Since finding a home a few years back on Mike Patton's Ipecac label, toxic-sludge kings the Melvins have been given free rein to do whatever the hell they please. And they sure haven't wasted the opportunity. Release a three-album trilogy in the span of nine months? Sure. Follow it up with a "live" improvisational album? No problem. Follow that with a live document of a one-off performance that had the Melvins on stage with Patton's Fantomas at the same time? You got it. The Melvins are currently out in support of yet another new disc, Hostile Ambient Takeover. And they're touring with new labelmates Isis -- Boston's own heaviest band in the universe. Ipecac will release Isis's Oceanic, which features guest spots from 27's Ayl Naor and Maria Christopher and marks a bit of a departure from their past efforts, later this year. Both bands hit Toad's Place (203-562-5589) in New Haven on Sunday; Higher Ground (802-654-8888) in Winooski, Vermont, on Monday; the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on Tuesday; and the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Wednesday.

Pervert, provocateur, stylistic gadfly, producer of massive Japanese pop hits and of underground obscurities everywhere else, theorist, essayist, and frightfully clever singer-songwriter, the artist known to the world as Momus and to his mother as Nick Currie has added "Label Boss" to his résumé and headed out on tour with three bands signed to his brand-spanking-new American Patchwork imprint. He'll bring along the Super Madrigal Brothers ("electro-Elizabethan glitch-folk"), the Gongs, and Phiiliip to the Iron Horse Music Hall (413-584-0610) in Northampton on Friday and to T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on Saturday.

In several other markets, Simple Minds and INXS are teaming up for what amounts to a back-to-the-Breakfast-Club-era '80s mini-revival. Each will have a night at Avalon (617-423-NEXT) in Boston: Simple Minds on Tuesday and the post-Michael Hutchence INXS on Wednesday. INXS are also at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (603-929-4100) in New Hampshire next Saturday, June 29. Teutonic power-ballad specialists, smoky-water stoner-rock godfathers, and the man who replaced Ozzy in Sabbath: Scorpions, Deep Purple, and Dio hit the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on Wednesday and Meadowbrook Farm Musical Arts Center (603-293-4700) in Gilford, New Hampshire, next Friday, June 28.

Melissa Etheridge is at the Tweeter Center tonight (Thursday June 20) and at Meadows Music (203-265-1501) in Hartford on Sunday. Jewel brings along the Norwegian jailbait-pop duo M2M for gigs Sunday at FleetBoston Pavilion (617-931-2000) and Tuesday at the Oakdale Theatre (203-265-1501) in Wallingford, Connecticut. Gospel legends the Blind Boys of Alabama play the House of Blues (617-491-BLUE) in Cambridge tonight (Thursday June 20) and the Pioneer Valley Blues Festival at Three County Fair Ground (413-584-2237 extension 113) in Northampton on Saturday.