Also this issue: Once More, With Feeling After an 18-year break, Mission of Burma's Clint Conley returns with a brand-new band. -Sam Adams Local Land-Marc One of the greatest living piano virtuosos calls Philly home. -Lou Camp Beat Box Hip-Hop & You Don't Stop -Ainè Ardron-Doley The Gig -Nate Chinen They Survived Philly -Patrick Rapa

May 9-15, 2002

musicpicks

Rilo Kiley

This band doesn't need a guitarist as good as Blake Sennett. Rilo Kiley already has plenty of hooks to catch you: smart, hummable tunes, Jenny Lewis' tart and twangy voice, bizarre lyrics that shudder with joy and horror -- "Crash sites keep me up at night / impact, division / it splits in two / directly underneath you." No it's not necessary that this pop band let loose a mean-fingered rock guitarist like Sennett right in the middle of everything, but they do. And the effect is actually kind of mesmerizing, watching this kid in a mesh ball cap step forward to pull off 20 seconds of dazzling six-string tricks before slinking back into the melody. This band will win you over.

Sun., May 12, 5 p.m. $7, all ages show, w/ Ozma and New Dance Show, The Fire, 412 W. Girard Ave., 267-671-9298.

–Patrick Rapa