Hard-wired

What we don't like about the two-year-old-plus Boston band the Information: the name. How bland can you be? That makes it sound like it's a modern day Huey Lewis & the News. What we do like: the debut album title, ''Mistakes We Knew We Were Making," which shows a nice sense of self-deprecation. What we love about the sextet: insistent hooks, a double guitar/synth tag-team attack that recalls a more frenetic version of the Cars. The group's radio song, ''I Lose Control," reminds us of Joy Division's classic ''She's Lost Control." In this nervous-but-surging number, Max Fresen sings, ''When you play the ghost, you know I call the host/And when you're leaving by that road you know I dig the most/And I lose control." We like that imagery. And we remain pleased that the late-'70s/early-'80s post-punk/new wave fires keep burning in the minds of young Turks. Heck, Interpol just booked an Orpheum date March 9. It's just rock 'n' roll with brains, attitude, cheek, style, and wit. That's all. The Information's CD release party happens at the Paradise tonight. The 18-plus show begins at 9. Opening: the Good North, Asobi Seksu, and Emergency Music. Tickets: $10.

967 Commonwealth Ave., 617-562-8800.

Songs sung blue
Lord knows how we love exquisite sad songs and the singers of sad songs, like Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Ian Curtis (of Joy Division), Stuart Staples (of Tindersticks), and Robert Fisher from the Willard Grant Conspiracy. We can't call Fisher ''Boston's own" anymore 'cause he up and left these parts for the Mojave Desert. The WGC is less a finite band than a collective of individuals who contribute when they can -- there are 31 (give or take) part-time members. Fisher and six to eight other musicians are coming home to T.T. the Bear's Place to play the 36th birthday party for promoter Aliza Shapiro of Truth Serum Productions. Shapiro muses that sad songs ''have gotten me through many a dark day and few too bright. Well, it's my party and I'll cry if I want to." It should be plenty mournful and gorgeous during the WGC's set, especially if they feature songs from their latest, brilliant CD, ''Regard the End." Fisher calls the emotionally rich disc ''a mediation on mortality . . . how you relate to your death is how you define your life. It isn't age-specific, just realizing you're a mortal creature and it changes your perspective." The bill is topped by longtime Boston princess of darkness Thalia Zedek (Come, Live Skull, Uzi, etc.). Opening are the groups Seekonk, and the Lovers. It starts at 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $9.

10 Brookline St., Cambridge, 617-492-0082.

Fast food
Is Go! really going to direct you to a rice and bean burrito eating contest? Darn tootin'! That's because there's a celebrity (and one of the best athletes ever to put on a Boston uniform) involved, the Bruins' Ray Bourque. This is a charity event, and he's performing his civic duty like hundreds of former Bruins have done before him. (Money goes to the umbrella organization Celebrities for Charities.) Bourque is hosting the Qdoba Mexican Grill All Star Rice and Beanpot Finals at Axis tonight at 7. Four students from each of the four schools in the Beanpot Tournament (clever tie-in, huh?) -- Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern University, and Harvard University -- have been competing in preliminary competitions involving the aforementioned foodstuffs, where quantity of food and speed eating are the criteria. ''It's quite comical," said a wag who attended an early round. The winning team gets a trip to Cancun for Spring Break 2005, where they will no doubt behave decorously. Tonight, you can enjoy the merriment for $25 ($10 with a student ID) and before that, go to one of the five Qdoba restaurants and order a Ray Bourque 77 Special Burrito Meal, where a portion of the proceeds goes to Celebrities for Charities. (Today's the last day for that special.) Tonight's gig also features a silent auction with sports memorabilia and music by State Radio.

13 Lansdowne St., 781-235-1904.

Local color
Been thinking about blizzards much? Sure you have. We just dug out of one, and we'll probably get whacked again. Bob Flaherty, who's now 54, was here during the Blizzard of '78, when Boston looked like Antarctica for a week. Flaherty ruminated about this for, oh, a couple of decades as he considered how to incorporate it into a novel. Eureka! In his debut, ''Puff," he tells the story of two brothers, John and Gully, who, posing as Red Cross workers, drive their van through almost every neighborhood in Boston to try to score a bag of weed. They encounter cops, their childhood priest, a knife-wielding maniac, and more. The serious backdrop to this comic novel is about the racial tensions of the times and the struggles of a working-class suburban family. Charles Huston, author of ''Caught Stealing," heaps this kind of praise on Flaherty's book: ''Scenes that will make you blow your school milk out your nose." Flaherty, who now lives in Northampton, is making the trip in for a talk and signing at the Harvard Coop at 7 p.m. It's free.

1400 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-499-2012.

Events can always be canceled, rescheduled or rescheduled, or sold out; call to confirm. Go! can be reached at go@globe.com or by calling 617-929-8257.