We almost cornered Chad Hugo, the quiet Neptune, by phone last week, but he slipped off to the studio before taking our call. Fair enough: he’s a busy man, and in demand. Ghetto freaks bump Neptunes tracks in Jeeps; skateboardy white kids worship them like the devil. The Neptunes’ Star Trak Presents . . . Clones (Star Trak) compilation just debuted at #1; Hugo protégé Kenna is about to become a star; and the Neptunes’ live-band incarnation, N.E.R.D., is headlining a soft-drink-sponsored summer tour while simultaneously attempting to record its next album, which is tentatively titled Fly or Die. We would’ve reminded Hugo that N.E.R.D.’s first-ever appearance was at a Phoenix event at Axis, for which he and Pharrell Williams wheeled themselves on stage on BMX bikes and brought out a dozen strippers in George W. Bush masks. In any case, N.E.R.D. join the Roots, O.A.R., Talib Kweli, and dancehall legend Supercat at the Tweeter Center (617-931-2000) in Mansfield on Monday.

Junior modfather Ted Leo has a new mini-LP, Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead (Lookout!), due next month that includes a tip of his hat to the Jam with a version of their "Ghosts." And Leo’s out on a solo tour that’s upstairs at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Friday — the same day that tickets go on sale to senior modfather Paul Weller’s October 24 gig at Avalon — as well as at AS220 (401-831-9327) in Providence on Saturday. Former Spinanes frontwoman Rebecca Gates opens both shows. A bassist for the Replacements before he was a replacement in Guns N’ Roses, Tommy Stinson bashes and pops his way through old faves and new solo material on a tour with the Figgs and local boy Jake Brennan that hits the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on Friday and the Middle East on Saturday. Stone-age fuzz kings Nebula have a new disc, Atomic Ritual (Liquor and Poker Records), and a tour with garage-soul queen Lisa Kekaula’s group the BellRays; both bands are downstairs at the Middle East on Friday and at the Met Café on Saturday.

A full year and change after the release of their magnum opus, Surrounded by Thieves (Relapse), former Sleep guitarist Matt Pike’s woolly-mammoth doom-metal outfit High on Fire are still on the road. This time out, they’re opening for the world’s goofiest hesher, Andrew W.K., who unleashed another round of heavy-metal show-tuneage last week with his new The Wolf (Island/Def Jam). They’re at Pearl Street (413-584-7810) in Northampton on Friday. And Andrew’s spiritual forebear, the great David Lee Roth, brings tunes from his cover-heavy new Diamond Dave (Magna Carta) and, we hope, a handful of Van Halen classics to the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester on Monday.