Wednesday
Raleigh
Lucinda Wiliams
N.C. Museum of Art
The most worthwhile praise comes from your peers. How’s this for love: Almost all the songs on Lucinda Williams’ self-titled third album have been recorded by other artists, a group ranging from Tom Petty and Mary Chapin Carpenter to the Silos and the Triangle’s own Tres Chicas. Seventeen years down the road from that near-perfect record and Williams continues to impress and inspire. “Memphis hoodoo/blues singer” (using David Fricke’s words) Rob Jungklas opens. This shindig starts at 8 p.m. and costs $18. —Rick Cornell

Thursday
Chapel Hill
Holly Golightly
Local 506
Golightly got her start in Thee Headcoatees, a girl group/proto-garage rock act from the early ’90s, and she retains a similar aesthetic with loping, organ-fueled garage-blues ballads that play on her sultry vocals. But don’t miss the openers! Tom Heinl is an off-beat character with a Lee Hazlewood croon and a karaoke machine. He may be the Jonathan Richman of country, penning teary honky-tonk with a guileless honesty and spot-on observational wit that recalls S.C.O.T.S. Palomar is a punchy, infectious girl group owing its allegiance to ’90s indie-pop acts such as Velocity Girl, Beat Happening and Small Factory. Here’s one of the better top-to-bottom lineups of the summer, the kind of show that’ll win over even those unfamiliar with the bands. Get to rockin’ at 10 p.m.; pay $8. –Chris Parker

Friday
Carrboro
Heiroglyphics, Boom Bap Project
Cat’s Cradle
If you cop out for food or drinks during Boom Bap Project’s opening set, I predict–nay, I promise!–you’ll be ho-hum and downtrodden when you turn to a pal in three years and ask, “Wait, didn’t we miss them three years ago opening for Hiero?” BBP hails from the Pacific North-portion of the West Coast, adding an infectiousness concurrently sported by Little Brother and Dilated Peoples to smartly arranged dexterous two-men flips. Subjects include Jimi Hendrix, Big Brother, asses with labels and mixtapes, and idly imitating idols, and those rhymes–plus guest spots from Gift of Gab, Grayskul and DJ Vin Roc–combine for one of the best hip-hop albums this year. Non Phixion and OC from the legendary D.I.T.C. crew opens, and Oakland’s multi-flow fellas of The Hieroglyphics headline. $15 gets you in at 9:30 p.m. –Grayson Currin

Raleigh
Alfred Hitchcock Weekend
N.C. Museum of Art
Is there any term of abuse more grating than when people compliment some piece of cinematic hackery by calling it “Hitchcockian”? The Museum of Art is showing the real thing this weekend with two of Sir Alfred’s finest and most popular efforts. Appropriately enough in this summer of marching penguins and beatnik parrots, Friday night’s offering will be The Birds, starring Tippi Hedren and a cast of thousands. Saturday night, the screen will be turned over to Vertigo, Hitchcock’s 1958 masterpiece of psycho-necrophiliac obsession, with Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak and the city of San Francisco. Films start at 9 p.m. and tickets are $3. –David Fellerath

Saturday
Carrboro
The Ghost of Rock
Reservoir
What a farewell lineup for the very-much alive Ghost of Rock: Ron Liberti, Clifton Lee Mann, Rock Forbes and Jeff Clarke. TGOR’s eponymous debut appeared just over a year ago, and they’re bowing out with a rock fire still burning strong. Expect guttural guitar songs shrieked and scowled with bits of Iggy’s bark and The MC5’s bite. Transportation–one of the finest bunch of rock ‘n’ roll melody makers in any American town–open, followed by The Dynamite Brothers, a full-on soul, rock ‘n’ roll trio playing as well as they ever have. —Grayson Currin

Raleigh and Durham
Home movie day
NCSU and Duke
Just as audiophiles continue to hoard their vinyl in defiance of the iPod world, cinephiles continue to promote the preservation of celluloid. For the second year running, campus groups will be sponsoring Home Movie Day, in which all area residents are encouraged to recover those old 8mm and Super 8mm reels and bring them in for semi-public viewing. The atmosphere is low-key, but be warned: There may be some people standing around to see you in your prom outfit from 1985. In Raleigh, go to the basement of Caldwell Hall on the NCSU campus, rooms G111 and G107 at 2221 Hillsborough St., between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. In Durham, go to the Perkins Library Rare Books room between 1 and 4 p.m. For more info, including a statement of support from Martin Scorsese, go to www.homemovieday.com. –David Fellerath

