Sonic Youth’s forthcoming Sonic Nurse (Geffen, due June 8) isn’t a vast departure from their last few albums, but they’ve reined in the epic jams and locked down a few more (almost) hummable melodies. Thurston Moore brings some of his most elegiac tunes since Psychic Hearts, Lee Ranaldo fires up a keeper in "Paper Cup Exit," and Kim Gordon’s songs are quicker and dirtier and raspier than mostly everything she’s done since Dirty. On "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream," she analyzes Mariah’s breakdown and compares her with Marilyn: "Like Ms. Monroe your head don’t know/Exactly what your body’s doing!" Later this summer, SY will make a return trip to Lollapalooza, but this weekend they headline a benefit for children with autism while also playing peacemaker between the Israel and Palestine of ’90s indie rock — the bill also includes former Dinosaur Jr. bandmates Lou Barlow (with his semi-reunited Sebadoh) and J Mascis. That’s Friday at John M. Greene Hall (413-527-0400) at Smith College in Northampton.

Philly’s Burning Brides get back in black on their forthcoming Leave No Ashes (V2, due June 8); though there’s nothing on the disc that equals the over-the-top thrash of their Buddyhead track "Overhead Metal Erection," the Stooges-esque garage grunge of their Fall of the Plastic Empire has given way to the heavier mettle of Slayer, Samhain, and AC/DC. The new disc is streaming at www.burningbrides.com, and the band open for A Perfect Circle at the Centrum (617-931-2000) in Worcester on Friday.

The Roots, the world’s greatest hip-hop band, just completed a new studio album, The Tipping Point (Geffen, due July 13), and they’re likely to debut new material on their current tour in support of True Notes Vol. 1, the inaugural release on their Okayplayer label, which features tracks from Jean Grae, Aceyalone & Madlib, Blackalicious, and others. The Roots’ tour kicks off Saturday at Tufts University (617-628-5000) before hitting Toad’s Place (203-562-5589) in New Haven on Sunday and Lupo’s at the Strand (401-331-5876) in Providence on Monday. Their pal and former tourmate, former Black Star guru Talib Kweli, got big-upped by Jay-Z on one of The Black Album’s most self-lacerating verses ("If skills sold, truth be told, I’d probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli"). And as Kweli readies his new The Beautiful Struggle (Geffen, due June 22), he’s also hitting the road with gigs Sunday at the Webster Theater (860-525-5553) in Hartford and Monday at the Roxy (617-931-2000) in Boston.

Tape loops aside, Lustre King were among the most rockist of indie-rockers, and that group’s Mike Lust and Jay Dandurand have dropped all indie pretensions in their new band, Tight Phantomz; their debut EP Nightfool (Southern) boasts more Pabst-guzzling, ZZ Top– and Thin Lizzy–style riffs than anything this side of Rye Coalition and the Hold Steady. They open for We Ragazzi at T.T. the Bear’s Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on Sunday and the Space (207-828-5600) in Portland on Monday.