Australia’s two-person indie-pop partnership of Kate Cooper and Damon Cox results in a project not entirely different than a Matt & Kim or a Mates of State, but easily just as pleasurable. Cooper taking the lead makes a major difference—less reliant on bubblegum harmonies than many of its peers, the band’s driven by Cooper’s strong vocals. With these aggressively distorted guitar parts, it takes a powerful presence to not get lost in the milieu. The band’s debut EP, which came out in 2008, sparked some attention, and the duo’s first full-length, “Rearrange Beds,” gets its physical release next week. A song like “Horizons,” all indie-alt-pop and summertime excitable, is a gift that should go over well with festival crowds for years to come. The band’s name and distracting use of grammar is forgivable, especially when the band can even pull off a song like “Little Lungs,” a ballad of sorts among the rock ‘n’ roll, double-vocaled and embracing of, and even challenging a bit, the emo tag. One thing’s clear—Cooper’s lungs aren’t little. (Tom Lynch)
March 15 at Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace, (773)478-4408, at 9pm. $8-$10.
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
