Critic's picks - Rock

David Menconi on the best rock and more

Son Volt will probably never top its 1995 debut "Trace," one of the signpost albums of the mid-'90s alternative-country scare. But "The Search" (Transmit Sound/Legacy Records) is about as close as Jay Farrar's band has ever come. "The Search" has Farrar broadening his guitar-based palette to add punched-up soul horns to "The Picture," and he even drops the name of our very own state into the lyrics of "Methamphetamine" (a nod to old Raleigh hand Brad Rice, the album's lead guitarist?). The chamber-of-commerce types around here won't dig that, but you will. Son Volt plays Saturday at Raleigh's Lincoln Theatre with Kennebec and Balsa Gliders, a Band Together benefit show for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle.

This weekend has a trio of album-release shows from some of the area's finest bands. Jim Brantley's Bull City unveils "Guns & Butter" (Urban Myth Recordings), an album featuring veritable truckloads of killer guitars, tonight at Durham's 305 South. Also in a rocked-up vein is North Elementary's "Berandals" (Pox World Empire), which you can hear tonight at Chapel Hill's Local 506. And finally, Rosebuds give us "Night of the Furies" (Merge Records) Saturday at Carrboro's Cat's Cradle (see page 11).

A highlight of the last night of Raleigh's Kings Barcade last month was the return of the long-gone guitar/drums duo Loners, and they rocked it like they'd never quit. Lucky for us, they're sticking together long enough to play some more shows, including Saturday at RebusFest -- a daylong free music and arts festival at Rebus Works gallery in Raleigh's Boylan Heights.

Tonight: The always-fun Asylum Street Spankers are at Carrboro ArtsCenter; Raleigh's Hideaway BBQ has the strong one-two punch of Scott Miller and Anne McCue; Chip Robinson's Vibekillers bring their reign of terror to Raleigh's Pour House; and singer/songwriter funnyman Robert Earl Keen plays the Lincoln Theatre.

Saturday: Six bands battle it out at Durham's American Tobacco Amphitheatre to decide the winner of the Triangle Corporate Battle of the Bands, with The Old Ceremony as a great closing-act bonus; guitar gurus Johnny Winter and Cyril Lance play the ArtsCenter; and Kaze, recently signed to Rawkus Records, highlights a hip-hop bill at Raleigh's Berkeley Cafe.