It can’t be easy being Alice Cooper, the originator of shock rock, in 2009.  With an audience inured to shock thanks to movies with sky’s-the-limit body counts, the realities of wartime and the anything-goes nature of the Internet, the man who was practically an outrage generator in the 1970s knows he has his work cut out for him.

The connection between songwriter and song is one that regularly draws comparisons to that linking parent to child. So typically, when a songwriting band member takes his creation to his musical cohorts, he trusts that they will handle it with care.  In the case of Sonic Youth, singer-guitarist Thurston Moore trusts his band mates to disregard all that.

Critically acclaimed bands are plentiful, with the Vivian Girls no harder to locate in the marketplace than the Pussycat Dolls.  While the stratum of about-to-break acts contains plenty of folks waiting for their hot-button launch moment, it’s exciting to see someone occasionally run from the fringes and trample conventional what’s-hot wisdom.

Longtime fans of the band Dinosaur Jr. might differ over which of its eight albums they favor, but when it comes to describing the trio’s sound, most would probably think along the same lines of bassist Lou Barlow.  “There’s a certain roar to it, and that’s on every song,“ said Barlow, speaking from Charleston, S.C. “Since the’80s . . .  there’s a real workman quality to what we do—for better or for worse.“

Mudvayne plays Richmond tomorrow       When you see the men of Mudvayne onstage during their current tour across the United States, they’ll likely be as metal as you can handle.  Looking toward their lighter side, they have a message that requires no guitars or drums and won’t show up in their lyrics: For all those fans who are coming to the shows (the tour stops in Richmond tomorrow), Mudvayne is glad to see you.