MyPop8 Tour

Northern Lights, Thursday

AfrazMusic, a music pro motion and production company based partially in the Capital Region, has presented a series of MySpace-themed tours over the last couple years, under the MyTop8 Tours banner. Tonight’s show is a variation on a theme, of sorts, as the tour has been dubbed the MyPop8 Tour. The lineup purports to bring some of the best young (i.e. Radio Disney-young), national singing talent together on one stage, and while it sounds like a collection of whozits and whatnows, we’ve no doubt that we will be hearing these names again in the not-so-distant future. Scheduled performers include Playback, Tawny, Bre, Nu-Tren, Scandalez, Monet, and Joey Page; the show is hosted by R&B crooner and AfrazMusic founder Frazier. (March 15, 7:30 PM, $10, 1208 Route 146, Clifton Park, 371-0012).

Melvin Sparks

Red Square, Thursday

You might say that the music of Melvin Sparks is acid jazz, or you might call it groove jazz, or you might even be one of the folks who think of it as BBQ funk. Classifications aside, Melvin Sparks has been playing guitar on stage for more than 30 years, and he’s still hip enough to bring his “boogaloo-stylings” to Albany for a show at Red Square. Beyond his own seven albums, Sparks has played guitar on more than a hundred other jazz records produced at Blue Note and Prestige Records. By recording so profusely, some say, he helped define the sound of modern jazz. Throughout the years he’s also slapped his strings with jazz legends like Lou Donaldson and David “Fathead” Newman. Tonight (Thursday), he and his touring band will perform with local funk-groove-jazz outfit Pungee. (March 15, 8 PM, $8, 388 Broadway, Albany, 273-0038)

The Colour

Valentine’s, Sunday

Great—another British band trying to capitalize on the rock revival trend. Yeah, we hear the affected vocal, the classic-rock guitar sounds, yadda yadda yadda, but what are these guys really bringing to the table that Primal Scream don’t already? (When they’re not playing the glitchy paranoid-techno card.) What’s that? These guys are from Los Angeles? Well that makes everything better, because they kinda sound like the Killers sometimes, and we thought they were British too. Silly Americans. The Colour will stage an exile on New Scotland Avenue when they take the downstairs stage at Valentine’s on Sunday; prized local acts the Luxury Flats and Kitty Little open. (March 18, 7:30 PM, $5, 17 New Scotland Ave., Albany, 432-6572)

The Autumn Defense

The Autumn Defense

Iron Horse Music Hall, Wednesday

The Autumn Defense are the side project of Wilco multi-instrumentalists John Stirratt and Pat Sansone. The Washington Post says that “the lineup is reminiscent of Wilco, but with more tranquil musical timbres.” The group are touring in support of their new self-titled album, which was released mid-January. The Defense describe their sound as “gentle tunes dipped in honey-sweet harmonies,” a sound reminiscent of Neil Young and Cat Stevens. The group will play Northampton this week; also on the bill are Jenifer Jackson and the Singleman Affair. (March 21, 8:30 PM, $15, 20 Center St., North-ampton, Mass., 413-584-0610)

Bruce Cockburn

The Egg, Wednesday

Here’s a name you don’t hear so often. Bruce Cockburn, the Ontario-born singer-songwriter, has been following his muse for 35 or so years. His is a song catalog of striking depth and variety, even for someone who’s been in the game as long as he has. And good news: He’s still turning out albums every year or two, including 2006’s Life Short, Call Now. And the composer of such popular hits as “Wondering Where the Lions Are” and “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” will offer a treat to his assembled followers when he takes to the Swyer Theater stage this week: The concert will be a solo acoustic affair, just like the old days. (March 21, 7:30 PM, $24, Empire State Plaza, Albany, 473-1845)

Clutch

Northern Lights, Wednesday

Some people would like to pretend that Germantown, Md.’s Clutch are a hard band to pigeonhole. After more than 20 years of being together as a band, and having released more than 10 albums, the band would still like to lend some ambiguity to what they are doing. Their bio reads, “They’re a little punk? Well, yes, but there again . . . they’ve a hint of metal?” We don’t have so much trouble slapping a label on Clutch. You would be hard-pressed to find any band more reliant on the straightforward sludgeness of classic Black Sabbath. Thankfully, it would be just as difficult to find a band who use that Sabbath influence in more creative ways than Clutch manage to. As a result we like to refer to Clutch as Sabbathtastic. (March. 21, 7 PM, $18, 1208 Route 146, Clifton Park, 371-0012)

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