I absolutely love Nick Cave. I have said this here before. But his new album "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!" is the best I've heard so far this year, bar none. I heard him on "Fresh Air" on NPR the other night, which only further cemented my respect and adoration of him. Here's a song. If Mute Records wants me to take it down, I certainly shall. I just want to share the love.

Happy May Day, kids! Go run around a pole and leave baskets on people's front steps.

1. Though this Friday's Rockin' Out column is all about it, it's still worth a mention that Orono is a hive of musical activity this weekend. A brief run down of events includes the following: Panic at the Disco, Motion City Soundtrack, the Hush Sound and Phantom Planet at the Alfond Arena at 9 p.m. on Friday, Funk Thrust at the Bear Brew, also at 9 p.m. on Friday; then Feel It Robot, Rotundo Sealeg, Wood Burning Cat and the 500's at 8 p.m. at the Keith Anderson Community Center on Saturday, WMEB 91.9 FM presents Dan Deacon, Future Islands and Alien Journalism at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Bear Brew, and Jack's Wild at Woodman's starting at 10 p.m. Yeah, that's a lot. Awesome.

2. If none of that interests you, however, you can go see Last Chance to Reason, Radiation Year and Fear Verona at the Kave in Bucksport. They all play at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, it's $10, and it's all ages.

3. Celebrate spring with the New England Steel Band Festival in Blue Hill and Deer Isle, with events on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday in both towns. Lots of dancing, food and cool island sounds. For a full schedule, visit peninsulapan.org.

4. There's a Bike Swap at UMaine on Sunday! Go find yourself a wicked cheap used bike, or bring your old bike to swap for another. Listen to the bike-tastic sounds of Feel It Robot, who definitely have a busy weekend. Meet up with other bike people. Did we mention that there will be bicycles there? It's from 10 a.m. til 2 p.m. at the Student Rec Center on campus. Yay.

5. I AM IRON MAN. OK, no, not really. I'm not Iron Man. I know, you were confused for a little bit there, but I want to clear things up. I am not Iron Man. I'm not! That would be pretty cool, though. The next best thing, however, is seeing "Iron Man," which opens this weekend in theatres nationwide. Hopefully it's as good as the trailer was!

1. DUN DUN, DUN DUN. DUN DUN, DUN DUN. DUN DUN DUN DUNNN DUNNN DUNNNN DUNNNNN! Recognize that? Of course you don't! But that's my crappy interpretation of the main theme from "Carmina Burana," the epic choral masterwork by Carl Orff. The Oratorio Society and the University Singers, under the direction of Professor Ludlow Hallman, will perform it this Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Memorial Gymnasium on the UMaine campus, accompanied by piano and a big percussion section. I highly, highly recommend going - you don't get a chance to see such an exhilirating piece performed around here very often.

2. Punk! Rock! Show! 5 p.m. on Friday at the Keith Anderson Community Center in Orono. Featuring Ellsworth's Union River Tragedy, Bangor-area hardcore stalwarts Clinic Bomb and USA Waste, and Burning Streets and 26 Beers, who are coming all the way from Massachusetts to play for us.

3. Alejandro Escovedo plays at the Strand Theatre in Rockland this weekend. He freakin' rules, and he just got signed to Bruce Springsteen's record label! And played with the Boss a few days ago, too! Show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Friday; tickets are $25 at sha-la.com

4. Food AND Medicine's annual May Day celebration is set for 4-7 p.m. on Sunday, April 27 at the Worker Center on Ivers Street in Brewer. Come enjoy delicious organic, local food from the Cooks of the World group, music from the Worker's Chorus, and plenty of food for though from Maine Attorney General Stephen Rowe, Representative and Senate candidate Tom Allen, and representatives from the Saint John, New Brunswick Labor Council.

