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Also this issue:

Positive Charge
For all the controversy, Steve Earle's Jerusalem ends on a profoundly optimistic note.
-Sam Adams

Star Power
Homer Jackson's Dogon PM finds art and science under the same sky.
-Patrick Rapa

Joe Kim
-Patrick Rapa

The Capital City Dusters
-Paul Burress

GZA
-Paul Burress

Pleasure Club
-A.D. Amorosi

Smog
-Paul Burress

DJ Garth
-Sean O’Neal

November 21-27, 2002

musicpicks

Engine Down

A little lesson on guitar histrionics: While three-note power chords produce a robust timbre and a sense of immediacy, if you want a truly massive sound, it's best to incorporate all six strings. Engine Down knows this well; there is barely a bar chord to be heard on Demure (Lovitt Records), the third long player from this Richmond, Va., indie quartet. Frontman Keely Davis deftly strums away at minor key variations and sings in deadpan intonations recalling The Promise Ring's Davey Vonbohlen, while guitarist Jonathan Fuller responds with intersecting upper-register licks and melodies. The syncopated rhythm section of bassist Jason Wood and drummer Cornbread Compton creates a sturdy seat of punk urgency for the euphony to rest on, coming off at once gentle and grandiose. It almost sounds too big for the Owl Cove (Temple's café-by-day, show-space-by-night) to handle, but this is music you can warm up to despite the intensity.

Sat., Nov. 23, 7 p.m., $8-$10, with Ted Leo, Breaking Pangaea and Mock Orange, The Owl Cove, 1913 N. Broad St., Temple University.

—John Vettese

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