Sunday
Raleigh
Big Noise from Springfield Tour
The Pour House
Looking for a music hero? You could do a hell of a lot worse than Lou Whitney. He cut his teeth in soul bands in the Midwest, occasionally backing Arthur Conley of Sweet Soul Music fame. Since ’82, he’s played bass in the Morells and the Skeletons (the difference is the drummer, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel once explained), a pair of pure-rocking outfits who’ve released a handful of their own records when not backing Jonathan Richman, Syd Straw, Steve Forbert, Boxcar Willie and other cult heroes. Whitney’s the common denominator when it comes to the acts that make up the Big Noise from Springfield (as in Missouri) touring fleet–the aforementioned Morells, the R&B-leaning Bel Airs, the Domino Kings, and former Domino King Brian Capps–having produced or co-produced new records from all four. Show starts at 7 p.m. and costs $10. –Rick Cornell

Monday
Raleigh
Stoll Vaughn
The Pour House
Vaughn had a six-month stint in emo quintet Chamberlain in the late ’90s, but it’s apparent his heart lies elsewhere. The nephew of John Mellencamp’s guitarist Mike Wanchic (who also produced his debut, Hold on Thru Sleep & Dreams), Vaughn works similar territory mining understated rootsy pop that’s very similar in tone to Mason Jennings and underrated Nashville singer/songwriter Doug Hoekstra. Vaughn’s full-bodied baritone fills out the space of his burbling folk arrangements, while his vocal phrasing is in definite thrall of pre-electric Dylan. He’s been holding down a choice gig all summer opening for Mellencamp and Fogerty on their stadium tour. For $5, you get two sets starting at 8 p.m. –Chris Parker

Tuesday
Raleigh
Summer of Rock Tour
Lincoln Theatre
All genres have their high and low moments. I’ll leave it to you which Limp Bizkit was, but suffice to say the latest generation’s got something different to say. Brand New Sin reflects one aspect of the new metal zeitgeist in their embrace of Motorhead chug and a vocal delivery more indebted to Soundgarden than Alice in Chains. New York’s Giraffes lean indie-side with versatility reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age, morphing from math-rock-ish blasts to a subdural throb like C.O.C. New Orleans’ Supagroup resurrects AC/DC’s arena rock roar, working catchy, straightforward guitar hooks and jabs, and Dog Faced Gods are an act you catch by mistake and wonder how it is no one’s there. Their blend of alt-metal and classic AOR riffage isn’t groundbreaking, but it is delivered with singular intensity. $8 gets you bangin’ at 9 p.m. –Chris Parker

8-Minute Dating
Damon’s Grill
Fellow Triangulators, has the toil of singles bars and looking for last-minute hook-ups taken it out of you? Are you tired of spending all night standing in a smoky bar, sipping insipid drinks, eventually going home alone and flummoxed? Well, rejoice, long-faced Raleighites! Now you can cram hours of clumsy conversations and awkward silences into an 8-Minute Date, the national phenomenon that returns to the Triangle tonight at 7 p.m. Single (not married) professionals (not amateurs) only. See www.8minutedating.com for more.

Wednesday next
Raleigh
Valient Thorr Video Shoot
Kings
After spending Monday afternoon beneath the sun and occasional deluge of Charlotte’s stop on the Warped Tour, I can confirm the buzz that’s been circulated by several onlookers nationwide: Valient Thorr–five Venusian extraterrestrials who call North Carolina their home away from home–are as exciting and energetic as any other band on the hundred-act bill. They’ll be filming their debut music video with the Bifocal Media crew today and tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and you’re invited. How else ya’ gonna get on MTV2, man? Plus, free beer. –Grayson Currin

Chapel Hill
Owen Lee Retrospective
Bleecker Street Gallery
If you can’t make the Friday, Aug. 12 opening reception for this 40-year Owen Lee retrospective featuring the sounds of Work Clothes, it will be worthwhile to spend an hour or so with the late Floridian’s art on a weekday. A self-proclaimed creator of “anti-art” and a fascinating eccentric, Lee was an outsider folk artist using found supplies to make topical, modern, sometimes enigmatic comments on the world outside of his seafaring existence and daily diet of coffee and cigarettes. The gallery is open today from noon until 5 p.m.