Also this issue:

Nashville's Back Lot
The Folk Alliance Showcase reveals the gears of the music-licensing machine.
-Mary Armstrong

Keep Moving
The Secession Movement is a band with a plan.
-Paul Burress

Old Gods Alive Again
The Choral Arts Society exhumes our musical lineage.
-Peter Burwasser

Aereogramme
-John Vettese

Lo-Hi
-M.J. Fine

TV Smith
-Sam Adams

Mary Timony
-M.J. Fine

Dysrhythmia
-Paul Burress

March 27-April 2, 2003

musicpicks

The Aislers Set

It's a sign of these imagination-starved times in indie rock that so many bands sound great until you really start to listen. The Aislers Set have the vintage instruments, the studio know-how and the record collections to hint at a whole range of pop flavors, but they're too often content to merely sound pretty -- surely any of the bands that "Mission Bells," the single from the band's How I Learned to Write Backwards (Suicide Squeeze), draws from would know better than to let words like "paradigm" and "atavistic" creep their way into a peppy concoction that ends with two minutes of wordless singing. (Actually, producer/singer Amy Linton is so fond of reverb that it's an occasion when a discernible word claws its way to the top of the mix.) When your ears do perk up, it's a second-generation thrill: With its eight-note strum and echoing vocals, "Languor in the Balcony" sounds uncannily like Tallulah Gosh, but then, so does Tallulah Gosh. That's not to say How I Learned doesn't have its uses. Pristine-sounding without making any real demands on your attention, it's ideal background music, which makes this an ideal show to grab your drink, catch up with friends, and occasionally turn your attention stageward, wondering "Are they still on?"

Thu., March 27, 9 p.m., $8, with Hella and Quailes, The North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-684-0808.

—Sam Adams