Also this issue: The Sound and Di Furia Photon Band art scholar hears colors, sees sound. -Brian Howard Heller High Water A Philly expat talks about the end of Philadelphia as he knows it. -A.D. Amorosi Fads Will Tear Us Apart NYC's Interpol swims against the next wave. -John Vettese Ours -A.D. Amorosi Aimee Mann -Nicole Pensiero Kool Keith -Elisa Ludwig Hail Social -Hillary Rea Har Mar Superstar -Brian Howard

December 5-11, 2002

musicpicks

Marianne Nowottny

All the comparisons to prepubescent P.J. Harvey, pre-crappy Liz Phair and pre-death Nico seem a little desperate, not to mention premature. Nineteen-year-old N.J. singer/songwriter/spoken-word artist Marianne Nowottny doesn't sound much like anything that ever got popular. Scary and darkly charming, she's more like indie siren Shannon Wright -- but with a little more politics and a lot better posture. On her latest double disc, Manmade Girl (Abaton), Nowottny moans and wails above her keyboard with acute anger, disdain, passion and, above all, poise.

Her sudden appearance at Doc Watson's is a result of the once-and-again club's recent association with the kickass Plain Parade/Sugar Town booking people. Tonight, besides enlisting the sharp-as-shards Nowottny, they're hoping to recreate the smartypants vibe of the 215 Festival's "Writers Who Rock/Rockers Who Write" night (at The North Star). So they've enlisted a coven of readers including Spin's Diane Vadino, CP's Meredith Broussard and host Whitney Pastorek, senior editor of Pindeldyboz literary magazine.

Thu., Dec. 5, 9:30 p.m., $6, Doc Watson’s, 216 S. 11th St., 215-922-3427.

—Patrick Rapa