Ed Valauskas is busy. In addition to managing Boston’s Q Division recording studio and record label and holding down the low end on bass for The Gentlemen, he’s also been a producer (The Dents, Furvis, Superlow, Jules Verdone) and sideman (Wheat, Juliana Hatfield and baseball sportswriter/guru Peter Gammons)—after he made a name for himself touring all over creation with The Gravel Pit. Ed V. and The Gentlemen have backed Gammons at every Red Sox benefit “Hot Stove, Cool Music” concert since 2001, and Valauskas and some of his Gentlemen co-conspirators recorded a CD with Gammons, which will be released this summer on Rounder Records. Occasionally he sleeps, too (probably).

This Thursday night, May 11, Valauskas and his The Gentlemen bandmates—Mike Gent (guitar), Lucky Jackson (guitar) and Pete Caldes (drums)—will share the stage with the newly reformed power-poppers Heavens to Murgatroid and Boston punkers The Dents for an old school rock throw down at The Stone Church in Newmarket. Beer, sweat and rock. How can you go wrong?

The Gentlemen, Heavens to Murgatroid and The Dents are playing some shows together this weekend—on Thursday at The Stone Church, on Friday at Geno’s in Portland and on Saturday the Middle East in Cambridge. Sounds like a hell of a bill for rock fans. How did these shows come together, and how long have you all known each other?
We have been friends with HTM for nearly 10 years now. We played tons of shows together back in the day with both The Figgs and The Gravel Pit but haven’t played together with them as The Gentlemen yet.
I’ve been producing The Dents for the last few years—Tim (McCoy) from HTM just saw them recently and dug them—so we threw a weekend bill together.

You guys favor energetic, hooky songs with a straight-up “keep it simple” approach. As one music writer said about the band: “Just take rock ’n’ roll, play it hard, and the people will come.” Are there any guiding principles for your live shows?
No set list—whatever comes to Mike Gent’s head is what we play. It keeps the band on our collective toes and leaves room for fun random things to happen.

The Gentlemen get their name from Mike Gent, your frontman and Figgs leader. How did you, Jackson and Caldes come to be involved in the project?
We’ve been friends with Mike and The Figgs since we started playing shows together back in 1993. In 1999, Mike came out with The Gravel Pit as tour manager and opening act (The Gravel Pit would back him up). At the end of that tour we booked a gig at TOAD in Cambridge under “Lonely Mike and the Something-or-Others.” I forget what it actually was. Jed Parish, singer/Farfisa player for The Gravel Pit, forgot to show up that night and the band was born.

You have the unfortunate role as the bass player, playing that big, stupid instrument. What do you have to say for yourself?
Bass, gotta have it.

But seriously, when was it in your musical development that knew that the bass was for you? Was there a particular artist or song that created that “lightbulb” moment for you regarding the bass, specifically?
The fact that everyone where I grew up played guitar. I figured if I bought a bass, I could get into a band pretty easily, even if I sucked. Which I did. The first two Joe Jackson records did it for me. I have pretty much heisted Graham Maby’s style of playing (as Tim McCoy and Michelle Dent have), and I got him to sign my bass back in 1997. A huge thrill for me.

You contributed your producing and songwriting skills to the last two Gentlemen CDs. Has it always been that way with your other bands?
Never. The Gravel Pit was all Jed’s songs. And when you are in a band with someone who’s that amazing, why would you have other people writing songs? It was Gent’s idea to have Lucky and I write and sing. He didn’t want to be the only singer. He thought it would be more interesting to have more than one singer. And interesting is a good word for our singing. Kidding aside, I love Lucky’s songs—they’re my favorite ones to play.

In addition to being a bass player, you also manage Q Division, a Boston based recording studio/record label. Have you always been into recording? How did you land such a sweet gig?
I got into recording from making Gravel Pit records and working at Q on and off for the last 10 years. I learned a lot from just being in the studio with Mike Denneen (Aimee Mann, Fountains of Wayne). I started working for Q in ’95 when they started a label. I worked for free for a while. When they couldn’t get rid of me, they hired me.

What’s the recording/writing process like with The Gents? I know you guys are super busy with all of your other projects. The latest CD took a couple years to finish, right?
We tracked all of the basics in three days. Then I went on tour with Wheat for a bunch. When I got back, we finished up at a bunch of places over the span of about a year and a half. This was mostly due to people’s schedules and the fact that we had no money. If we make another record, it will be tracked and mixed in a week. None of us want to go through that again.

Has there been any discussion about fusing the three bands into one supergroup called Heavens to Dentlemen?
Yes. Three bass players, drum machine, with Gent drummer Pete Caldes singing and dancing—all slow jams.