Off The Record: Keegan DeWitt, Amanda Palmer

NEW LOCAL RELEASE

Keegan DeWitt

Islands

Theory 8

An album like Islands, the new full-length from recent Brooklyn transplant Keegan DeWitt, reminds you just how many so-called "orchestral" indie-pop/folk acts are just playing make-believe with their mini-string sections, romantic imagery and rustic wardrobes.

DeWitt puts all those elements in plain view on the tender, lush Islands - along with some heady poet quotes in lieu of a lyric sheet - but throughout, this unabashed sophistication is delivered with sincerity and authority.

Part of that comes from experience. In his former home, DeWitt scored five films, including Quiet City, which was nominated for an Independent Spirit award. Still, it would be lazy to toss the "cinematic" tag onto this understated collection. DeWitt's distinctly low-toned voice - unaffected and perpetually sleepy - channels thoughtful melodies that pivot and twist through sparse but potent string arrangements.

"I wish you could have two of everything beautiful that reminds me of you," he croons on "Telephone," which, like a number of high points, gracefully toes that tricky line between precociousness and classical simplicity - a line that so many of DeWitt's peers trample over.

 

NEW LOCALLY MADE RELEASE

Amanda Palmer

Who Killed Amanda Palmer?

Roadrunner

"The record was supposed to be simple," Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer has said about her Nashville-made solo debut. "It ended up not being simple at all."

She's referring to the method of choice for recording the album, going from the initial home recordings to letting super-fan Ben Folds produce the album in his Nashville studio.

But regardless of approach, songs as manic and exhaustive as Palmer's can't help but turn into complicated catastrophes - and beautiful ones, at that.

It's hard to say what carries more jarring force, Palmer's deranged, androgynous voice or her stark lyrics, which frequently swirl in such prickly topics as unwanted pregnancies and mental instability.

But Palmer's songs, at their buried cores, are packed with spooky but sticky refrains and strangely compelling narratives. This disc doesn't carry universal appeal, but to those on a similar wavelength, Who Killed reveals itself to be a remarkably pointed, focused and robust work, and one of the strongest piano-pop albums since Folds' own bold solo debut, Rockin' the Suburbs.

 

WHAT WE'VE HEARD

• Grimey's New & Preloved Music has scored a serious in-store coup: Legendary Beach Boy/songsmith Brian Wilson will stop by the store on Sunday, Nov. 9, to sign autographs and meet with Nashville fans. Visitors will need to snag a CD or vinyl copy of Wilson's new album, That Lucky Old Sun, to get a spot in line for the signing. He's due at 1 p.m., and other details are forthcoming. Wilson also performs on Nov. 10 at Ryman Auditorium.

• Nashville piano-pop star Ben Folds unveiled a new program called "The Sounds of Last Night ... This Morning," Billboard report. The program has the singer-songsmith teaming with iTunes to release recordings of live shows online swiftly post-event.

Folds will tour almost through the end of the year in support of his new Way to Normal album, and live audio from 10 different stops on the North American part of the jaunt will end up as part of "Sounds." At the end of the run, plans are to compile the live sets into one live album as an exclusive iTunes release.

• Hard-rock mainstays AC/DC have added 16 shows to their lengthy Black Ice world tour, and tacked on the end of the run is a stop at Nashville's Sommet Center on Jan. 31. Tickets will go on sale Sat., Oct. 11, through Ticketmaster.