Almost every garage-punk outfit of the past 15 years owes a debt to Mick Collins's gritty Motor City trio the Gories, who drew up a crude roadmap on how to kick ass without a bass player that's been followed by everyone from Jon Spencer to Jack "White Stripes" White. The latest and greatest in a long line of Collins projects, the Dirtbombs make up for lost time by including two basses -- not to mention two drumsets. The group's 2001 release Ultraglide in Black (In the Red) takes that bottom-heavy recipe to school on wild golden-age soul and funk nuggets by Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Gamble & Huff, Smokey Robinson, and Barry White, plus obscurities ranging from "I'll Wait," by George Clinton's pre-P-Funk group the Parliaments, to the post-Thin Lizzy Phil Lynott tune "Ode to a Black Man." Tonight (March 21), the Dirtbombs are at the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Boston with the Itchies; tomorrow they're at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge with surrealist druggabillies Speedball Baby and scuzz-blues ladies Mr. Airplane Man.

What's more, Dirtbombs sideman Jim Diamond recorded Mooney Suzuki's new Electric Sweat (Gammon) at his Ghetto Recorders studio in Detroit, supplying the NYC mods with the same incredibly distinctive '70s wreck-room pre-punk fuzzbomb ambiance that he gave Motor City madmen the Go on their '99 freakout Watcha Doin' (Sub Pop). Catch the Mooneys on Friday at T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-Bear) in Cambridge and on Saturday at Station 58 (860-443-5858) in New London, where they headline a fundraiser for Connecticut College radio station WCNI.

Two-thirds of Love & Rockets -- or half of Bauhaus, if you like -- are in the area this week, though not together. David J and Daniel Ash both have new product out -- the former a brief EP, the latter a homonymous solo album -- and they'll be promoting same separately. But just barely: on Tuesday, Ash plays the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston while David J plays the Skinny (207-871-8983) in Portland; David makes it to the Paradise himself the following Sunday, March 31. Locals Mistle Thrush open both of J's New England dates.

Rap-rock remainders 311 play the State Theater (207-780-8265) in Portland on Tuesday with Hoobastank; the same bill has sold out the Worcester Palladium (800-477-6849) next Saturday, March 30. The "Sno-Core Icicle Ball," originally scheduled for Avalon, has been downgraded to a light dusting at the Paradise on Wednesday, with Spearhead and Paul Williams; but you can catch the full assault -- Spearhead, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Nikka Costa, and Blackalicious -- at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence this Friday. Fat Wreck punks the Lawrence Arms are at Buzz (617-267-8689) in Boston on Sunday and at the El-N-Gee (860-437-3800) in New London on Monday. Tonight (March 21), new-wavy NYC art punks the Realistics are at Flywheel (413-527-9800) in Easthampton; on Sunday they're at the Middle East with the Bay Area punk supergroup the Pattern. And author Steven Blush gives a reading from his new 1980-'86 history American Hardcore at Flywheel on Friday, with help from Close Call, Dragnet, and Holding On.