Roadtrips

We're Solids (Suicide Squeeze/Up!), the new seven-song EP by the Seattle guitar-drums duo 764-HERO, offers lots of great smashed-relationship, dulled-heart detritus like "I can get ya up but I won't bother/Anyway, you wonder if you'll get to the point where no one's worth having around." John Atkins (the guitar/vox half) plays the tortured ex-boyfriend guy as emocore-boy trying really hard not to scream, and he's got the melodically depressoid, angst-damaged, indie-scrawl anti-chops to back it up. ("Slint out-mope the Cure" is a felonious overgeneralization, but you get the idea.) One-upping Bob Mould on Hüsker Dü's "Hardly Getting Over It" is Atkins on the final, acoustic "Stutter Steps": "Getting over it is overrated." The Heroes are on a tour with labelmates Modest Mouse -- who play guitar in the zithery manner of sparkplugs exploding -- that brings them to the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge with Wicked Farleys and the Puddle Jumpers tonight (October 30), and the Met Cafe (401-861-2142) in Providence on November 3.

Not that they aren't scary enough as it is, but the cover photo of Six Finger Satellite's first album -- the plastic-eyeball guys from the '50s sci-fi schlocker Killers from Space on The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird -- will always make them something of a Halloween favorite. And they're happy to oblige this year at O'Brien's (617-782-6245) in Allston on October 30 and headline a costume party with Men's Recovery Project, Arab on Radar, Lightning Bolt, A Stoveboat, and Landed at the Living Room (401-521-5200) in Providence on the 31st. The Jesus Lizard's second album for Capitol (produced by Gang of Four's Andy Gill) is in the can and will hit stores next spring; in the meantime, they're doing a string of dates with new labelmates Verbena that stops at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on November 1 with Quintaine Americana and November 4 at the Met Café. Stereolab bring the German duo Mouse on Mars -- who produced a coupe of tracks on Stereolab's Dots and Loops (Elektra) and have used that group's Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen on vocals in the past -- for a couple of dates, including an all-ages show at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-LUPO) in Providence on November 6 and the Paradise (617-562-8800) in Boston on November 7.

After you check out our piece about what's going on upstairs at Ryles with Portland's lesbionic rock scene (see page 20), you can take a field trip to check out one of Olympia's most talked-about bands, the Need, an electro-punk tag team with a new debut -- Need -- out on Chainsaw. They'll play an all-ages matinee this Sunday afternoon, November 2, at the Smith College Field House, then haul ass to make it to Ryles (617-876-9300) by nightfall.

-- CC