Telekinesis
Saturday
Reviewed by Doug Freeman, Fri., March 20, 2009
Telekinesis
Telekinesis! (Merge)For a band that drafts so closely behind Death Cab for Cutie, Telekinesis' brilliant career launch of having Chris Walla produce its debut LP doesn't do much to distinguish the band from its idols. Principally the project of Seattle's Michael Benjamin Lerner, who even looks like a young Ben Gibbard, Telekinesis unabashedly channels its fellow Northwesterners with considerable aplomb, especially through the emotional drive of numbers like "Coast of Carolina," "Foreign Room," and "Great Lakes." It's Lerner's mimicking of Death Cab's less impressive elements that does Telekinesis disservice, though: indulgent lyrical repetitions and awkward, Gibbard-ish lines like, "Going to find a way outside; that's the day I'm gonna make you my wife." When Lerner drifts beyond his sphere of influence, pop surge "Tokyo" and "Look to the East" hint at considerable talent, if he eventually finds his own road. (Sat., the Parish, 8pm.)