INDIGO GIRLS

This two-CD collection of live concert and backstage recordings, including rare covers of songs by Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Gladys Knight, boasts great packaging and an even better band. Alas, as the covers make all too obvious, never has a less-talented group been more successful than this one. In the end, plain and simple, this is the sound of self-righteousness run amok. And it's not even on-key. For diehard fans only, is that clear?

JIM INFANTINO/JIM'S BIG EGO

Recorded live at Club Passim in Cambridge last June, Infantino's latest offers new and previously recorded songs and spoken-word pieces, some solo, some with his band. The first sounds you hear are, in order, some hysterical laughter, a dreamy, synthetic chord, an acoustic guitar, and then a meditation on underwear. The next 18 tracks clinch Infantino's status as one of the finest social satirists of his generation (that would be X). He's the missing link between Joni Mitchell and the Beastie Boys, and this CD, which could have been titled "More Songs about Death and Clothes," is a great introduction to the wacky world according to Jim.