Put together a group with people whose previous bands were called things like Death Wish Kids, Murder City Devils, and Kill Sadie and chances are you’re going to come up with something dark and intense. The Seattle quintet Pretty Girls Make Graves fit the bill, and their latest disc, The New Romance (Matador), is gorgeous to boot. Frontwoman and former beautician Andrea Zollo sings calls-to-arms like "This Is Our Emergency" with an urgency that brings Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker to mind; and her band thunder forward as if they’d taken tips on flash, style, and drama from Fugazi, Blondie, and the Cure. They hit the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Friday and the Met Café (401-861-2142) in Providence on Monday.

Mixing metalheads and Jägermeister is never a good idea (just look at Metallica), but adding Slayer to the mix is practically homicidal. Nonetheless, Slayer headline a Jäger-sponsored tour with Connecticut hardcore heroes Hatebreed (whose new The Rise of Brutality is due on Universal later this month) at the Palladium (800-477-6849) in Worcester on Friday and the State Theatre (207-780-8265) in Portland on Tuesday. At the other end of the metal spectrum, Poison’s Bret Michaels is out in support of a new self-released solo disc, Songs of Life, with gigs at the Webster Theatre (860-525-5553) in Hartford on Sunday and at Axis (617-262-2437) in Boston on Tuesday, the latter opened by local MC5-worshipping agitators Cracktorch, of all people.

Boston’s Soulive, who’ve revived the funky organ trio for a new generation of jazzy-soul heads, have just released a hip-hop remix disc, Turn It Out (Velour); and for their current tour, they’re bringing along Aaron’s son Ivan Neville — who’s carrying the Neville Brothers gospel to a new generation of N’Awlins soul freaks — as a special guest. They’re at Higher Ground (802-654-8888) in Winooski, Vermont, on Tuesday, at Avalon (617-262-2424) in Boston on Wednesday, and at Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (603-929-4100) in New Hampshire next Thursday (October 23).

Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt mainstay Jay Farrar teams up with psychedelic cowboys Canyon as his backing band for tunes from his latest disc, Terroir Blues (Artemis), tonight (October 16) at the Middle East, on Saturday at Pearl Street (413-584-7810) in Northampton, and on Sunday at Higher Ground. And though you won’t get an itinerary like this from AAA, the road from North Carolina to NYC’s CMJ Music Marathon goes through New England this week — at least for indie-pop faves the Kingsbury Manx, who play the Middle East on Monday and the Iron Horse (413-584-0610) in Northampton on Tuesday, and Superchunk, who hit the Middle East on Tuesday.