Aunt Dracula

Sat., May 10, 8 p.m., $8, with Papertrigger and Hermit Thrushes, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.

by A.D. Amorosi

rock/pop

Kristie Krause (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Within a year of its existence, Philly's Aunt Dracula (Ash Andrien, Scott Daly) went from playing odd, frightened psychedelic folk to creating an edgier, irked noise pop that comes across like Tom Zé fronting Can. Frantic is the word. Yet their debut CD, Face Peel (produced with Jeff Zeigler of local shoe-gazers Relay) makes that meeting without losing a hint of the gentility or somnolent weirdness that we love about our dear old Aunt. "It's a 45-minute episodic sonic exploration of the connection between beauty and darkness," says Daly. "Some of it came from a pretty strange place in my life. I guess to me, it's kinda the sound of death and rebirth, if that makes sense." Scott. Your band's called Aunt Dracula. Everything makes sense. And don't be late to the show. Yeah, CP has already clued you in to Papertrigger, but enough can't be said about the mad angular psych-folk sounds of Philly's Hermit Thrushes or its brilliant, bristling recent CD, Benaki.

Sat., May 10, 8 p.m., $8, with Papertrigger and Hermit Thrushes, Johnny Brenda's, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.