The sound of science

Ted Leo/ Pharmacists

Saturday Looks Good to Me

Bats and Mice

Tonight, 7:30

Public Health… Ted Leo/ Pharmacists

Saturday Looks Good to Me

Bats and Mice

Tonight, 7:30

Public Health Auditorium

$7

Sponsored by WPTS

New York-based singer/songwriter Ted Leo, an artist on the Berkeley-based Lookout! Records label, is coming to Pitt tonight, though throughout his relatively lengthy music career, he’s no stranger to Pittsburgh.

Ted Leo and his current band, The Pharmacists, just released the 13-track album Hearts of Oak, which he partially produced, that follows up to 2001’s superb The Tyranny of Distance. His mixture of radio-friendly pop and wordy lyrics just about perfectly defines college rock.

Hearts of Oak is a cream of the crop indie rock album, deserving of that “if-only-it-could-be-on-the-radio” status. Its tracks have the radical politics of late ’80s D.C. hardcore and the leftistst dance pop of Chumbawamba. Leo’s music is melodic and full of hooks, but exists not just under a phony return-to-rock premise. The album is rollicking and exuberant, full of constant tapping and rattling from noisemakers and tambourines.

During the ’90s, Ted Leo played with and fronted a host of memorable bands, including D.C. mod-punk band Chisel and New York hardcore bands Citizens Arrest and Animal Crackers and Sin Eaters.

He has been solo since 1997, producing a batch of inconsistent records that alternated between experimental stylings and guitar rock. The Pharmacists have toured during the past two years with indie rock reputables Q and Not U, Quasi, Radio 4 and on their own.

Leo plays epic, proud rock songs, belting them out in a wavering but strong falsetto, accompanied by a great big hollow body electric guitar. Encompassing a broad portion of rock history, Leo is a true guitar-slinger, echoing the likes of Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Bragg. But he isn’t striving for a hipster image, let alone any image at all.

Under the guise of appealing pop music, Leo gets in some serious social commentary. He even openly condemned police brutality right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks during a show at Tufts University before “Abner Louima vs. Gov. Pete Wilson,” a song about Louima’s murder by the NYPD. On Hearts of Oak, Leo expounds catchily to a guilty American traveler on the “why does everyone hate the U.S.” question in “The Ballad of the Sin Eater” referring to the U.S. as a “land of fungible convictions.”

Leo also salutes the Specials with the track “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?” The album also contains cleverly deadpan lyrics such as “I’m a ghost and I wanted you to know that it’s taken all my strength to make this toast,” from the track “I’m a Ghost.”

Michigan-based supergroup Saturday Looks Good to Me formed in 1999 and features members of Flashpapr, Lovesick, Godzuki, the Sparklers, Outrageous Cherry and His Name Is Alive. They have released two albums on Polyvinyl Records, and are known to perform with eight to 10 members.

Tacking on a few more to the list of formerly-ofs, Bats and Mice features members of Milemarker, the Rah Bras, Sleepytime Trio, Four Hundred Years and the Men’s Recovery Project. In 2002, they released their debut Believe It Mammals on Lovitt records.

Ted Leo and Pharmacists might just get the indie rockers dancing. Also, it’s likely that someone or other from your favorite obscure defunct band will probably be at this show as well.