Also this issue:

A Man Up
Father and Lilys frontman Kurt Heasley takes responsibility for the band he keeps rebuilding.
-Brian Howard

The Couple That Plays Together
Megan and Mason Wendell run Canary Publicity all day and make music all night in The Method and Result.
-Patrick Rapa

Al Green
-Paul Burress

Mondo Generator
-Sam Adams

Fog/Dosh/Beans/ The Majesticons
-A. D. Amorosi

Simply Jeff
-Sean O’Neal

DAT Politics
-Chris Nosal

Karan Casey
-Mary Armstrong

May 22-28, 2003

musicpicks

Cobra Verde

That Cobra Verde has been plying their brand of glam, bam, thank you ma'am '70s riff-rawk since before the current crop of "rock is back" snot faces were in prep school isn't what makes the Cleveland rockers special. What sets John Petkovic's group apart is that while bands like The White Stripes and The Strokes write songs as if they'd been dragged around the block a time or two, Cobra Verde writes songs because they actually have. In the wake of record label fiascos and the resultant hard touring (during which one former band member joined a pagan swingers group and another was institutionalized), Petkovic and company, now a four piece, have reemerged with a new album, Easy Listening, on a new label (MC5'er Wayne Kramer's MuscleTone Records). Consisting of equal parts hair-tossers and Bic-flickers, Easy Listening swipes reverent swatches from all the important glam gods. When Petkovic sings "This is a drinking song: Drink to what isn't here/ Raise a glass to the dead and gone/ And drink till they reappear" (on "Throw It Away"), it's not clear whether he's mourning or conjuring.

Wed., May 28, 9 p.m., $8, with Washington Social Club and Elefant at The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.

—Brian Howard