Roadtrips

The Donnas -- no longer teenagers but still chock full of teen spirit -- make their big-screen debut as the prom band in the upcoming flick Jawbreaker (starring Marilyn Manson gal pal Rose McGowan). They've got a cover of Alice Cooper's "School's Out" on Rhino's In Their Eyes comp; a tribute to Nashville Pussy bassist Corey Parks entitled "Danger Zone" on an upcoming single; and an album by their metal alter ego the Electrocutes in the works. The gals headline Lookout's CMJ showcase -- also featuring the Smugglers, the Hi-Fives, and the Crumbs -- when it pops north to T.T. the Bear's Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on November 6. The Donnas and Hi-Fives continue on to the Elvis Room (603-436-9189) in Portsmouth on the 11th, as well as the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on the 12th. Also competing for your teenage punk-rock dollar on November 6 are MxPx -- heirs to the Green Day legacy of good-timy, radio-friendly power pop -- at the Palladium (508-797-9696) in Worcester. You catch 'em the day before at the Met Café with underage sensations the Get Up Kids, whose recordings for the Doghouse label reveal them to be amiable Weezer-loving pop romantics. The Kids then move on to headline a superb bill on November 8 with Gameface, the Shyness Clinic, Sarge, and Garrison at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge.

More all-ages mayhem can be found on November TK at St. John's Gym (800-477-6849) in Clinton, where allegedly legendary inferno-industro-anarcho-punx Neurosis headline a Relapse Records marathon with dada-ist math thrashers Converge, skater-bailout heroes Unsane, grindcore luminaries Brutal Truth, and buzzed-about newcomers Dillinger Escape Plan, whose 13-minute EP has set our dogs to eating each other. In a weird pairing, down-to-earth pop-punkers Samiam open for out-of-this-world space-pop dreamers Swervedriver at the Middle East on November 7; Swervedriver move on to the Met Café the following night.

It's also a big week for punk rock from the Great Northwest. Kill Rock Stars publicist Maggie Vail brings her band the Bangs -- think of a cross between the aforementioned Donnas and Sleater-Kinney -- to the Lizard Lounge (617-547-0759) in Cambridge on November 7 along with Sub Pop's high-octane garage punks the Murder City Devils. The Bangs are also playing a sorority house on the Wellesley College campus (781-283-4851) on November 9. You'll have to go to Northampton, though, to catch Calvin Johnson's Dub Narcotic Sound System, who are at Smith College's Davis Ballroom (413-585-4977) on November 8 with D+ and ICU; same goes for dyke-punk rowdies Tribe 8, who are at Pearl Street (413-584-0610) on November 12.

She's not a teenager, though early this year she released an EP of classic '60s girl-group covers from the Phil Spector teen-symphony repertoire. She's not from the Northwest, though we suspect she occupies a ton of record-shelf space up there. But former Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker, who's recently covered the Velvets on a self-released EP, pops up at the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on November 9, as well as at T.T.'s on the 10th.

-- CC