5. Most people know that they're screening "The Battleship Potemkin" this Saturday at the Bangor Opera House, featuring live piano accompaniment by nonagenarian and all-around wonderful guy Harry Weiss, but River City Cinema is also screening another movie Friday night! "Le Couperet" is set for 7:30 that night, and RCC's web site had this to say about it: "Bruno Davert, an engineer worker in the papermaking industry, is a victim of the relocation of his company. He has been on the dole for almost two years, alternating between moments of self-awareness and depression, and confronting the humiliation of job interviews. One day he has a somewhat drastic idea: to treat the "labor market" like any other market—in other words to do everything possible to eliminate all competition." Sounds interesting! $5, 122 minutes, unrated.

It just so happens that the Replacements' entire Twin/Tone catalog - "Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash," "Hootenanny" and "Let It Be" - is being re-released the very same week that I heard "I Will Dare" on a mix and fell in love with it again for the 500th time. If I am ever held at gunpoint and forced to compile a desert island/best songs of all time disc, something I'd have a very, very had time doing, this song will be on it. It's perfect in every way. Thanks, Paul Westerberg.

Here's some cool stuff I have run across in the greater Bangor area that I haven't had the opportunity to mention here at El Rocko Blogstero.

- The downstairs of Cristor's in Bangor is no longer an empty bar - now it's a swanky joint called the Red Martini, complete with fancy drinks and tapas. While I have not yet had the opportunity to try the food, last weekend I partook in an astoundingly delicious concoction called the Tequila Mockingbird. I can't recall exactly what was in it, but it involved tequila, some sort of fruit nectar, and then cilantro and tabasco. You might think that sounds gross, but trust me, if you like cilantro, you will LOVE this drink. There are plenty of other ones there that are just as tasty too.

- I certainly don't mean to step on ShopGirl's toes, but I'd just like to mention that Marden's in Brewer is insane right now. Bike parts, fishing rods, furniture, exercise equipment, about 80 bajillion dresses from Target, all for $9.99. Hit that, before it's gone.

- Favorite local food items of recent weeks: the Greek cabbage salad and the homemade bread at the Barking Cat Cafe, the foccacia at J.B. Parker's and the iced coffee at Coffee Express. My favorite way of drinking their iced coffee is to get a large made with half dark roast and half flavored - usually Yankee Express or something with chocolate in it. No cream, plenty of sweet. Perfect, especially cause it's been so darn nice out this week.

- The Ofelia's Resale Shop will reopen in a few weeks in a new location on Main Road in Hampden, across from R&K Variety.

- The new facade of the Bangor Opera House looks great! I can't wait 'til it's completely finished!

- The patio at Club Fuzion. Wait, that's always been great, whether it's been Benjamin's, Karma or Fuzion.

- I keep hearing these rumors about a new bar or nightspot or something in Bangor opening up, called the Speakeasy. Can someone confirm or deny this, or pass along any additional information? Inquiring minds, namely mine, want to know. Email me, kay?

- Here's an awesome sunrise I caught on 395 a few weeks ago, driving back from an assignment in Ellsworth:

Let us delay our eulogies for that repository of musical geekitude, that late-night hangout, that place where the clerks are supposed to be cool: your local record store. The iPod and the mp3 have not yet killed it completely. Don't say a prayer for it yet. Well, do say a prayer for it. And celebrate it this Saturday, which has been dubbed National Record Store Day by an alliance of music retail outlets across the country.

Now, speaking as a former employee of two record stores in Maine (Bull Moose Music in Bangor and the music department at Mr. Paperback in Belfast), I've had first-hand experience with what purpose the record store serves in a community that has one. Sure, you go there to buy CDs, and maybe vinyl and magazines and t-shirts and stuff. But you also go to talk - about music, about whatever's happening around town, about TV and movies, and your worthless/awesome boyfriend/girlfriend, your shoes, your Mom, your friends, your life. Uniquely among retail outlets, the record store is both a place to buy stuff and a place to hang out. Something about the racks of albums inspires that kind of atmosphere.

