Jeffrey Lewis and the Jitters.
So this band opened the Mountain Goats show at the Troubadour last night. As my friend and I entered the venue and were milling about in the front bar area of the Troub, we thought the Mountain Goats were already on stage; Jeffrey Lewis can sound uncannily similar to John Darnielle at times. But we hurried into the main room just as Jeffrey Lewis said the next song would feature a slide show, which seemed a bit un-John Darnielle-esque. In this song, Jeffrey Lewis had made an illustration for each line of a hilariously endearing song about the trials and tribulations of young punks and hippies. It set the tone that this is a seriously quirky band. A bit like the Moldy Peaches meets the Dead Milkmen meets Daniel Johnston meets X meets probably a ton of influential lo-fi punk bands that are too underground to even appear on our radar screen meets a bunch of graphic designers and comic book artists. It could easily come off as being too cute, but they rock enough and there's enough of an edge to make it work. They played for about an hour and we found it a completely satisfying hour.
So check 'em out.
On the web.
At myspace.
