Cuddle Magic
Tue., Dec. 8, 7 p.m., $5, with New Philadelphia Poets and Josh Carrigan, Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Ave., 215-426-2685, cuddle-magic.com.
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rock/pop
Flanked as it is by 12 boys and girls, vibraphones, guitars and such, you'd think a little 3-foot-high plastic penguin would be hard to spot. Yet anytime I mention Cuddle Magic to someone who likes them as much as I, invariably they reply, "That penguin, right?" Broken off from local bands — the avant-classicist Bird.Fly.Yellow., the danz-pop Jill Rabbits — the Philly/Boston/NY state band uses rustic folk, bossa-jazz and sleek cosmopolitan harmonies to guide the long-form songs on their upcoming Picture (FYO Records). Mostly written by ukulele-ist/singer Ben Davis and clarinetist/singer Alec Spiegelman, Picture picks up where Cuddle Magic's eponymous debut left off — sad, symphonic, plucky, curvaceous. While "I'm So Far" is a tipsy crinkled samba with the squeakiest of voices (Kristin Slipp) to guide it, "Don't Forget" is broken-beat blip-folk with just the silliest chorus — "Don't forget to fuck/ up what you have/ Follow uppercuts with a left jab/ You can't count the colors in olive drab." The first best album of 2010? You bet.
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