Tin Men

The dark, malleable pop of The Aluminum Group.

by a.d. amorosi

When we look back at 1999, we’ll see it was a year for Perfect Pop. Showy, subtle records with deviant undertones from The Magnetic Fields, Jim O’Rourke, Bobby Conn, Rufus Wainwright (came out end of ’98, but why quibble) and Sam Prekop made a stand for atmospheric ballads and heart-stopping emotion without losing a shred of cred.

Add Navin brothers Frank and John to that list. As the Aluminum Group, their sound, a taut and sinister meeting of Sergio Mendes and Van Dyke Parks, is laden with ’80s-style hooks. Albums like Wonder Boy Plus (featuring the bitchy "That Fossil That You Call Your Lover"), Plano (the delicate portrait of "Sad Gay Life") and 1999’s Pedals (all on Minty Fresh) reveal a brotherly intimacy.

"It has always seemed natural to me," says John of his work with Frank. "There’s a sense of collaboration which in part is enhanced by being brothers. We like to share musical constructions with each other first.… Plus, Frank is my best editor."

Frank says he’s never known anything else.

Immersing themselves in fantasy seems as much a preoccupation now in their music as it was in their youth. Along with playing and being lousy students as youngsters, each credits the other for defining their sound. "Frank and I determined our vocal range, decided we liked the sound of two almost identical voices and have stuck to it," says John of the Aluminum Group trademark.

Though their voices are silken, neither thinks of himself as a crooner.

"Crooning is cliché," says John. "Stories are what interest me."

And Frank states, "The only crooner that impresses me is one singing out of a pine box that’s being lowered into the ground. Or a lip-synching drag queen."

The Aluminum Group is the result of a failed punk band — "a queerbait" act called Women In Love — that became an organic mix of sambas and ballads soaked in pretty analog synth, strummed guitar and plucked pianos and gentle rhythms. But this lovely sound did not come without angst. The much-maligned Wonder Boy Plus is the most romantic of the bunch, full of teary feelings and coolly sung ballads.

"Wonder Boy Plus is extremely emotional," says John. "Few get it, which is fine by me. When I was making it, I was all emotions. If you fail to feel real emotion listening to Frank’s ‘Fossil’… "

"I must keep my emotions hid in a Tupperware jar in the back on a freezer," explains Frank of "Fossil." "I remember having sex with a 74-year-old man, just so my Asian lover could stay in the country, then writing a song about it. But, I sang it in a rather cool way."

Each story they tell on the Jim O’Rourke-produced Pedals, easily the best among an elegant batch, describes the sad crevices of the human soul, songs that feel exquisitely bored while reaching for the moon.

"I wouldn’t say exquisitely bored, I’d say ‘exquisitely numb,’" counters Frank.

"Let’s not begin talking about love or I’ll have to kill you with precious moments," says John. "Most of my songs are about sex. To be degraded in a sexual way is not the worst thing."

Their romantic nihilism gives way to vague, open-ended treatises on truth ("Lie Detector Test"), dull existence (the dark "Two-Bit Faux Construction") and ego (the stagey cabaret of "Miss Tate") filled with kinky effects, old Moogs, bruised harpsichords, clavinets and banjos.

"I like things open ended" says John. "Like the movie Five Easy Pieces with Karen Black standing helpless and unsure at the gas station, just after going to the bathroom. Sometimes when I leave an unfinished thought in a song, it’s because I forgot what I was thinking."

Whether it’s John’s poetic-license-revoking "Miss Tate" (paralleling Sharon Tate and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles) or Frank’s "Before I tell you I love you, tell me if I’m wasting time" in "Lie Detector," each Aluminum Group moment is full of non-steely sentiment, as seen through bad dreams, books and past baggage. Does the back-and-forth between reality and dream make them a difficult act to love?

"I don’t think we’re difficult, but we’re certainly a handful," says John.

"I think we’re a handful," echoes Frank, "but I don’t think we’re difficult."

The Aluminum Group will play Fri., Dec. 3, at The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.

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