^Chuckie

FRIDAY 05.28 | CHUCKIE @ Royale

Don't worry, it's not the Chuckie who climbs out of your toybox in the middle of the night and chews your face off. It's Chuckie the lovable Dutch DJ who's been causing outbreaks of jawdrop wherever he spins. Catch the rising star before he takes the party back to the Hague.

It takes balls to open a debut album with the words "we're breaking out," but that's what the band Free Energy recently did on their homonymous debut from DFA Records. It's also how the Philadelphia quintet began last night's show at the Middle East downstairs, plowing through the fuzz-rock song in question ("Free Energy," of course) with abandon and sending the crowd into a minor frenzy.

Getting 10 or 12 four-minute songs ready for pressing is like getting 10 or 12 four-year-olds ready for a party — it takes what feels like forever. So when local pop powerhouse five-piece TAXPAYER found themselves in a particularly fertile stretch — cranking out four songs in as many months, and sharing the burden of songwriting equally for the first time — it didn’t make sense to keep them hanging around.

Chromeo

On sale Wednesday, May 26

Chromeo | July 30 at the House of Blues, Boston | $20 | On sale Wednesday at 10 am

On sale Thursday, May 27

Why? + Josiah Wolf | July 12 at the Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | $12 | On sale Thursday at 10 am

We Are Scientists | July 13 at the Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | $15 | On sale Thursday at 10 am

Well, no, we don't actually know whether ELLEN DEGENERES consciously named her new record label after Come's 1992 breakthrough Eleven: Eleven, but it would be pretty awesome if it turned out to be a tip of the hat from one gay icon to another.

Who'd have thunk that a) Ellen would not suck at being an American Idol judge, and that b) she would out-Simon-Cowell Simon Cowell by independently signing a young star who seems destined to sell more records than any of the Idol contestants?

^{Paul Oakenfold}

THURSDAY 05.20 | SOUNDSCAPE 2010.1 @ Caprice + Underbar

Meet HOWL, a Providence quartet who seek to ruin your face with their particular brand of devastating metal insanity. To that end, they’ve gone and gotten signed to the venerable Relapse label and assembled Full of Hell — a nine-song guided tour through a world in chaotic decline. Take “Heavenless”: its charge of feral drums comes at you like the Four Horsemen, then the guitars rear up and the ground gives way as Vincent Hausman’s hoarse, ungodly roar narrates the collapse.

We did not ever expect to get an email from Kill Rock Stars that had anything to do with GLEE. Then again, we did not ever expect to read a blog post from Le Tigre about Kathleen Hannah writing songs for Christina Aguilera. It's been that kind of month. Don't fight it -- just roll with it.

Above: new video for "Body" from THAO WITH THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN

Gayngs

On sale Friday, May 21

Weezer | July 15 at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, Mashantucket, CT | $55-$65 | On sale Friday at 9 am

Wonder Girls | July 18 at the House of Blues, Boston | $35-$45 | On sale Friday at 10 am

The Big Pink | July 29 at the Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | $15 | On sale Friday at 10 am

"There's a great arena rock show going on out here," said Eddie Vedder to the masses during Pearl Jam's second and final encore Monday night at the TD Garden. He then turned around. "But there's a great club show going on back here." He was addressing the fans seated in the seats behind him - sure, they'd been looking at the band's backs all night, but they were closer to the stage than pretty much anyone else.

ZODIAC MINDWARP AND THE LOVE REACTION have been an inspiration to many generations of rock and roll stars who dress up in leather jackets and scream poems about abuse and outer space to people they want to fuck in the backseat. Alice Cooper has covered their material, Motley Crue stole their look, and Adam Lambert has done both, sort of