Friday, March 16   10:00 p.m.
Dirty Dog Bar   (505 E 6th St)

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Beginning as a strummer in Cambridge, England�s folk clubs, by the coming of the first punk rock era, Hitchcock had developed into a bandleader, heading up folk-pop iconoclasts the Soft Boys, one of alternative rock�s least sung but most influential bands. Yet by the time R.E.M., the Replacements and pre-alt-rockers like them revealed its influence on their own bands, Hitchcock had moved on to what would become his distinguished solo career. Recording and releasing records like his stark debut, Black Snake Diamond Role, the warm, all-acoustic I Often Dream of Trains and the psychedelicized Groovy Decay � sometimes with and sometimes without his band the Egyptians � Hitchcock would unwittingly help shape the pop strain of contemporary alternative rock.

His newest album, Ole Tarantula, was recorded in Seattle in September 2005 and March 2006. Hitchcock is joined throughout Ole?! Tarantula by the Venus 3 � Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin � old friends who he notes are also �3/4ths of the Minus 5 and half of R.E.M.�

�We sound like a smart garage band, to my ears, when we play live. The record is a little more tidy, but they still rock, and rock me along with them. This is the rockingest record I�ve made in years,� he says.