July 7-13, 2005

musicpicks

Cass McCombs

Rock/Pop

If you find Cass McCombs enigmatic, don't feel bad — that's just how he's playing it. From the ambiguous name to the mossy Brit-pop and opaque lyrics of his second album, Prefection (4AD), he wields a license to confuse. The dark-hearted storyteller whips up tales of whores, wanderers and beat-down miscreants, rendering them in enough detail to entice, but not so much that you don't have to do a little gap-filling of your own. Imagery of skulls, hearts and blood permeate Prefection's 10 tracks, as well as some serious Morrissey cribbing (close your eyes on "Sacred Heart" — "Alas, Jimmy/ and all the members of the covenant" — and try not to picture Moz). McCombs plays the Smiths card, the Cure card and even the Doors card, all of which further obfuscates the matter — McCombs, for all his continental pretensions (the haircut, the suit), grew up on the mean streets of Baltimore.

Thu., July 7, 9 p.m., $10, with The Double, Private Sea and Mike Wexler, North Star Bar, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-684-0808, www.northstarbar.com.

—Brian Howard