Also this issue: Positive Charge For all the controversy, Steve Earle's Jerusalem ends on a profoundly optimistic note. -Sam Adams Star Power Homer Jackson's Dogon PM finds art and science under the same sky. -Patrick Rapa Joe Kim -Patrick Rapa The Capital City Dusters -Paul Burress Engine Down -John Vettese GZA -Paul Burress Pleasure Club -A.D. Amorosi Smog -Paul Burress

November 21-27, 2002

musicpicks

The University

"There's nothing worse than seeing a band that looks like they don't want to be there," says Dominic Umile, guitarist for West Chester-based band The University. "We like our stuff and we have a good time playing it." Umile and his bandmates (guitarist/vocalist Jon Pepe, guitarist/vocalist Jim Brett, bassist Mark Richter and drummer John Ziga) play straight-ahead, retrograde rock 'n' roll with a little bit of shake and a little bit of soul. The band's self-titled four-song EP looks both backward and ahead, with stop-start guitar riffs and organ lines worthy of any '60s go-go party in support of lyrics full of modern life -- everyday conversations, full disclosures and total candor ("hey you, I got something to tell you/ you're still a bore"). Umile credits an era long past for inspiration: "Like '64 to '69, Motown and soul -- that's just the peak of creativity as far as music is concerned." Fittingly, they've been known to cover Sam Cooke's "Bring It on Home to Me" with all the mournful sexual energy a little indie band can muster.

Thu., Nov. 21, 9 p.m., $6, with The Star Spangles, The Lickables and Kettle, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.

—Lori Hill