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13
FRIDAY
The Blazers, like their East L.A. compadres Los Lobos, are as adept at three-chord garage and roots rock as they are at cumbia, norteño, and mariachi sounds. While the Blazers’ rollicking takes on these unadorned, propulsive styles are impressive enough, such cuts aren’t the reason why I keep playing their third CD, Just for You, over and over again. The quartet’s guitar-playing/songwriting team of Ruben Guaderrama and Manuel Gonzales has varied the mood with a trio of pop originals and an obscure cover ballad, with beautifully strummed and stirringly vocalized melodies that keep me in replay mode. The title track’s Chicano jangle and bittersweet, heart-tugging love songs, such as “Then You Left,” manifest the timeless, trenchant power of well-constructed verse-chorus-verse laments. With local rockabilly cats Jumpin’ Jupiter at 9 p.m. at Twist & Shout, 4800 Auburn Ave., Bethesda. $8. (301) 652-3383. (Steve Kiviat)