Peter and the Wolf [myspace], by contrast, played an unremarkable 30-minute set which out of sheer cussedness we will nonetheless remark upon. Peter and the Wolf sounds a bit grander than what we were faced with, guitarist Red Hunter (the droning homemade instrument pictured aside) and his friend Emma (singing occasional "ohhh" backup). Hunter is both a proficient picker and a strummer, and he's got a rumbly baritone that for some reason -- they're his songs, after all -- he strains into a higher register. His songs seemed to revolve around women, kinds of portraits, and his lyrics mix in the offhand, conversational run-on with a more heightened, poetic patois. He played a song about Miss Caroline, who (we understand) throws the kind of parties he's not invited to -- it's in a waltz time, and reminded us of Leonard Cohen's growly "Take This Waltz" but then shifted in tone to become more satirical, a Randy Newman take. We're beginning to think that in the South, when you want to point out someone's upscale pretensions, you break out the waltz. It must be just devastating. (Here's the Pitchfork review and their mp3 link to Safe Travels.) more ›