[winter preview] Saturday: Butterknife @ Middle East, Coyote Kolb @ Great Scott

Eleven months from now, when everyone's busy trying to one-up each other with their Best of 2012 lists, two records that got the release party treatment on the same Saturday night in late January should be among the rare consistencies in everyone's Top Whatevers.

This weekend, melodic pop-rock trio BUTTERKNIFE drop new EP Do The Needful, which will be available for free at the Middle East in Cambridge, and across the mighty river Charles fast-rising Americana act COYOTE KOLB unveil United State at Great Scott in Allston. Butterknife's single "Restless" has been a staple of Boston Accents in recent weeks, and the Kolbs are the subject of this week's Cellars By Starlight feature in the Phoenix.

Need more? Here's what we said last month in our Winter Preview:

BUTTERKNIFE | Middle East upstairs | January 28 | "We don't really like guitar solos," reads part of the online biography from Somerville rock quartet Butterknife, and for good reason: when you pack this many hooks and melodies into a five-song EP, there's no time for showboating fuckery. New record Do the Needful shows a cohesive unit teetering on the brink of power-pop without getting too obnoxious about it, reminding us that there's nothing wrong with straight-up no-frills rock and roll with soul.

With GUILLERMO SEXO + THE SUSAN CONSTANT + GARAGE SALE PICASSO | 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 18+ | $10 | 617.864.3278 or mideastclub.com

COYOTE KOLB | Great Scott | January 28 | It's time Coyote Kolb joined the upper ranks of Boston's burgeoning Americana/roots scene. Nearly four years after Chadley Kolb founded the Jamaica Plain–based rock n' roadhousers, the band of Southern-heeled bandits drop sophomore record United State. It should be enough to place Kolb — the man and the Coyote — on the fast track to the bluesy front pages of roots acclaim.

With TALLAHASSEE + LARCENIST | 1222 Comm Ave, Allston | 21+ | $10 | 617.566.9014 or greatscottboston.com

Albedo by Coyote Kolb