Also this issue:

Soul for Sale
De La Soul finds itself hunting for a new label and walking on sunshine.
-Chris Parker

The Gig
-Nate Chinen

Mercury Program/ The Six Parts Seven
-A.D. Amorosi

Mayflies USA
-Chris Parker

Diana Krall
-A.D. Amorosi

August 22-28, 2002

musicpicks

Hope Sandoval

Like a Chicano version of Nico, Hope Sandoval slowly slithered into notoriety as the sullen siren in Mazzy Star. With her smoky whispers and chanteuse leanings guiding the way, Mazzy made three late-night records of lullabies before Sandoval and guitarist David Roback put the band on hiatus. Sandoval soon regrouped and turned a friendly songwriting partnership with former My Bloody Valentine drummer Colin O'Ciosoig into the Warm Inventions, a more airy counterpart to Mazzy's drizzly musings. After releasing the At the Doorway Again EP last year, Sandoval and O'Ciosoig soon followed it up with debut album Bavarian Fruit Bread. Taking from the French pop of Serge Gainsbourg, songsmiths like Tim Buckley and Harry Nilsson and English folk, the Warm Inventions have created a sound that is at times a take on a film noir soundtrack ("On the Low") or Dylan circa Blonde on Blonde ("Suzanne"). Though the territory the Warm Inventions mines is shared by a host of would-be sensitive souls, something in Sandoval's soothing laments reveals that she's no pretender.

Sat., Aug. 24, 9 p.m., $18.50, with The Soledad Brothers, The TLA, 334 South St., 215-336-2000.

—Paul Burress