Friday, March 16

Gruff Rhys

11pm, Bourbon Rocks

If Super Furry Animals are the Welsh equivalent of the Flaming Lips, then their leader, Gruff Rhys, is the UK’s answer to Wayne Coyne. Whether either musician would be flattered by this comparison is debatable. Nevertheless, there’s no escaping the fact that both Rhys and Coyne are musical magpies, drawing on innumerable aspects of pop culture to weave tapestries of modern psychedelia. On Candylion, his second solo outing, Rhys stitches together folk, Tropicalia, Brian Wilson-esque pop, and Velvets-styled drone rock along with the odd undercurrent of sonic violence. The album, recorded on the Welsh island of Anglesey and completed in Brazil, also finds the 36-year-old attempting to sing in “very shit Spanish” on “Con Carino,” as well as delivering a track in his Welsh mother tongue on “Gyrru, Gyrru, Gyrru,” which translates as “Driving, Driving, Driving” and is Rhys’ ode to perpetual motion. “It covers all aspects of getting from A to B: rowing boats, helicopters with electronic brains, walking, swimming, rowing, cycling. I could go on. It’s about the aceness of travel, of motion,” explains Rhys. “The word ‘drive’ can mean all kinds of things. You can drive people mad, or you can drive cows.” Proof indeed that Gruff Rhys is truly a man on the move. In more ways than one.

Four more “MOJO’ Brit Picks

Seth Lakeman, La Zona Rosa, 8:30pm

The Good, the Bad, & the Queen, Stubb’s, 12:45am

Adem, Co-op Bar, 9pm

The Electric Soft Parade, Maggie Mae’s Rooftop, 1am

This article appears in March 16 • 2007.

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