The other brother

Even the honor of playing Plant, Bonham, and Jones to Jimmy Page couldn’t keep the Black Crowes from a family-feud meltdown, and so the Brothers Robinson have gone their separate ways ... for now. (We’re guessing they’ll kiss and make up just in time to open for the rumored Zeppelin reunion later this year.) Both Chris and Rich Robinson are touring new bands; Chris Robinson came through town last month with his solo group New Earth Mud, proving that in the divorce, he was awarded the Stones records, while the title of brother Rich Robinson’s new band Hookah Brown seems to suggest that he got stuck with the Dead bootlegs. We’ll confirm our suspicions — or refute them — when Hookah Brown play the House of Blues, 96 Winthrop Street, in Harvard Square, on January 31. It’s a 10 p.m. show, and tickets are $16. Call (617) 491-BLUE.

"Hot Stove, Cool Music"

Now that the winter meetings are history, ESPN hardball guru Peter Gammons is gearing up for his annual Jimmy Fund benefit at the Paradise, 969 Comm Ave, in Boston, on January 15. Gammons MCs and raffles off some choice sports merch and memorabilia, with sets from a bunch of local pop stars. The only rule for the gig seems to be that at least one former member of Letters to Cleo has to be on stage at all times. On deck this year: Kay Hanley, Bill Janovitz (appearing not with Buffalo Tom but with a new band, Crown Victoria, including former Letters drummer Tom Polce), and Stacy Jones’s American Hi-Fi (featuring the guy Polce replaced). Tickets are $20; call (617) 423-NEXT.

RolL over Beethoven

In its latest collaboration, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company teams with the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center for a trio of new works featuring Lincoln Center’s string-quartet-in-residence, the Orion String Quartet. On the program for their engagement at the Wang Center later this month are three Boston premieres: Verbum (2002), choreographed to Beethoven’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135; World II (2002), to selections by Gyorgy Kurtág; and Black Suzanne (2002), to Dmitri Shostakovich’s Prelude and Scherzo for String Octet, Op. 11, for which the Orion will be joined by the Chamber Music Society Two. The Orion also gets its own moment in the spotlight, with an interlude during which they’ll play further excerpts from the Ravel String Quartet in F Major. Performances are January 17 at 7:30, January 18 at 8 p.m., and January 19 at 3 p.m. at the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont Street, in Boston. Tickets are $42 to $65; call (617) 482-6661.

Expensive winos

We suppose we should be flattered that the "nation’s largest consumer wine event" takes place hereabouts, but then again, what are they trying to say: that Boston’s a town fulla drunks? Would they be wrong? One thing’s for sure: you won’t find any Night Train at the 12th annual Boston Wine Expo, which takes place February 1 and 2 at the World Trade Center and the Seaport Hotel. Along with international wine experts, celebrity chefs from the Food Network (though none, apparently, of the Iron variety), a cigar lounge (if such a thing hasn’t been outlawed yet), and an Austrian Vintner’s Dinner, the main attraction is the "Grand Tasting," a concourse featuring nearly 2000 wines from 440 wineries in 18 countries. If you get your tickets before January 24, they’ll run you $60 for a single day, or $82 for both. Call (877) 946-3976.