Jackson's at the Worcester Centrum (617-931-2000) tonight (February 8) with Lee Ann Womack.

Still flying the flag for indie-rock nautical themes, Shipping News have a second disc, Very soon, and in pleasant company (Touch and Go), which they completed here in town -- with help from Victory at Sea's Christina Files -- as the Tall Ships sailed into Boston Harbor last summer. They're back -- the News, that is, not the ships -- with former Gastr del Sol dude David Grubbs at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Saturday and AS220 (401-831-9327) in Providence on Monday.

If you're gonna go see an old pro skater play punk rock, you may as well go seem him rock the skate park. Such is our recommendation for checking out Duane Peters -- the skateboarder turned U.S. Bombs frontman -- with his street-punk side project the Hunns. You can catch 'em on Valentine's Day at the Middle East with the Dimestore Halos and Forced Reality, or you can do what you ought to do -- head out to Mass Skate (413-534-1000) in Westfield next Saturday (February 17) to see the Hunns, and take your skinny board.

-- Carly Carioli