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[Roadtripping]
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Our vote for best eight-minute song of the year goes to the Stratford 4, whose new Love and Distortion (Jetset) puts the wallop back into swirling, Brit-inspired psychedelia. " Telephone, " the disc’s centerpiece, isn’t even its longest tune — the closing " Swim into It " manages nine and a half going on forever — and the conversation it depicts has one caller name-checking Spacemen 3, Primal Scream, T. Rex, and Belle and Sebastian while the respondent cautions, " Don’t forget Bob Dylan, and don’t forget the Stones. " The Stratford 4, who sound like a more frenzied San Francisco version of the Soundtrack of Our Lives, don’t: their " Kleptophilia " includes an inspired cop of " Like a Rolling Stone " ( " How does it feel?/When there’s something to steal? " ). As a lyricist, singer/guitarist Chris Streng is clever and insightful enough to hold his own with the novelistic emo-noir singer-songwriter David Bazan, whose Pedro the Lion are headlining a bill that brings the Stratford 4 to Pearl Street (413-584-7810) in Northampton on Saturday and to the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Monday.

Only the Pacific Northwest could’ve yielded a diva like Nomy Lamm: an oft-published neo-feminist scholar with an indie-punk solo album who’s also co-written a blistering rock opera (The Transfused). And that was before her new Effigye (Yo-Yo Records), an album with more bounce to the ounce than Har Mar Superstar’s while managing to rhyme in Hebrew and mention Prince in the same song. Nomy’s on the lam with Juha, who are, according to their press, a queer Palestinian hip-hop duo from Hawaii. (Top that, Kofi.) They’re at T.T. the Bear’s Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on Sunday; at AS220 (401-831-9327) in Providence on Monday; and at Flywheel (413-527-9800) in Northampton next Thursday, May 8.

On Tuesday, AS220’s " Quiet Music Series " brings in Alan Sparhawk of slo-core faves Low; he’s also at the Coolidge Corner Theatre (617-734-2500) in Brookline on Monday. The husband-and-wife duo Elizabeth Mitchell and Dan Littleton, of Ida fame, follow up at AS220 next Thursday, May 8. Liz and Dan both have new solo albums: hers is You Are My Sunshine, her second folk album for children; his is an instrumental disc, Down by the Riverside (both on their own Last Affair label). And a duo album is said to be in the works.

Elsewhere, Cher plays the Worcester Centrum (617-931-2000) on Friday, and Ministry are around the corner at the Palladium (800-477-6849) that same night; Al Jourgensen and crew also hit the Webster Theatre (860-525-5553) in Hartford on Saturday. Dave Matthews plays an acoustic set with guitarist Tim Reynolds at the Mullins Center at UMass-Amherst (413-545-0505) on Monday. And former Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford’s " Metal Gods " extravaganza takes over the Webster Theatre tonight (Thursday, May 1) and the Palladium on Sunday.

BY CARLY CARIOLI

Issue Date: May 2 - 8, 2003
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