Every year, one lucky pop single is by some mysterious consensus deemed acceptable to indie-rock sensibilities. When TED LEO combined “Since U Been Gone” with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps” in a solo-acoustic medley for an online video performance, it effectively ratified Kelly Clarkson’s soaring Avril homage as 2005’s winner. Yet Leo seemed to be implying neither that Kelly C’s hip quotient now equals Karen O’s, nor that Williamsburg chic is as crassly commodified as American Idol–he was just enjoying the elegant simplicity of the chord changes. On Shake the Sheets (Lookout), his latest full-length, the wiry guitarist similarly toys with pop components; the falsetto chorus of “Little Dawn,” for instance, suggests affinities between the soulful side of 70s soft rock and the Clash’s version of “Police and Thieves.” Leo’s own melodies are rarely as simple as those of the mainstream hits he’s covered–rooted in Celtic lyricism, they’re required to twist and crawl though his band’s tricky rhythmic shifts. There’s a political subtext to this craftiness: uncertain times might tempt us to embrace the powerful straight-ahead thrust of pop punk, but what we really need is the kind of versatility echoed in the Pharmacists’ arty playing. –Keith Harris
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Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Tad Kubler.
