rock/pop
Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Population: 1,947. Home to Sesame Place and Philadelphia Biblical University, and birthplace of Brooklyn folkie Langhorne Slim (née Sean Skolnick). While it's no mystery why the young BuxCoian split town, you do wonder where the hell he found that Georgia accent.
Slim, who boasts Ryan Adams' hung-over good looks and a Two Gallants' Tourettesian weirdness, made his name opening gigs for the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players. It was an unlikely match: Slim's got that fucked-up backwoods dustbowl thing down like a 24-case of Bud, and the T-bergers are all shiny-happy model family. But both acts share a vaudevillian sensibility — the underlying idea that rock is one part talent and two parts charisma.
Slim's recent release, Engine EP (V2), is an exercise in trailer-park acoustics. He darts between wistful, warbly guitar ballads and a muddier sound evocative of the Black Keys. Listening, we see spoon-slapping illiterates and gutted Ford Galaxies parked on cinderblocks. It all begs the question: What turnip truck did this dude fall off, or climb on? Whether Slim actually eats baked beans out of a hubcap — or just sings like he does — is a mute point. Enjoy the fucking show, will you?
Fri., June 29, 7:30 p.m., $10, with Rocky Votolato & Hoots and Hellmouth, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 1-866-468-7619, www.r5productions.com.