SUNDAY

The history of rock is rife with startling metamorphoses (Elvis Presley from rockabilly cool to gravy-bloat glitter, David Byrne from faux-scary “psycho killer” to genuinely scary maraca-shaking meringue man). With its new release, Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth, His Name Is Alive adds its name to the list. The band whose moniker is a sentence has been releasing alternately noisy and ethereal music since the early ’90s. Head HNIAer—and home-studio Svengali—Warn Defever has always followed his enthusiasms, flitting from triphop to the Beach Boys to lo-fi and Hendrix, often all on the same album. The one constant has been the kind of avant-gardist’s sensibility that tends to keep the radio-ready masses well at bay. Now Defever has hooked up with soul chanteuse Lovetta Pippen (who’s also appeared on some of the band’s earlier work) to create a straight-no-chaser blues and soul album that’ll be sure to leave 4AD’s usual clientele of arty noisemongers scratching their pointy heads. Pippen’s vocals are front and center, backed only by sparse accompaniment—and nary an annoying, distracting, or “Mood Indigo”-shattering note is to be heard. Someday may not boast any Beach Boys moments, flashy Hendrixian guitar solos, or song titles as good as Ft. Lake’s “Up Your Legs Forever,” but it deserves plenty more R&B radio play than it’s likely to get. So make a date with your inner Aretha to check out His Name Is Alive (and be sure to request its cover of Sir Duke’s “Solitude”) when it plays with Flashpapr at 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19, at the Metro Cafe, 1522 14th St. NW. $10. (202) 588-9118. (Michael Little)