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Hear Ted Leo's perfect pop tonight at Midnight Sun ROSS RAIHALA Originally published Oct. 19, 2001
Fans of power pop at its finest should not miss the Ted Leo and his Fellow Pharmacists show tonight in downtown Olympia.
Leo's in town to promote his latest album "The Tyranny of Distance," a terrific collection of songs released by the Berkeley-based Lookout! Records.
His lengthy resume begins with memberships in the late-'80s New York hard-core bands Citizen's Arrest and Animal Crackers.
In 1990, Leo moved to Washington, D.C., where he founded the more melodic Chisel, a band that released a pair of well- received albums before splitting in 1997.
A stint as the touring guitarist for the Spinanes and a go-round with the short-lived band the Sin Eaters led to Leo's solo career.
He kicked it off with a 1999 debut on the Gern Blandsten label. The record's mix of straightforward songs with studio tomfoolery suggested greater things to come.
Those things arrived with Leo's second full-length solo album, "The Tyranny of Distance." It showcases a sparkling pop sensibility that, at times, echoes the works of singer/songwriters such as Marshall Crenshaw, Michael Penn, Billy Bragg and Alex Chilton. But Leo rarely sounds derivative. If anything, "The Tyranny of Distance" teems with the promise of future gems.
Calvin Johnson's Dub Narcotic Sound System opens the all-ages show, which will take place at 8:30 p.m. today at the Midnight Sun, 113 Columbia St. N.W., Olympia. Tickets are $6 at the door.
Inner sounds
Another intriguing act set to play Olympia tonight is Inner, a band fronted by major-label survivor Jennifer Turner.
Made up of a loose collection of musicians -- including Mark Heringer, formerly of Portland's Subatomic Calling -- Inner perform a seductive sort of rock drenched with moog synthesizers and subtle acoustic instrumentation.
Turner's strong vocals top it all off, sometimes recalling early '70s folk, other times mid-'90s trip hop -- often within the same song.
After playing lead guitar for Natalie Merchant, Turner formed Furslide, a band that specialized in highly commercial alt-rock in the vein of Garbage. Despite some positive press and tours with Alanis Morissette, Lenny Kravitz and Ben Folds Five, Furslide never really connected with the masses. Shortly before releasing its second album, Furslide called it quits.
That left Turner still signed to Furslide's home, Virgin Records, with no band but plenty of songs. She recorded an album's worth of demos during a two-week stint in London with programmer Fabian Waltmann. Ecstatic with the results, Turner turned the songs over to Virgin.
The label apparently liked the demos as well, but wanted to send Turner back to the studio to give them a little polish. After some discussion, the label allowed Turner to self-release the record under the band name Inner.
Turner seems eager to make it work on her own. She booked a fairly exhaustive two-month West Coast tour that includes 27 dates in three states (Inner will play Portland five times in a two-week period).
Inner will perform a 9:30 p.m. show today at the 4th Ave. Alehouse & Eatery, 210 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia. Tickets are $6 at the door.
The Top 10
This week's music-related Top 10 list comes from Jenny Toomey, the singer/songwriter of Tsunami, Liquorice and Grenadine who was profiled in Thursday's edition of The Olympian.
Toomey is on tour to support her first solo album, the brilliant double-disc set "Antidote." She plays Seattle's Sit and Spin at 9 p.m. tonight. Tickets are $8 from Ticketweb.com.
In order to keep things democratic, Toomey split her Top 10 list between her touring band. Violinist Jean Cook chose "Susie Ibarra (and) Danko Jones, because they are superhuman live performers"; pianist Franklin Bruno weighed in with "Hammers & Anvils" by Graeme Downes and "Dizzy Spells" by the Ex; Toomey guessed her bass player Amy Domingues would pick "the new Fugazi ('Argument') and Edith Frost ('Wonder Wonder') records because they are great and she played on them both"; and Toomey herself settled on "Poses" by Rufus Wainwright, Andrew Bird as both a live act and his new record ("Swimming Hour") as well as the Aluminum Group.
As for the 10th selection in her list, Toomey said "my drummer Jay Toby is asleep, but he said some nice things about T (Thelonious) Monk tonight as it is his birthday."
Ross Raihala covers music for The Olympian. Send news and Top 10 lists to OlyRoss@aol.com. The Olympian Copyright 2001 |
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