When Cave In signed off at the tail end of 2006, we feared one of Boston’s greatest post-metal bands had perished before its prime. So when a couple of years later they snuck back into the studio and then unveiled a blistering new EP with a one-off show at Great Scott, we grabbed our cameras — just in case it turned out to be a last hurrah.

Those of us with an abiding love for Crypt-era Back from the Grave garage-punk, Something Weird's VHS collection, and Halloween pop-up stores are seriously looking forward to seeing Dead Man's Bones play a gig tomorrow night at Middle East, which, as you can see from the cue cards in the video above, is the first stop on their nationwide jaunt. Below: just a taste of what to expect . . .

Okay, so the photo is from Friday, but still. More photos here.

On Saturday night, J Mascis and Co. took the stage with unassuming glory, and after taking their sweet time dorking around with their instruments, Mascis resolved the unformed chaos of their initial soundcheck with a plaintive little piffle of a riff.

The best compliment I can give the Dinosaur Jr. reunion is that I no longer find its greatness unusual. After almost five years, it's no longer a surprise that they still sound this good, the way it was when I first saw them back in 2006. Rather than being a great post-reunion band, they're just a great band, no qualifier necessary.

CAVE-IN's don't-call-it-a-comeback continues next week with a pair of West Coast free gigs sponsored by Toyota -- but this morning the band announced it'll be playing non-auto-bailout gigs in New York, Boston, Providence, and Philadelphia, with support by Trap Them and Narrows.

We've also received word that the band will be releasing a DVD of its July reunion show at Great Scott in Boston

Americana rockers CASSAVETTES, who differentiate themselves from this guy by spelling their name with two Ts, have been well-regarded in this town for some time now. They're about to drop a new album, though, that could well see them blow up in a big way - or at least, that's what this week's mp3, the short-but-catchy-as-fuck "Ordinary Girls," leads us to believe.

As you can hear Hamilton Leithauser say, the song in the video above from Friday night's Walkmen show is one they had written fairly recently. They didn't provide a title, either. We'll have more on these shows later, but after the jump, we've got video of "The Rat" and "In the New Year."

More photos here and here.

According to Pains of Being Pure at Heart keyboardist/singer Peggy Wang, one of her friends was letting the New York band’s show at the Middle East downstairs double as his bachelor party. This was news to Wang — she considers her band’s shows as perhaps “the least debaucherous thing ever.

"Top 5 Songs For A Jealous Man To Play On His Stereo Cassette Player While Driving To A Hotel To Murder His Wife And Then Her Secret Lover And Then Maybe Himself, Too, While He's At It"

^{Beat Circus (photo by Liz Linder)}

2. Joe Tex, "I Gotcha" [Last.fm]

Ed OG Responds to Joe Budden

This week in the Phoenix, Chris Fara1 offers a firsthand account of the now-infamous Joe Budden show at the Middle East downstairs -- during which Budden dissed a bunch of Boston rappers and, depending on who's telling, nearly got bum-rushed.

BLACK LIPS might be the only band you can pick out in a crowd because they're the squarest-looking dudes in the room. Scholars of Nuggets will apprehend this look as an act of high visual fidelity to the same '60s frat-punk ideal that drives the Lips' recorded output.

Next week, heads will get an ample dose of East Bostonian M-Dot as he opens up for M.O.P. at the Middle East — but we recommend priming yourself a bit with this little chip of his and Grime tha MC’s new block, Neighborhood Knock. Dot does a bit of everything: he’s writing and recording in West Rox with D-Sharp, he’s shooting a comedy pilot in Missouri and Iowa, and he’s performing his ass off all over the Northeast.