BIS 7/25, METRO On its second album, The New Transistor Heroes, the Scottish trio purveys a loud, high-energy new wave pop that at its best sounds like a cross between Sleater-Kinney and the Human League. But the capper is the cover, which portrays the trio as round-eyed Japanese cartoon characters, making them British kids paying tribute to Japanese reinventions of British pop, itself a reinvention of an American phenomenon. Ain’t this global village great?
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CRAIG CHAQUICO 7/25, SKYLINE stage Guitarist Chaquico, who had the lack of vision to be a member of Starship, is traveling with the “Guitars, Saxes & More” tour, which also includes smooth-jazz types saxophonist Richard Elliot, trumpeter-flugelhornist Rick Braun, and guitarist Peter White. The 30-minute sets by each musician are supposed to segue into one another, “giving fans two hours of non-stop music.” But if the twee hippie Muzak of Chaquico’s A Thousand Pictures is any indication, that promise sounds more like a threat.
GLYN STYLER 7/26, DOUBLE DOOR There’s no one better poised than this post-everything crooner from New Orleans to thoroughly exploit the lounge revival. A former collaborator with Lydia Lunch, Alex Chilton, and Green on Red, Styler has a dark, affectless voice that injects the grim originals and standards on his new Live at the Mermaid Lounge (Truckstop) with a pretty poison–and just enough explicit sex and violence to carry the torch song right into the jaded 90s.
