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November 9 - 16, 2000

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*** Ted Leo/Pharmacists

TREBLE IN TROUBLE

(Ace Fu)

On his new five-song EP, mod-rocker Ted Leo remembers that the original British mods cared about more than just mopeds and bullseyes. "There's a man in Brooklyn who police are messing up 'til dawn/While the man in California gives them semi-automatic guns," he sings on "Abner Louima v. Gov. Pete Wilson," the scathing indictment of police brutality that sets off Treble in Trouble. It's a refreshingly clear-headed tune from the former frontman of Chisel, whose solo debut last year was muddled by his somewhat misguided, if ambitious, explorations of dub production techniques. Here he forgoes samples and boombox embellishments in favor of a snappier and more straightforward guitar-driven pop rock that's spiked by high-wire vocals and the brashly sympathetic playing of friends from the Warmers, the Make-Up, and the Secret Stars. On "The 11th," Leo proves he's got more than Jam grabs up his sleeve -- "And what if instead/We weren't so wed to the tools of our own stupification?" he yelps over an off-time guitar riff and Amy Farina's clanging snare reports. And he closes out the EP with a delicate reading of Thin Lizzy's "Little Girl in Bloom," including boy-girl harmonies just in case anyone doubts his knowledge of rock-and-roll history.

-- Mikael Wood

(Ted Leo opens for J Church upstairs at the Middle East next Thursday, November 16. Call 864-EAST.)

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