Nothing says “summer” quite like cold beer, hot blues, tasty barbecue and the guttural sound of a panhead spitting oil on gleaming chrome pipes. If you agree, then get your motor runnin’ and head on down to West Chippewa on Wednesdays for the 4th Annual Blues, Bikes & BBQ series—where you, along with roughly 500 other bikers, can show off your HOG, Dresser, Chopper, Cruiser, Café Racer or Crotch Rocket and check out the weekly bike contest while sampling some complimentary BBQ, taking advantage of drink specials and digging live blues bands. In coming weeks, acts will include Junkyard Dogs, The Coupe Devilles, Willie Haddeth, Jony James, Yvonne Schmidt and Joe Santana. Even if you don’t ride but want to come out and explore your inner Peter Fonda, this is the time and place to do it. Who knows? You could be the one to win a trip for two to this year’s Daytona Biketoberfest—which could result in unplanned body piercings or skin art. If that’s not cool enough, you might become eligible to win a 2006 Harley Davidson Street Bob motorcycle. “One Percenters” not welcome, and if you don’t know what a “One Percenter” is, then rest assured you aren’t one.

The directors of Occupation: Dreamland, Ian Olds and Garrett Scott, were “embedded” with the 505 Parachute Regiment of the now infamous 82nd Airborne in Iraq throughout the filming. The embedding technique was a post-Vietnam response by the Pentagon , meant to achieve a greater level of control over the media by keeping journalists (or anyone with a camera) as far away from the action as possible. While this tactic may have been successful in controlling the media in the arena of broadcast or “breaking” news, the documentary format is by nature less urgent—and is therefore less susceptible to this particular style of suppression. In the case of Dreamland, a documentary named for the American military base in Iraq where Olds and Scott spent the winter of 2004, time and careful editing have painted a detailed picture of the experiences of eight soldiers who were interviewed. Olds is certainly a skilled editor, having co-written and edited his first feature (2002’s well-received Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story, which Scott directed), but here he doesn’t rely on the well-placed cuts and devilish montages that seem to be the secret weapons of so many great documentarians. Rather, the individuals who are the film’s main focus create a believable scenario that would preclude such post-production manipulations. That the men are all very different in terms of their position on the war, as well as in their backgrounds, lends credence not only to their stories but to the sincerity of the filmmakers. Though the footage was shot just months before both the 82nd Battallion assumed full-scale battle against the insurgency and the scandal broke at Abu Ghraib, the current concensus that morale and support for the war is at an all-time low makes this documentary as timely now as when it was released. Director Ian Olds is appearing as Hallwalls’ “Artist in Person” for a screening and discussion of this work.

In a career that spans over three decades, LA tunesmith and Hamburg native Peter Case has built a reputation as one of America’s finest singer-songwriters. Sometimes cited for his early work with The Nerves and the song “Hangin’ on the Telephone”—which became a hit for Blondie—and routinely associated with the Plimsouls —whose irresistibly catchy “A Million Miles Away” landed on the soundtrack to the 1983 movie Valley Girl and went on to be covered by many 1980s bands including the Goo Goo Dolls—Case has been working primarily as a solo act for the past 17 years, crafting great songs that draw from the broad palette of American roots music. An engaging performer, he’s currently promoting A Case for Case (Hungry For Music), a tribute disc that features 47 tracks covered by such heavy hitters as Dave Alvin, John Prine, Joe Ely, Bill Kirchen, Gurf Morlix and Victoria Williams —among others. Proceeds from the release will go to Hungry For Music, an organization that helps to distribute musical instruments to inner-city children. Case will be joined by the always in-demand Rob Lynch on drums, guitarist Mark Winsick (who contributed a cover of “Rise and Shine” on the tribute) and fellow Hamburg expat and musical ace Jim Whitford on bass.

We know and love Mark Kozelek for his 1990s work fronting somber, brutally honest and introspective indie-folk outfit Red House Painters, whose string of albums are some of that decade’s greatest music. Kozelek, however, remains the clichéd “enigma wrapped in a question.” Why does a guy who is essentially the focal point of the band ditch a known moniker (Red House Painters) and start putting out records as Sun Kil Moon? And, for all of Kozelek’s power as a songwriter, how do you explain a career that has seen a steady series of cover songs championing artists he admires, including reassessments of the music of John Denver, a new light cast on Bonn Scott-era AC/DC with the genius solo work What’s Next to the Moon (Badman) and last year’s excellent Sun Kil Moon album Tiny Cities (Caldo Verde), entirely made up of Modest Mouse songs? Finally, as revered as he is by a hard-earned cult audience, Kozelek has transcended indie appeal and reached a wider audience thanks to feature films. He won kudos for his turn as tight-lipped Stillwater bassist Larry Fellows in Cameron Crowe’s acclaimed valentine to rock and roll Almost Famous, turned up again in Crowe’s surreal Vanilla Sky and appeared in last year’s Steve Martin vehicle Shopgirl, again as a musician. All of this matters little as this Tuesday Buffalo finally gets a chance to see Kozelek do what he does best with his voice, a guitar and some well-chosen songs.