Since the synthesizer became popular, the vast majority of rock bands have topped out at quartets, so it's no surprise that few bands in the '80s or the '90s have been able to replicate the swoon you'd hear on albums from the '70s -- the breath-like swell of pianos and horns and guitars falling in together, sweeping songs and listeners right off their feet. Chicago's Boas learned to play by studying the classics -- Neil Young, the Band, Bowie, Let It Bleed-era Stones -- and if they sound gloriously anachronistic, that's in part because they're a five-piece who brought in a horn section to help out on their excellent debut, Mansion (Overcoat). Before the album's release, they toured with both Wilco and the Warlocks, and the disc has excellent examples of the former's loose, elegant austerity and a more understated take on the latter's '60s-ish psychedelic pop. On tour with fellow Windy City residents 90 Day Men, Boas are at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Saturday and at the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on Sunday. Meanwhile, Chicagoland's brightest indie label is sending its most famous export, former Palace frontman Will Oldham, who's out in his Bonnie Prince Billy guise behind a new album called Master and Everyone (Drag City). He's at the Middle East on Friday, the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton, Massachusetts on Saturday, and Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on Sunday.

Even the honor of playing Plant, Bonham, and Jones to Jimmy Page couldn't keep the Black Crowes from a family-feud meltdown, and so the Brothers Robinson have gone their separate ways . . . for now, at least. Chris is fronting a solo band called New Earth Mud; Rich has picked up the singer and bassist from the Crowes' last opening band -- a Britpop band called Moke -- and formed Hookah Brown. The latter will be drawing on an album's worth of new tunes, plus a few Crowes covers, when they hit the Iron Horse tonight, January 30, and the House of Blues (491-BLUE) in Cambridge on Friday.

In their previous incarnation, the Moistboyz were an excuse for Mickey Moist -- better known by his other rock alias, Dean Ween -- to replace Ween's inoffensively goofy shtick with a humorlessly offensive shtick that had already been done unfunnier, and more offensively, by Anal Cunt, not to mention Insane Clown Posse. In the wake of two pseudo-rap-metal discs for the Beastie Boys' defunct Grand Royal label, the duo have rebounded with what Ween fans can only hope is a satirical white-trash sleaze-metal album titled III for Mike Patton's Ipecac label. They're on tour with Ween bassist Dave Dreiwitz's retarded hardcore band Instant Death; on that duo's recent New Evil Vibe, the songs veer between amusing 30-second outbursts and excruciating Sabbath jams. The Moistboyz and Instant Death are at Higher Ground (802-654-8888) in Winooski, Vermont, on Friday and at T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on Saturday.