All my favorite record stores in Maine are like that. Wild Rufus in Camden is a great example - vintage vinyl on the walls, groovy music playing, and an owner you can chat with. Dr. Records in Orono, Record Connection in Waterville, Strange Maine and Empire Records in Portland, and many of the Bull Moose locations, especially Bangor and Brunswick. They all have that vibe. It used to be that if you had nothing to do one evening, you could just go to the record store and brose and hang out. Would you do that at Wal-Mart? Would you do that at Blockbuster?

I am not against the new-ish frontier of digital media. I embrace it, in fact, as a way to put more control of the means of production and distribution of creative content into the hands of the people that are doing the creating. Cutting out the middle man, if you will. But that doesn't mean that I don't care if the record store goes the way of the CD - and it doesn't mean I don't care about hard copies of albums. It's been said plenty of times before, but nothing can replace having an actual copy of an album in your hands. The artwork, the correct sequencing of tracks, the cracks in the case. This is why I still have a shelf full of several hundred CDs at my apartment - because even though I listen to music primarily on my computer and my mp3 player, I still like to have the album on hand. And that's why I have an exponentially increasing collection of vinyl, too.

And that's why I love record stores: because it connects you with the music, which in turns connects you with other people, and your community. If we lose hubs like that - be they record stores, music venues, other local businesses - we lose identity. We lose interest in each other. And that's a challenge we have to face, as we become further enmeshed in our cell phones and laptops and PDAs. There's still a world out there that's not made of ones and zeros, and the crackle of vinyl still sounds nicer than the click of an iPod wheel.

So on Saturday, go buy yourself an album. I don't care if it's Mariah Carey, Megadeth, Mozart or the Magnetic Fields. Go out, get a record, and talk to the other people at the store. Who knows? You might just stumble across something you've never heard before. Or you might just kill some time hanging out at the record store.

Local celebrations of Record Store Day include a performance from the band Headstart! at the Bangor Bull Moose. Bull Moose has bands at all 11 of their locations; check the web site for more. Wicked cheap sales all day, too.

Man, what a weekend!

1. Let's get the bad news out of the way first: the Underground, after nearly three years of hosting all-ages, chem-free shows at their location on Outer Hammond Street in Bangor, is closing after this weekend. Apparently, someone else is moving into the building. This is a serious blow to the local music scene - one that we'll talk about in greater length in the next few weeks - but thanks are in order to the owners and many volunteers who helped bring bands both local and regional to Bangor. Celebrate the times we did have at the Underground with two shows: A Good Night Sound Rush and Hearts of the Oak at 8 p.m. on Friday, and As Venice Burns, the Miles Between, Follow the Fire, Jules Verne and Astronoumer at 7 p.m. on Saturday. $10, all ages, as always. We'll miss you.

2. Waterfall Arts in Belfast is a fantastic, low-key arts and music venue on High Street, housed in what used to be the Anderson Elementary School. When I was a young tyke, growing up in Waldo County, the YMCA Day Camp would pick up and drop off kids there. I have played countless games of four square in the parking lot. Now, in an appropriate turn of events, several indie and experimental folk groups are performing there, starting at 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 20. Bands include Portland-based Gargoylez, Joshua Marcus, Erik Ruin and Kat Hernandez, and Belfast's own Uke of Space Corners, who make beautifully bizarre acoustic freakouts. Bring a donation, and open ears.

3. Common will perform at Colby College at 8 p.m. on Friday in the Wadsworth Gymnasium. I know, right? He's kind of a a big deal. He's such a good rapper. And he's totally hot. Tickets are $25 at Bull Moose. Meow.

4. Movies? Sure! There's the Coen Brothers triple feature at the Grand on Sunday, for starters - "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" at 2 p.m., "The Big Lebowski" at 5 p.m. and "Fargo" at 7:30 p.m. "Be Kind, Rewind," the new Michel Gondry movie starring Jack Black and Mos Def, is at both Movie Magic in Bangor and Reel Pizza Cinerama in Bar Harbor.

