March 24-30, 2005

musicpicks

Birdie Busch/Regina Spektor

Rock/pop

Isn't everyone just giddy about Regina Spektor's splashy Soviet Kitsch CD? The Slav garage-iness. The punk Tori piano. And Spektor's voice? Such a voice. We were so excited about Kitsch a year ago that now that it's out, we're pretty much over it.

So let's talk about Birdie Busch (pictured). Originally part of the Amos Lee/Devin Greenwood klatch, Birdie quickly stood out with quietly quirky songs whose disturbed perkiness and deceptive simplicity (or simple deceptiveness) was matched by a fragile but wizened vocal sensibility. She's funky. Not dag funky. Odd funky. On The Ways We Try, produced by Greenwood for maximal Dylan/Al Kooper effect (those wheezy organs), the swelling structure never overwhelms Birdie's tiny voice. Her crackled rosiness draws you into "The Lightest Whitest" and "South Philly" as would a painter's smallest strokes — asides that speak volumes when you stand closer. So get closer.

Thu., March 24, 7 p.m., $10, North Star Bar, 2639 Poplar St., 215-684-0808.

—A.D. Amorosi