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

Hope Sandoval
-Paul Burress

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

Diana Krall
-A.D. Amorosi

August 22-28, 2002

musicpicks

Mayflies USA

Sunshine beams over the shoulders of Chapel Hill power popsters Mayflies USA. Their ringing guitars echo with the Southern pop of Big Star and The dB's, loaded with more hooks than a tackle box, and enough insistent pop drive to power a small city. The power side of their pop predilection is more evident onstage than in studio, but their latest, Walking in a Straight Line (Yep Roc), goes in another direction altogether, adding a heretofore unseen sophistication to their compositions. No longer just a sugar-fueled pop rush to the three-minute finish line, the Mayflies add a little sway to their shimmy, meandering over a folksy rock stroll that allows greater maneuverability and emotional musical breadth. Songs like "So Young," with its melancholic Replacements build, or the gentler Byrdsian, folk-tinged hope of "Malaysia," testify to this newfound maturity.

Sat., Aug. 24, 10 p.m., $8, with The Walkmen and The Situation, The North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-922-LIVE, www.northstarbar.com.

—Chris Parker