The Mystechs, knotworking
New Age Cabaret, Thursday

The Mystechs offer “greasy Crisco disco beats and Eskimo-slaughtering rock & roll riffs, with none of that soapy residue that other albums leave in your earhole.” Finally, someone both to rock us and take care of the Eskimo overpopulation problem on Pearl Street. (This is, of course, a gag, all you hasty letter-to-the-editor-writing natives of the Aleutians. We just admire any band willing to take the ridiculous nature of self-pimping to a nonsensical, Mad-Lib level. No actual harm will be inflicted upon Eskimos—we’re pretty sure. Isn’t knotworking an Eskimo band, after all?) Anyway, the self-described court jesters to the new electropunk scene promise to appeal to anyone who shares their love of Ween, Zappa, Bobby Conn and Jaegermeister. Also playing, Albany’s own knotworking. (Sept. 30, 7 PM, 453 N. Pearl St.,
436-3465)

Wanda Jackson, the Lustre Kings
WAMC, Friday

Wanda Jackson has had the kind of career longevity that the pop tarts of today can only dream of, and a title they will never have: America’s First Female Rock & Roll Singer. Beginning as a teen in the 1950s, the Rockabilly Queen has an impressive catalogue of more then 50 albums to her credit. After a stint on the gospel circuit, Jackson is back to doing what she does best: blending gospel, country, and rockabilly, and leaving fans begging for more. Albany’s own Lustre Kings take some time off from “preaching the rockabilly gospel from coast to coast” to support Wanda Friday night when she plays WAMC. (Oct. 1, 8 PM, $22, 465-5233)

Shadows Fall - CD-release party
Saratoga Winners, Saturday

Local drum legend Jason Bittner —veteran of local heroes Stigmata, Burning Human, and Crisis—will make his triumphant return to Albany with his band of (new-metal, not nu-metal) legends-in-the-making Shadows Fall. Shadows Fall’s new album The War Within has been heralded as the standout album amongst the new breed of Gothenburg-death-metal-influenced- American-metal bands that include fellow Massachusetts natives Kill Switch Engage. Coming along for the ride will be the newly focused tech-metalers Candiria, who survived a nearly life-
ending bus crash just in time to take advantage of the surge in metal’s popularity by releasing an album that critics have called “radio friendly.” Also on the bill will be All That Remains and Full Blown Chaos. (Oct. 2 8 PM, $17, Route 9, Latham, 783-1010)

Jordan Knight
Northern Lights, Saturday

A five-step career-assessment checklist for Jordan Knight: Did your big break come along in the form of Svengali producer Maurice Starr and boy-band extraordinaire New Kids on the Block? Check. Did said boy band sell millions upon millions of albums—and action figures, and lunchboxes, and underwear—to prepubescent girls, only to burn out (and fade away) less than four years later? Check. Did you spend the better part of a decade banished to relative obscurity while NSync and the Backstreet Boys went on to sell even more records than you ever dreamed of, not to mention producing blockbuster solo careers for some for their members? Check. Have you all but cemented your status as a B-list celebrity by appearing on VH1’s The Surreal Life? Yup. OK, one last thing: Do you find that whole thing with Flavor Flav and Brigitte Nielsen, like, totally creepy? Totally. This weekend, catch Jordan Knight as he performs songs from his solo LP and (cough) classics from back in the day; Jerry Reid and Greg Raposo of Dreamstreet will open. (Oct. 2, 7:30 PM, $22, 1208 Route 146, Clifton Park, 371-0012)

Music From India
The Egg, Sunday

On Sunday, the Egg hosts a well-staffed celebration of Indian musical styles, featuring the virtuosic double-violinists Shankar and Gingger, the tabla master Zakir Hussein and percussionist Sivamani. The quartet will present traditional ragas (an intensely passionate native form) and, if previous performances are any guide, occasional and humorous nods to non-Indian musical structures as well—how many of you ever heard The William Tell Overture performed on tabla? (Oct. 3, 7 PM, Empire State Plaza, Albany, $24, 473-1845)

Kool Keith
Pearl Street, Monday

Keith Thornton may just be the most name-changingest MC this side of Ol’ Dirty Big Baby McGirt. As a solo artist and collaborator, Keith has recorded under the names Rhythm X, Dr. Octagon, MC Baldylocks, Dr. Dooom, Mr. Gerbik, and Black Elvis, among others. He’s a pretty productive fellow, too. He spent the ’80s and early ’90s as a member of the highly influential group Ultramagnetic MCs; over the last decade, he has recorded more than 20 records, although many of them have been low-key, mix-tape-style affairs that anyone outside of Keith’s inner circle would be lucky to get their hands on. So what brings him ’round these parts now? Well, with any luck, we’ll soon see the release of The Return of Doctor Octagon, the long-awaited, long-delayed follow-up to 1996’s hilarious Dr. Octagonecologyst. In the meantime, there’s Diesel Truckers, Kool Keith’s latest collaboration with longtime beatmaker Kutmasta Kurt. (Oct. 4, 8:30 PM, $17, 10 Pearl St., Northampton, Mass., 413-584-7771)

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