Stone Gossard leads what most rock guitarists would consider a dream existence: When he's not performing or recording with his longtime pals in Pearl Jam, he's part of the adventurous pop outfit known as Brad, the Seattle-based four-piece set to perform at the TLA tonight.

The two outlets couldn't be more different.

"Ed spends a lot of time writing lyrics," Gossard said recently of Pearl Jam's lead singer, Eddie Vedder. "He has an incredible gift for manipulating words - he'll get an idea, go back, comb it over, look at it from all sides, and really take it apart."

That makes for long, deliberate recording sessions, Gossard said recently, on a lull between completion of Pearl Jam's Riot Act, due out Nov. 12, and rehearsals for the current Brad tour.

With Brad, everything happens quickly. Gossard said Shawn Smith, Brad's lead singer, doesn't deliberate much about words or melodies.

"His process is saying his thought once, and then not thinking about it again. He's incredibly improvisational, and he's got a tremendous ability to trust his own instincts."

That's evident on Welcome to Discovery Park (Redline), Brad's third full-length effort. There are pieces inspired by the funk and soul music of the early '70s - particularly the Prince-like call for unity, "Brothers and Sisters" and the slightly proggy "Shinin'," both of which leave room for Smith's wriggling vocal improvisations. There are songs with breezy, featherweight melodies, and moments marked by more dense musical textures - a mix of lo-fi sounds and souped-up electronic production that allows Gossard the chance to try things he might not with Pearl Jam.

As for the songs, just about everything on Discovery Park started as an accident, Gossard said.

"There would just be a little spark of an idea, and everybody jumps in and sort of starts playing, and suddenly then there's a song. Shawn doesn't hem and haw about structures - he just goes for it. Sometimes you want to work things out more, because it's safer and smoother, but what I experience with Brad is that walking-on-eggshells energy. We'd play something four or five times and then record it, and what's weird is we always seem to go back to the first performance... . When Shawn's feeling a certain way, and he puts that down, you cannot deny whether it's heartfelt or not. His voice just resonates with honesty."

Though the two frontmen in his life are very different, Gossard shows up at both gigs with the same basic mission: "I'm just there to comp the chords and do whatever I can to frame what they're doing. I find I really like the process that goes into making Pearl Jam music, and I also like chasing the moment with the guys in Brad. It's whatever works, basically."

Brad with Happy Chichester at the Theatre of Living Arts, 334 South St., at 9 tonight. Tickets: $18. Information: 215-922-1011.

Mooney Suzuki

A few things you should know about The Mooney Suzuki: the hot-roddin' New York rockers dress like the Stooges, jackknife through live sets with an unspoiled, pre-punk aggression, and carry themselves with an affable brattiness more Kinks than Oasis. But while all signs would seem to implicate them in the murky, strength-in-numbers ranks of the "garage revival," their sophomore Electric Sweat owes as much to unfashionable dinosaurs such as Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and even Free, as it does to the Nuggets-Detroit-CBGB's axis of influence. The Mooney Suzuki's pile-driving anthems are heavy, not hard, with agility and menace sacrificed in favor of big-bottomed gusto. Opening are Scandinavian imports Sahara Hotnights and The Flaming Sideburns, whose point of origin alone makes them a red-hot commodity.

- Nathaniel Friedman

Mooney Suzuki, Sahara Hotnights, Rabble Rousers, Flaming Sideburns at the Khyber,

56 S. Second St., at 9:30 tonight. Tickets: $8. Information: 215-238-5888.

Calexico

Alluring enough are the arid, mariachi-spiced ruminations of Tucson's Calexico (guided by Giant Sand's Joey Burns and John Convertino) and the ominous gothic grandeur of San Diego's Black Heart Procession, whose new Amore Del Tropico (Touch And Go) drifts from alt-country to art rock. But the real treat at the TLA on Wednesday may be the opener. While Calexico and BHP produce moody set-pieces, Canada's Destroyer creates wordy, stream-of-consciousness rock that borrows heavily from early-'70s, art-damaged Anglos such as David Bowie and Syd Barrett. Helmed by Dan Bejar, who channels his more overtly power-pop impulses into his work with The New Pornographers, Destroyer just released This Night (Merge), its fifth and best album. It's overloaded with verbiage, but it's more feverish than pretentious and never less than tuneful.

- Steve Klinge
Calexico with Black Heart Procession and Destroyer at the Theatre of Living Arts, 334 South St., at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets: $17, $15 advance. Phone: 215-922-1011.

Powerhouse 2002

Power 99's annual concert is always a "look-forward-to" event in hip-hop, a party-down potpourri of big names and freaky faves. That means you get the hard (Ja Rule, surely debuting gangster-lite sounds from his forthcoming The Last Temptation) and the soft (Ashanti); the good (Foxy Brown), the baaad (Cam'ron), and the ugly (N.O.R.E.). Mostly what you'll get from Powerhouse 2002 is a lot of Philly stuff. For instance, despite her career as clothes horse, cover model and movie star (Barbershop), Eve can still be found making the occasional CD, like her new Eve-Olution.

Yet no one has waited longer for her shot than Tiffany Lane, a.k.a. Charli Baltimore. West Philly's mistress of speed-rapping has had a career of stops, starts and avoidance, what with being Notorious B.I.G.'s gal pal and initial signee to his business partner's Untertainment label. Despite much industry buzz (and a hit single in "Money"), her debut CD, Cold as Ice, went unreleased, thereby earning status in hip-hop circles as a lost masterpiece. Like Eve, Baltimore has become something of a stylistic icon with a modeling career and bit parts in Spike Lee movies. Now under the tutelage of Ja Rule and producer-Murder Inc. head Irv Gotti, Baltimore will make her true musical debut in December with the bone-rattling raps of The Diary... You Think You Know. This time, there will be no stopping Charli. Give her a hero's welcome.

- A. D. Amorosi
Powerhouse 2002 featuring Ashanti, Eve, Charli Baltimore, Ja Rule, Foxy Brown, Cam'ron, N.O.R.E. at the First Union Center, 3601 S. Broad St., at 7 tonight. Tickets: $11.99 to $51.99. Information: 215-336-2000.

Jurassic 5 /

Big Daddy Kane

Like a Left Coast version of the Roots, Jurassic 5 milks old-school rap to get the cream of enlightened, lyrical, nuanced new-school hip-hop. And like the Roots, Jurassic's six members have been awarded more respect than sales for their efforts (the socio-soulful Quality Control). With their new Power in Numbers (Interscope), they go deeper, darker and poppier into the jungles of neo-jazzy-hop. And do not miss Big Daddy Kane, hip-hop's original too-often-forgotten lyrical genius.

- A.D.A.
Jurassic 5, Big Daddy Kane, Beatnuts and Schoolly D at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at The Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh St. Ticket prices: $28, $25 advance.

Chip Taylor /

Carrie Rodriguez

He's the writer of such pop hits as "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning" who went on to become a professional gambler before returning to music as a Guy Clark-style troubadour. She's a young Texas singer and fiddler. Now this May-December pair, Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez, have collaborated on Let's Leave This Town (Lone Star/Texas Music Group), a winning collection of mostly Taylor-penned folk-country songs. As his weathered, conversational style plays against her clear, dry, Iris DeMent-like drawl on numbers ranging from brooding ballads to lightly swinging numbers, the chemistry between the two is obvious.

- Nick Cristiano