Down with pop

It may not have launched a coup d'etat on the musical status quo, but the International Pop Overthrow, an annual blowout of jangle, hooks, and melody, is overturning expectations about what modern "pop music" can be. Since the event's inception a decade ago in Los Angeles, the IPO has gotten bigger, better, and truly international (with shows in Liverpool, England, and Vancouver, British Columbia).

Now, for the fifth straight year, the IPO heads back to Boston for five nights at Great Scott - tonight through Tuesday - showcasing nearly three dozen of New England's finest artists. It continues, with lineups drawn from each city, to New York for six nights and Toronto for four nights. If your idea of "pop" is Big Star instead of "American Idol," Nick Lowe over Nick Lachey, then the IPO is for you.

"Boston definitely has one of the most eclectic scenes of any city," IPO founder David Bash says by phone. "You can find cool soft indie rock all the way to garage and power pop in between. What keeps me going is the discovery."

Indeed, this year's Boston installment casts a wide stylistic net, from the chamber pop of Winterpills, to the abraded punk-rawk of Cheater Pint, to the lush ambience of Temper.

In addition to the IPO (see full schedules at internationalpopoverthrow .com), you can sample a clutch of up-and-coming pop bands Tuesday at the Lizard Lounge during Pop. Revolt. Cookies, a showcase organized by Brad San Martin, who plays with kazoo popsters One Happy Island. The show's a prelude to the Popfest! New England festival in Northampton, which begins Nov. 9. The Boston scene, San Martin writes via e-mail, "is an extension of classic punk values - DIY, immediacy and honesty in performance, but with an underlying obsession with catchy melodies, boy-girl vocals, and fearless application of a thesaurus." For the Pop. Revolt. Cookies schedule, go to lizard loungeclub.com.

On the next page are some of your best bets for both festivals . . .

THE MYSTERY TRAMPS (tonight at 9, Great Scott)

Between homework and homeroom, this Lynnfield foursome has somehow managed to gig steadily, record an EP ("Nowhere's End") with ex-Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes, issue a fast-selling debut full-length album ("Cure for the Common Misconception"), and win last spring's 13th annual WBCN/Berklee College of Music Battle of the High School Bands." Not bad for a bunch of teenagers. But don't let their youth fool you. The Mystery Tramps (which includes singer-guitarist Eric Grava, lead guitarist Adam Amoroso, bassist Andrew Leader, and drummer Martin DiLiegro), are wise beyond their years. They took their name from Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" and play spiky punk-pop with the seasoned verve of wizened 25-year-olds.

THE PRIME MOVERS (tomorrow at 10 p.m., Great Scott)

What most amazes everybody who's caught this reunited Boston combo is how little the garage-soul outfit has changed since its early-'80s heyday. In fact, producer Jack Younger, who helmed the Movers's debut full-length, "Back in Line" (which finally came out this year, a mere 25 years after the band formed), claims singer Cam Ackland, guitarist Dick Tate, bassist Jeff Sugarman, and drummer Dennis McCarthy are even better musicians now. No argument here. They're just as ferociously entertaining onstage - still able to snap, crackle, and pop with UK-style energy cut with US garage-rock grit. After all this time, the name still fits: still prime, still moving.

THE VINYL SKYWAY (Sunday at 9 p.m., Great Scott)

The Vinyl Skyway singer-songwriter Michael Hayes possesses the kind of light, airy tenor that could make a grocery list sound like a sensual secret. Lucky for him, and us, the comely, endless summer songs on the band's latest album, "From Telegraph Hill," are a good deal more poetic. Vinyl Skyway - which also includes lead guitarist Andy Santospago, bassist Rob Pevitts, keyboardist Dave Lieb, and drummer Booth Hardy - specialize in deceptively beautiful bummers that glisten and glow with every toothsome melody and lush harmony. Hum along at your own peril.

PETER BALDRACHI (Monday at 9:30 p.m., Great Scott)

Talk about a transformation. After manning the skins for Boston's Krushr, a hard-rock outfit that drew comparisons to everybody from Nirvana to Queens of the Stone Age, drummer-turned-singer-songwriter Peter Baldrachi turned down the volume and turned up the melody. The result is his solo debut, "Solid Ground," whose wistful charm and warmly ragged pop hooks owe far more to Paul Westerberg than Kurt Cobain. The ground Baldrachi's standing on these days may not be as rock hard, but it's a lovely landscape with a gorgeous view.

BIRD MANCINI (Tuesday at 8 p.m., Great Scott)

Any band that bills itself as a husband-wife/accordion-guitar rock duo is worth investigating. Even more so when the tandem enlists musical friends from Boston-area bands such as the Sterns and Bentmen. Great reviews for the outfit's third and latest album, "Funny Day," don't hurt, either. Led by the core of singer-accordionist-keyboardist Ruby Bird and singer-guitarist Billy Carl Mancini, Bird Mancini mix up a cosmopolitan fusion of blues-tinged rock, Latin-flavored bossa nova, country-folk balladry, and woolly psychedelia. What it adds up to is pop music in the most adventurous, inclusive sense of the term.

ONE HAPPY ISLAND (Pop. Revolt. Cookies, Tuesday at 9 p.m., Lizard Lounge)

Not many bands pepper their music with honks of kazoo. Or have two members who play the ukulele. But Boston's One Happy Island, whose three members previously played in the twee-pop outfit Okay Thursday, isn't your run-of-the-mill pop band. The group, which includes guitarist Brad San Martin, bassist Clint Reeves, and drummer Rebecca Mitchell (all three members sing), has just self-released a delightfully lo-fi, self-titled EP brimming with strummy songs about stepping outside into summer, bittersweet memories of winter, and, of course, enough fragile hope and self-doubt to last all year long. And yes, there are kazoos.