Also this issue: In iPod He Trusts DJ Botany 500 inserts his brain into a little white box and rents it out. -Patrick Rapa Angelo Cho -Peter Burwasser Best to read it every week -Patrick Rapa Ed Harcourt -Andrew Parks Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra -Peter Burwasser Erin McKeown -Nancy Armstrong Electric Six -Paul Burress Tiësto -Sean O’Neal

June 12-18, 2003

musicpicks

Ted Leo/Pharmacists

About a month ago, indie punk legend Ted Leo blew out his larynx two songs into a show in Urbana, Ill. The rock-star thing to do would have been to call off the rest of the set and apologize profusely. But Ted Leo's no rock star. As he explains at www.tedleo.com, "For a second, I was really, really shaken, but the thing is, the room was full of people who'd paid to see us, and what could I do? They deserved as much effort as I could muster." So the show went on. And though he has had to cancel several shows in the interim to allow his achy voice box to heal, Leo's worked to get back on the road as quickly as possible (his site features medical updates and photos from inside his throat). So Leo and his Pharmacists are set to take The North Star stage for a special all-ages show Sunday, as originally scheduled, to tear through the mod-inflected, politically charged selections from their stunning Hearts of Oak (Lookout!). Not that Leo and company need the added drama, but Leo's larynx woes will certainly give the opening line -- "It's times like these when a neck looks for a knife" -- of the album's standout "Where Have All the Rudeboys Gone?" a certain added gravitas.

Sun., June 15, 7:30 p.m., all ages, $10, with Jai Alai Savant, Lefty’s Deceiver and Hail Social, The North Star, 2639 Poplar St., 215-684-0808.

—Brian Howard