THE VASELINES, DUM DUM GIRLS(Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell) When the Vaselines reunited for a few shows last year, it came off more as a genuine desire to play those old songs again than a simple cash grab. "Playing electric guitar again is fantastic," guitarist Eugene Kelly told me in an interview. "I've missed making a racket." That said, I didn't see a new record in the Scotland duo's future (should I have?). But Sex with an X is here, picking up right where 1990's Dum-Dum left off. Kelly and fellow core member Frances McKee still know how to dish up simple (and effective) jangle-pop songs that are sexed up and snotty (and not at all twee). One thing is certain: The Vaselines' bare-bones pop is of an ilk that never really goes out of vogue, even though I think the members might be milking it at this point. ML
THE MIGRANT, THE MORALS, RIVERBANKS(Rontoms, 600 E Burnside) Bjarke Bendtsen is the Migrant, a Scandinavian folk singer working in American idioms—like First Aid Kit or the Tallest Man on Earth, if you need to draw direct comparisons. But Bendtsen is Danish, and his music is warmer and sloppier than his Swedish counterparts. The Migrant's debut, Travels in Lowland, is a freewheeling collection of excellent pop-folk recorded, in Bendtsen's own words, "with some hippie Copenhageners at a summerhouse in Lolland, which is by the southern Danish coast." It has Basement Tapes charm delivered with In the Aeroplane Over the Sea urgency, and Bendtsen has been taking his pseudonym to heart: He spent a large part of the past few years journeying around the States with only a guitar and a suitcase. The ramshackle charm of his debut will no doubt carry through to this show, and he may have a few extra Migrants in tow as well. NED LANNAMANN
Complete show listings can be viewed here.