Also this issue: Austin Power Philly bands look for big breaks at SXSW. —Maura Johnston Laying It Bare Dashboard Confessional jams on the breaks. —Brian Howard Fiddle Sticks Laurie Lewis says the bluegrass craze is for real this time. —Mary Armstrong Bobby McFerrin —Nate Chinen Martha Argerich —Andrew Ervin

April 4-10, 2002

musicpicks

Clinic

Internal Wrangler, the first album from the Liverpool quartet Clinic, is like a stuttering karaoke machine fed through an echo chamber. Just when you thought you'd figured out exactly where they'd swiped one tune from -- "Dude, aren't those the changes from ŒA Quick One'?" -- they'd switch it up on you, veering off in a completely different direction. Walking With Thee (Domino) finds the band corralling their early-'80s reference points a little more securely, a little Cabaret Voltaire here, a little Echo and the Bunnymen there. For some reason, half the songs still sound vaguely reminiscent of TV theme songs -- tracks one and three recall The X Files and Knight Rider respectively -- and their Radiohead-esque lyrical mopery can get a bit tiresome at times. But they're edging toward a real mastery of space; the art-rock precision with which instruments drop in and out creates a tangible sense of excitement. Any band that uses a melodica with such regularity can't be all bad.

Fri., April 5, $10, with the Kingsbury Manx and Palomar, North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-922-LIVE, www.northstarbar.com.

—Sam Adams