5. Second City, the renowned comedy workshop based in Chicago, who gave us the likes of John Belushi, Dan Akroyd and Chris Farley, will bring its touring company to the Strand Theatre in Rockland on Sunday, April 20, with a 7 p.m. performance. The topic this time is media, politics and the internet age. Tickets are $25, and the show is for those 21 and over.

1. The Belfast Comic Arts Festival started yesterday and runs through Sunday, and whoa, what a lineup of events! There are comedy movies being shown all day each day at the Colonial Theatre, as well as performances from Tim Sample, Robert "The Humble Farmer" Skoglund, Scot Canon, the Mark and Tim Show, Rob Steen, Tom Clark, and Tom Hayes. Films featuring Belfast and Waldo County will get the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" treatment from local comedians at 9 p.m. on Friday, and full-on showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is set for 10 p.m. on Saturday, complete with rice and underwear. Jam-packed with laffs, laffs, laffs. Visit www.comicartsfest.com for a full schedule.

2. Hey, here's some shameless self-promotion: there's a poetry reading and slam from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday at the Charles Inn in West Market Square in downtown Bangor, and yours truly is hosting it. So come out and read, or enjoy hearing other people read. I promise it will be entertaining. I can guarantee it.

3. The Student Art Show at the University of Maine opens Friday night, with a public reception from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Lord Hall Galleries. It's always a lively, colorful affair, with remarkably diverse, thoughtful art. Worth a visit.

4. The Brew are a bunch of totally excellent musicians who play straight up, no bull jam rock. And that, friends, can be a very satisfying thing indeed. They are playing at the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts at 9 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $10 bucks, call 948-SHOW for more info. Or, in other musical happenings, you could hold off and go see Jefferson Starship for three times as much money at the Grand Theatre in Ellsworth on Tuesday. Because, um, they built this city on rock n' roll. And you totally want to pay 49 bucks to get to meet Paul Kantner. Right.

5. Movies this week: "Be Kind, Rewind," the new Michel Gondry movie starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow, is at Movie Magic in Bangor. So is "Run, Fat Boy, Run," with Simon Pegg from "Sean of the Dead." "The Ruins" opens this weekend, which I've heard is really scary and awesome, in the vein of "The Descent." Oh yeah, and "Prom Night." Ha!

6. Extra thing to do this weekend: ReggaeFest at Sugarloaf starts tonight. One last chance to hit the slopes and then party all night. This year you've got Mile 21, Pressure Cooker, Vibe Wise, the Well, Toussaint and the Trauma Unit, Hot Like Fire, On the Drop, Ini Souljah, Big Mountain and Stream all bringing you three and a half days of non stop reggae action. Visit www.sugarloaf.com/reggae.html for more info.

I feel kind of bad, because the Joel Plaskett Emergency played at the Grand Theatre in Ellsworth last year and I totally slept on it. I shouldn't have. I just came across this single from his new album "Ashtray Rock," and I'm kind of in love with it. It's called "Fashionable People," and it's so catchy I can't even deal with it. Catchy, and clever too. Power pop. He's kind of dorky, and yet cool. He is, after all, Canadian (Nova Scotia, to be exact). I wish I'd heard him sooner, but it serves me right for not writing about him or listening to his album when he was in my area. Bad Emily.

Are you havin' a hard time? If your week went from OK to blargh, I think you should watch this video for "Happiness" by the British electronic duo Goldfrapp, from their new album "Seventh Tree." I, for one, plan to do this in downtown Bangor next week. Just kidding! Maybe! Only if I can find a white suit and a bunch of kids on bouncy balls! Such a fun song and video. Loved Goldfrapp's last album, "Supernature," which was this totally irresistible mix of glam and electro. The new one is a little more song-y, a little less dance-party, but still good. And Alison Goldfrapp is still a babe. And this song is just delightful, with one of the best music videos I've seen in months. Enjoy!