They may be California dreamers through and through, but Beachwood Sparks came east when it was time to record the follow-up to their critically acclaimed homonymous debut earlier this year. Specifically to Northampton, to do a little recording in the Pernice Brothers' neck of the woods. It didn't dim the Sparks' trademark sunny harmonies a single bit, and the new disc, Once We Were Trees (Sub Pop), should keep fans of the first one happy until it's time for the next. The disc also helped score the band an opening slot on the Black Crowes' current US tour, which won't hit Boston till later this month but breezes into the Providence Performing Arts Center (401-421-2787) on Saturday. And you can catch the Sparks in the more intimate confines of the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge tonight (Thursday) when they break away from the tour to play a show of their own.

Meanwhile, it appears the alterna-country explosion that's been threatening to erupt for the past half-decade or so has been defused. Both Wilco, the band led by Uncle Tupelo singer/strummer Jeff Tweedy, and Son Volt, the band led by Uncle Tupelo's other singer/strummer, Jay Farrar, have been unloaded by Warner Bros. Farrar is now going it alone as a solo artist, and he's got a disc coming out on Artemis this fall (not to mention a date in Boston later this month). Meanwhile, Tweedy is keeping Wilco together. They've already got a new disc in the can that you can stream via their Web site, wilcoweb.com, until they get a label. And they're on a tour that brings them to Higher Ground (802-654-8888) in Winooski, Vermont, on Sunday, as well as to Avalon (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Tuesday.

After a string of shows in the area in support of The Word, his collaboration with John Medeski and the North Mississippi Allstars, sacred-steel phenom Robert Randolph returns with his own group for shows tonight (Thursday) at the Skinny (207-871-8983) in Portland and at the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Friday.

Velvets-style underground-rock heroes the Strokes escape from New York in support of their RCA debut Is This It?, which has been pushed back a couple weeks so that they can remove their song "New York City Cops," which was deemed unacceptable for post-World Trade Center consumption. The band hit Pearl Street (413-584-7771) in Northampton tonight, Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on Friday, and the Skinny on Saturday. Meanwhile, the expansive prog-rock-inclined Trans Am are on tour with the instrumental death-metal trio the Fucking Champs; both groups are at the Garment District (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Saturday and AS220 (401-861-9190) in Providence on Sunday.