Friday 08.28.09: TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS / JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD @ echo

Posted by Brianna - filed in 18+, echo, events

ted-leo

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists || Listen || Watch

Ted Leo, one of rock’s last great intellectual populists, likes to throw you. Now on his fifth album, Living With the Living, the thirtysomething rocker still prefers the same music he’s probably loved since his teens: the smarty-pants punk and new wave of turn-of-the-1970s UK labels like Stiff; the amped-up rhythm’n’soul of 60s mod and ska; the rangy heavy rock of Thin Lizzy; the hard-strumming folksiness of 80s indie; and the idealism impressed on him by American hardcore. The Pharmacists’ oeuvre is all of a two-toned piece, but each record stands on its own, just different enough from its predecessor. So while I haven’t lived with Living for very long, it’s steadily grown on me, making me want to rave louder about it than it may deserve.

Call me a booster rather than a critic, but I love Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and seriously want this band be, like, fucking huge. But at the same time, and call me old-fashioned, it’s honorable the way Leo has opted to grow his audience and his songwriting talent organically– and watch both increase exponentially, on his own terms. I like that he’s got ethics and ideals that go beyond lifestyle choices. I like that he sees writing the most compassionate song possible about eating disorders as a political act, because it is. And with its airtight rhythm section and the crackling energy of its bug-eyed frontman in his Conflict T-shirt, no rock band currently touring puts on a better live show than the Pharmacists. – Pitchfork

with:
JEFF The Brotherhood