Buffalo’s prolific wunderkind Ani DiFranco is claiming her rightful place on stage at The Church, also home to her company Righteous Babe Records, in a two-evening concert event taking place this week. A special treat for fans will be introduced at the concert(s), where the poet and songwriter will release her first book, Verses, a collection of paintings and poetry that was co-published by Righteous Babe and Seven Stories Press. Themes of love and politics, individuality and society and personal responsibility and compassion collide just as they do in her lyrics, showing a poetic precision that has made a feminist and human rights icon—and a shining example of a musician’s potential for social influence—out of this hometown girl. Now with a girl of her own (DiFranco’s first baby was born this year), fans might imagine that such a powerful personal experience as childbirth has fueled some equally powerful new writing. Her last album, 2006’s Reprieve, is her 18th full-length release in as many years and was penned before the announcement of her pregnancy, which she made during the National Organization for Women’s 40th Annual Convention where she was honored with the Woman of Courage award. The four-time Grammy nominee is surely no stranger to awards and accolades, but no display of Ani appreciation could be better than what’s expected at this week’s upcoming events. September 11th will mark the first public concert by Ani at the venue she helped to build—a venue that most recently welcomed Bill Clinton to its stage—and that alone makes this an unprecedented kind of event. Also slated for release at the shows is Canon, a 35-song retrospective featuring material from throughout DiFranco’s career. Support comes from Righteous Babe recording artist Hammell on Trial on September 11 and activist/singer/songwriter Melissa Ferrick on September 12.

The New York New Music Ensemble opens the Slee/Visiting Artist series with a bang. Wait—better make that a loud wail. The big work on the program is a semi-staged performance of British composer Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King from 1969. The “mad king” is George II (think 1776) who suffered a major mental breakdown in 1788, perhaps caused by an inherited metabolic disorder, steadily losing touch with reality until his death in 1820. He reportedly spent the last years of his life trying to teach his pet birds to sing melodies that he played to them on a small mechanical organ. Gender theorists please note that Iranian-born Haleh Abghari (pictured), whose voice has been described by the Washington Post as “a piercingly pure soprano,” plays the part of the king, usually portrayed by a baritone. She will not only sing in a more or less normal voice but also bellow, whine, croak, cackle and occasionally scream at the top of her lungs in what is acknowledged as a brutal but highly effective depiction of a descent into insanity. The world premiere of David Felder’s Boxmunsdottir for bass clarinet and electronics—a reworking of his admired Boxman for trombone and electronics—is on the program as well. Café Music by Paul Schoenfield is the evening’s most immediately accessible work, and Schoenfield has noted that he composed it with the intention of writing “a kind of high-class dinner music, music which could be played at a restaurant but might also (just barely) find its way into a concert hall.”

Once or twice a year your neighbors pull all that big stuff they no longer want out to the curb. Among slackers it’s a secular holiday, and one of the best times to do a little garbage picking or, as I like to call it, “free-range shopping.” Yesterday I came home with a wooden Adirondack chair that needed just two screws to fix. Functional TVs, bikes, tables, dressers, an eight-track player, a church pew—great stuff is out there waiting to be had by those with discerning taste. In a similar way, Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray approach the wasteland of rock-n-roll with their project Heavy Trash. Influences range from Charlie Feathers to James Brown to the Shangri-Las via the Cramps, and the result is a mind-bending celebration of gritty junk rock. Spencer made a name for himself fronting the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, whose high-energy shows in the early 90s kept sloppy, sweaty, R & B vital even before Little Steven’s Underground Garage came along. Verta-Ray played with roots deconstructionists Speedball Baby, and is recognized as an inventive producer and analog tape devotee. Conceived as a side-project, Heavy Trash has taken on a life of its own with the release of its second CD Going Way Out with Heavy Trash (Yep Roc). The CD features backup by label-mates the Sadies, but on the road Spencer and Verta-Ray will be supported by members of Powersolo, the wild Danish garage band that will be opening the show along with Buffalo’s own purveyors of the pervasonic, the Irving Klaws. So mark your calendars, and don’t miss Heavy Trash day.

Luminaries back home and cult heroes abroad, Circle is the highest profile export of Finland’s avant-rock underground. Characterized by tightly wrought rhythms and swirling vortex drones, Circle’s hypnotic music has, since 1991, been celebrated as an archetype of neo “kraut rock.” Heirs to the legacy of arty noise, repetitive space jams, dark psychedelia and weird prog associated with 1970s stoner outfits like Can or Hawkwind, the band knows how to experiment without forgetting to rock out. In fact, Circle’s love of 1980s metal riffs figures heavily in their sound, often leading to stateside comparisons with mid-period Trans Am. But Circle’s embrace of over the top hard rock is more about generating motorik grooves than heavy irony. Although they have recently shared stages with the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, Sunn O))), Merzbow and Jim O’Rourke (as well as legendary kraut rock godfathers Faust), identifying a contemporary North American correlation to the group’s wide-ranging mix of prog-metal and sonic experimentation is almost impossible. For this week’s show at Soundlab opening bands include Endless Boogie, called by Paper magazine “the best-kept secret in New York’s rock scene,” and Buffalo’s Novelist. Also expect the theatrical touches Circle has become known for, which make each show a unique experiential experiment.