Also this issue: Playing the Joker Deirdre Flint talks shop and loses her religion. -M.J. Fine The Sound and The Fury Matt Pond is naughty by nature (not 'cause he hates ya). -Patrick Rapa The Beatmaster Isn't it about time King Britt made a hip-hop album? -A.D. Amorosi Uri Caine's Goldberg Variations -Kyle Parker 20 Miles -Paul Burress Alô Brasil -Mary Armstrong Rainer Maria/ Mates of State -Patrick Rapa Beat Box -Ainé Ardron-Doley

March 13-19, 2003

musicpicks

The BellRays

With a voice that's as much Broadway belter as Janis scream, Lisa Kekaula plays a clear-cut role in The BellRays' self-described "Maximum Rock 'n' Soul." Not unlike Joplin's backing band, the rest of the 'Rays provide hard-rocking (if not too adventurous) accompaniment, but even if she writes few of their songs, it's Kekaula's band, pure and simple. Raw Collection (Uppercut), which rounds up stray tracks from 1995 to the present, is inevitably a bit scattershot, but it actually goes over better than some of their albums, whose concentrated onslaught of Hell-ay metal-isms can get tiresome but quick. If for nothing else, it's worth checking out for two pinball-themed tracks from the ace compilation Hot Pinball Rock, Vol. 1, and a cover of Australian legends The Saints' "Nights in Venice," which tips the band's collective hats to the originators of the punk-soul hybrid. (Now it's time for Rocket from the Crypt to do the same.) If it feels like The BellRays are closer to performing the dream than living it, at least they put on a hell of a show.

Sun., March 16, 9 p.m., $8-$10, with The Blessed Muthas and The Trauma Queens, The North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-684-0808.

—Sam Adams