Weekly Music Picks: Independence Edition

It's a good week to take the whole week off. Well, is there such a thing as a bad week to take off? Grilled meats will be invading your pores for the first time in such a heavy dose since Memorial Day, which was only about a month ago. In addition to this weeks picks for some of the great shows creeping up on us in Boston we'd like to point you over to a little fifty state musical roundup on the internets. Trees lounge has gotten 23 states done in the 50 state project. Celebrate your independence my checking out some Massachusetts themed tunes (some of them are pretty borderline on the whole "theme" but we'll cut him some slack for finding 60 songs with MP3s to download)

Monday 7/3
Religious Knives & Zodiac Mountain
Mostly-instrumental spaciness from noisy, psychadelic jam bands based in Brooklyn and Knoxville/Madison, respectively. I guess we'd listen to a lot of Hawkwind, too, if we lived in Knoxville/Madison.
Axiom Gallery, Inman Square
8:30 pm, $7
Religious Knives: myspace
Zodiac Mountain: Road Star Blues .mp3

Tuesday 7/4
Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular
After living on the edge Keith Lockheart will take all that nasty gel out of his hair and put the good tux back on. The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra will take to the Hatch Shell to play the standards of the Fourth of July celebration. The Independence day spectacular will feature Aerosmith members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. Rockapella, Renese King, and Idol wannabe Ayla Brown will also take the stage. Do not, and we repeat, do not watch this on television. Dr. Phil is hosting – which makes even sitting on the esplanade proximate to any of the speakers a painful endeavor.
DCR Hatch Shell, the Esplanade Boston, and roof decks and porches throughout Back Bay and the South End.
Concert at 8:30 p.m. Fireworks at 10:30 p.m.
Free
website

Wednesday 7/5
Seu Jorge
Internationally-revered Brazilian songwriter Seu Jorge plays two very crowded shows at the MFA. You know him as "that guy who played Bowie songs in Portuguese in that one Wes Anderson movie."
Calderwood Courtyard, Museum of Fine Arts
6 pm and 8:30 pm, sold out since before we were born
Seu Jorge: web site | Queen Bitch .mp3

Thursday 7/6
Humanwine's Parents, The Questions, & The Collisions
Somerville's decadent, swaggering Collisions, Detroit's stream-of-consciousness Questions, and Humanwine songs getting naked for an acoustic set.
P.A.'s Lounge, Union Square
21+, 8:30 pm, $7
The Collisions: myspace
The Questions: myspace
Humanwine: myspace | web site | Rivolta Silenziosa .mp3

Thursday, 07/06 - Sunday, 07/09
Boston Symphony Orchestra, and many others, at Tanglewood The BSO moves into its summer quarters this weekend, and you're invited: it's a classier date than a camping trip to Maine, and considerably less complicated. The Tanglewood Bus Service leaves Symphony Hall at 5 on Friday and Saturday, bringing you back safe and sound and fire-free after the concert. What concerts they are, too: the clever, wry American pianist Garrick Ohlsson playing Beethoven piano sonatas on Thursday and Sunday, the BSO's first concert of the summer season on Friday (you need to hear Beethoven's Ninth live once in your lifetime, and in the dark wilderness is surely the most spine-tingling way to cross it off the list), and on Saturday and Sunday, all sorts of orchestral and chamber music, some in open (=nearly free) rehearsal.
Tickets start at $16, round-trip bus tickets $30
BSO: website
Beethoven's Ninth, including images of the manuscript, a guided tour and sound clips:Wikipedia

Friday 7/07
Gonzalo Rubalcaba (also Sat 7/08)
Cuban born, New York City based pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba comes to town for a two night stint at the Regattabar promoting his (8th Blue Note release and) first solo album (titled, unsurprisingly, Solo). "One of the most important figures to emerge from Afro-Cuban jazz in the '90s," Rubalcaba is, as jazz critic Steve Huey notes, "an extraordinarily versatile pianist [who is] able to blend disparate strands of Cuban and American jazz tradition into a fresh, modern whole."
Regattabar
$25, 7:30pm & 10pm
website

Saturday 7/08
Eguie Castrillo and his Orchestra
Master conguero, noted timbalero, and Berklee associate professor of Latin percussion Eguie Castrillo has performed with the likes of Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D'Rivera, Steve Winwood, and Jennifer Lopez. The driving, infectious rhythms of Castrillo's 15 piece Latin Jazz orchestra will make you sweat your ass off on a hot summer's night.
Ryles Jazz Club, Inman Sq.
$12, 9pm
website | purchase

Sunday 7/09
Turntables On The Harbor (with DJ Nicodemus, DJ Mariano, and Nappy G)
New York DJs Nicodemus, Mariano and Nappy G bring their legendary Turntables on the Hudson party to our shores for a special night. Sponsored by the Weekly Dig (who say "Ahoy, bitches"), the groove cruise is followed by an after party at the back bay's Charlesmark Hotel (665 Boylston) featuring deep house by K.C. Hallett. (Tickets to the cruise get you into the after party).
Boston Harbor Cruises, 60 Rowes Wharf
21+, $15, $20 doc (day of cruise)
Boat departs 7pm, boards at 6:30pm | after party, Charlesmark Hotel,
11pm -1am (no entry w/out cruise ticket)
Turntables on the Hudson: website | wonder wheel recordings | purchase Turntables on the Hudson Mix CDs

C. Fernsebner, Matt Durutti, and Christina Linklater contributed to this list.