WEDNESDAY

The trouble with The Little Red Songbook, the latest effort from Scots singer-songwriter-aesthete Momus (ne Nick Currie and cousin to Del Amitri’s Justin), is that all the while he’s whispering witticisms in your ear, his balls are resting on you chin: as in “Coming in a Girl’s Mouth” where he contemplates the merits of…well, you know; and “Old Friend, New Flame” where he steals a pal’s date by spelling “BLOW ME” with refrigerator magnets. The latter scenario should give some idea of the often audacious ambition of this self-styled progenitor of Analog Baroque, his new U.K. label—and perhaps movement? Expect more of the pathos often lurking beneath the bons mots to be manifest in the flesh, as illustrated by a couple of live cuts, albeit drawn from the days before he traded acoustic guitar for analog synths, on All Done With Mirrors, a compilation of artists on his American home Le Grand Magistery. He’s accompanied on this tour by Kahimi Karie (pictured), for whom he penned and produced a Top Five hit (commissioned by a cosmetics concern) in her native Japan, “Good Morning World.” It’s included on her eponymous U.S. debut along with tracks produced by Japanese ultrahipster Cornelius and indie-cool Frenchman Katerine. How her breathless prefab polyglot pop will translate to American stages should prove interesting. And when Momus performed here earlier this year, the third member of the “Shopping in AmeriKKa Tour,” Gallic good-looker Gilles Weinzaepflen, nearly stole the show, so consider taking on this international hat trick. At 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Black Cat, 1831 14th St. NW. $. (202) 667-7960. (Daniel Searing)