E-Mail This Article to a Friend A hot time in the old town The Fiery Furnaces light up the Paradise, plus Jane Birkin at Berklee and more

Here there be monsters

The Fiery Furnaces’ eagerly awaited sophomore release, Blueberry Boat (Rough Trade/Sanctuary), has just shown up in stores, and it’s a stunner. A warped concept album (we think) about high-seas high jinks, lost dogs, and, uh, the English Premier League? It finds siblings Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger embarking on sonic odysseys that stretch songs toward the 10-minute mark, many of them subdivided into distinct movements. Some critics called the Furnaces’ 2003 debut, Gallowsbird’s Bark (Sanctuary), a roots/garage-revival record, which it really wasn’t. (If the Friedbergers are a garage band, the doors are closed and the motor is running.) On Blueberry Boat, they explode their already expansive musical palette, their knotty song structures breathing and heaving with mind-melting electronic flourishes, their logorrheic wordplay dense with allusion. We’ve given it a couple of spins so far, and we dig the shambling sea chanteys, vertiginous piano minuets, interstellar blues licks, woozy circus calliope, and alliterative Joycean jabberwocky. And that’s just on the surface, but we’re hoping we’ll have the whole thing sussed by the time the Fiery Furnaces arrive at the Paradise, 967 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, on September 10. Tickets are $12; call (617) 931-2000.

Around the world

The long-overdue Boston debut of Francophile legend Jane Birkin tops the fall schedule of World Music, which has just announced its 19-concert, 16-artist season. Birkin, the British-born sex kitten who became the quintessential ‘60s French pop star after meeting, marrying, and serving as Muse to Serge Gainsbourg, has not diminished: this year she released an album of duets featuring Bryan Ferry, Françoise Hardy, and Beth Gibbons. At the Berklee Performance Center on November 13, she’ll perform a set inspired by last year’s Arabesque, a live tribute to her late ex-husband’s work, in which she’ll be backed by a quintet of Algerian, French, and Maghrebian musicians. Among the other World Music highlights: Serbian brass band Boban Markovic and his 10-member Orkestar kicking off the season on September 25 (Somerville Theatre); Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain hosting an evening of Indian classical music (October 2, Sanders Theatre); and the Tuvan singer Yat-Kha performing a live score to V.I. Pudovkin’s 1928 silent Storm over Asia in an evening combining throat singing, traditional instruments, and rock (October 8, Somerville Theatre). Also look for Canadian fiddler Ashley Maclsaac (October 16, Somerville Theatre), the Brazilian dance collective Balé Folclórico da Bahia (October 23, Orpheum Theatre), Israeli star Chava Alberstein (October 24, Berklee Performance Center), the Boston-bred jazz-bluegrass supergroup Wayfaring Strangers (November 6, Somerville Theatre), and former Del Fuego Dan Zanes in family-folk mode (November 13 and 14, Somerville Theatre). For tickets and a full schedule, call (617) 876-4275, or visit www.worldmusic.org

The autumn rhythm

Already a fixture of the winter and summer solstices, Cambridge’s Revels is branching out into the equinoxes. This fall, in collaboration with the Charles River Conservancy, Revels debuts "RiverSing: Bridging the Charles with Voice and Light." Scheduled for Wednesday September 22 (the first full day of fall), the event will deploy dancers, singers, friends of the parklands, and choirs on opposite banks of the Charles in the area upriver from the Weeks Footbridge in Allston and Cambridge. The bridge itself will be illuminated, and a cross-cultural assembly of musicians and dancers including the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band and percussion ensembles from the local Brazilian and Cape Verdean communities will engage in both spontaneous and choreographed performances — including a call-and-response piece "conducted by a larger-than-life puppet with an illuminated baton." It’s free; call (617) 972-8300.

Portsmouth blues

Just an hour or so north of Boston, Portsmouth has been growing one of the country’s best single-day blues festivals. The 19th edition of the fest, set for Saturday August 28 from noon to 8 p.m., promises another stellar and diverse sampling of the best of American roots music. Blues spiritualists the Holmes Brothers top a bill that includes zydeco prince C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band, veteran Chicago bluesman Son Seals, the Band’s Levon Helm with the Music Maker All-Stars featuring Carl Rutherford and Cootie Stark, and the Ken Clark Organ Trio. And it’ll be held at the Red Hook Brewery at the Pease Tradeport — which means plenty of cold beer, and on-site parking, will be available. Call (603) 436-8596 extension 103, or visit www.bluesbankcollective