LIKE any epic hero, Peter Case, a singer/songwriter traveling the path cut by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, journeyed far beyond his roots to get back to where he started.
While he began as a street musician, hitchhiking from upstate New York to California and leaving a trail of folk and country blues songs, his first band the Nerves played on the same punk stages as the Germs and the Weirdoes in the late ’70s.
In his next incarnation, he appeared poolside in the teen cult hit “Valley Girl,” shouting “A Million Miles Away,” a hit from his pop rock band the Plimsouls, which disbanded in 1984.
Recently, Case, who’s in his mid-40s, was invited to sing Beatles classics with George Martin and an orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl.
Even while playing “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “I Am the Walrus,” Case never forgets his punk roots.
“I see it in my attitude,” says Case. “The music and its strength is very important. You don’t want to dilute it.”
Since the mid-’80s, Case has been working solo, chiseling songs on his acoustic guitar. He’ll pick up selections from his latest disc, “Flying Saucer Blues,” for two shows at the Bottom Line (15 W. 4th St.) Saturday night. Other shows worth catching this week:
TONIGHT: For those who aren’t going to wreck their heads with the Smashing Pumpkins at the Hammerstein, the alternative place of reckoning is the Built to Spill show tonight and tomorrow at Irving Plaza (17 Irving Place).
These Boise, Idaho, rockers fronted by Doug Martsch are returning to the scene of the crime, where they recorded some of their latest “Live” album, which features a 20-minute guitar frenzy on Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” and a smattering of songs from albums past.
TOMORROW: Take a twangy turn with Shivaree, led by Ambrosia Parsley, a coal miner’s granddaughter from Los Angeles.
Parsley, who at age 7 was the star of a 99-piece senior-citizen banjo band, named this trio after a pretty word she found in a Jesse James bio, defined as a loud drunken serenade with pots and pans.
They’ll be playing from their eerie “I Oughtta Give You a Shot for Making Me Live in This Dump,” at the Mercury Lounge (217 Houston St.).
THURSDAY: Last month when … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead brought their post-punk rock (whatever that is) to Brownies, these Austin boys were showered with beer bottles as they strung out on “Madonna,” their latest CD. They’ll take their two styles – soft-loud and loud-soft – to the Knitting Factory (74 Leonard St.). Wear your best coat of armor.
FRIDAY: Spring’s been a good time for Anglophiles with Brit-popsters Oasis, Travis and Charlatans UK in and out of town. On a third, self-titled album, Supergrass, at the Bowery Ballroom (6 Delancey St.), manages to evoke The Beatles, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop and Blur, sometimes all in one song, while inventing their own catchy sound.
SATURDAY: Fans of ’60s surf guitar ought to ride into Wetlands (161 Hudson St.) for Dick Dale, whose career got a kick-start after his “Miserlou” grooved onto the “Pulp Fiction” soundtrack.
SUNDAY: If you still have energy, stop by Manitoba’s (99 Ave. B), the Lower East Side joint owned by Handsome Dick Manitoba, of the punk avatars the Dictators, for a tribute to late, legendary rock critic Lester Bangs in celebration of a new Bangs bio.
Leave some energy for Monday’s Oasis/Travis show at Radio City Music Hall.
E-mail mhuhn@nypost.com
