Also this issue: Erratic Thriller Rock Luddites Erase Errata find comfort in the chaos. -M.J. Fine Vinyl Smarts Between Language Arts People Under the Stairs' true school addicts and J-Live's middle school tactics. -Hamida Kinge Summer Monster The package tour -- something wicked this way comes. -Patrick Rapa Tight and Wild Willie and Lobo pull the world out of little wooden boxes. -Nicole Pensiero Mickey Hart and BembŽ Orisha -Mary Armstrong

August 8-14, 2002

musicpicks

April Disaster

This band is anything but a disaster. These new faces on Philly’s indie scene have turned heads at La Tazza and Sugar Town by weaving strings and keyboards into the standard guitar-bass-drums structure. Carolynne McNeel’s plaintive voice stands out in the mix, and she sure likes to take her time to say what she has to say; most songs on the band’s self-titled EP (on Best Friend Records) close in around the six-minute mark. Falling somewhere between Dean Wareham-styled simplicity and Belle & Sebastian’s more elaborate chamber-pop, the four-song set is a good showing, but deceptively tranquil. In other words, don’t go bringing pillows with you to The Khyber. Onstage, this quintet has a knack for making even the quietest cello line invigorating.

Tue., Aug. 13, 9 p.m., $6, with Radio Vogo, Umiak and Readyset, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.

—John Vettese

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there