E-Mail This Article to a Friend Men on a Mission The countdown to Mission of Burma's new album, plus Kristin Hersh's new band and more

The wonderful truth about Burma

With less than a month to go until Mission of Burma’s new OnoffOn (Matador, due May 4) — their first studio album in 22 years, and only their second overall — the band have firmed up their first hometown date of the year. Burma celebrate the disc’s release at Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston May 22; it’s an all-ages, 6 p.m. show. Tickets are $25.25, and although they won’t officially go on sale until next Friday, April 16, at 10 a.m. (call 617-423-NEXT), there’s an Internet-only presale in effect this week. Go to cc.boston.com or visit www.nextticketing.com for details.

Roomful of blues

If the theatrical staging conceits of the "Blues on Tour" package sound a bit ripe for hokum — "a musical journey up the Mississippi river," tracing the genre’s evolution from the Delta to Chicago — there is no denying the collection of talent in store. Taking a cue from the "Down from the Mountain" tour’s all-star bluegrass assemblage, "Blues on Tour" brings together Robert Jr. Lockwood (who learned guitar from Robert Johnson), rock-and-roll legend Ike Turner, Sun Records bluesman Little Milton (whom Ike discovered in the ’50s), chitlin’-circuit hound dog Bobby Rush, piano great Pinetop Perkins, rediscovered soul man Howard Tate, septuagenarian belter Ruth Brown, and such latter-day disciples as Lil’ Ed Williams, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Chris Thomas King. They’ll all perform at the Orpheum, 1 Hamilton Place in Boston, on May 3. Tickets are $35 and $42.50; call (617) 931-2000.

New Wave

Kristin Hersh has been out in front of the pack in developing alternative business models for independent musicians — while recording for major and indie labels, she’s always assiduously tended her grassroots following with a presence on the Web and fans-only gigs and releases. And while 50 Foot Wave, her new band, are basically a continuation of Throwing Muses — it’s a trio with Muses bassist and new drummer Rob Ahlers — Hersh is once again inventing a new model. She describes the band as "harder, faster, more intense," but the biggest change is that the band plan to release less music more often: that is, a self-distributed six-song EP, retailing at $7, every nine months on their own Throwing Music label, supported by a moderate touring schedule of about 100 dates a year. The band released their first EP, 50 Foot Wave, last month; their tour kicks off next week; and they’ll be in town for a gig at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square, on May 12. Call (617) 492-BEAR.

Picture perfect

For fine-art photographers, giving up a weekend to snap family portraits is something like a CEO going back to bagging groceries. But about 40 of Boston’s finest shutterbugs take the plunge every year to raise money for the Photographic Resource Center, the nonprofit gallery in residence at Boston University that regularly brings in fantastic exhibits of work by everyone from Ansel Adams and Annie Leibowitz to Lou Reed and Michael Stipe. This year’s edition of the PRC’s annual Mother’s Day Portrait Extravaganza runs May 8 and 9 at a half-dozen locations in Boston, Cambridge, Chestnut Hill, and Belmont; for $95, you walk away with an 8-by-10 (either a superior digital print or, at two locations, a way-cool large-format Polaroid). The sessions fill up quickly, so reservations are highly recommended. Call the PRC at (617) 975-0600 for details.