April Smith is sure to put on quite a great show at Brooklyn Bowl and Maxwell’s (photo by Eric Ryan Anderson)
Friday, May 14, Brooklyn Bowl, 61 Wythe Ave., $5, 9:00
Saturday, May 22, Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington St., Hoboken, $10, 9:30
www.myspace.com/aprilsmithmusic
www.brooklynbowl.com
www.maxwellsnj.com
April Smith appears to be an anachronism. The young Toms River native grew up listening to music on an eight-track-tape player, and her latest album, the absolutely delightful, fan-funded SONGS FOR A SINKING SHIP (Little Roscoe, February 2010), has an old-time feel to it, Tin Pan Alley meets Brooklyn indie pop shaken up with the zeitgeist of her biggest influence, Tom Waits, with plenty of Andrews Sisters sprinkled in. Over the course of eleven songs and thirty-four minutes, Smith and her crack band, the Great Picture Show – Marty O’Kane on guitar, Brandon Lowry on keyboards, the single-named Stevens on bass, and Elliot Jacobson on drums (Nick D’Agostino takes over the kit on tour) – play engaging, charming songs, opening with the awesome one-two punch of the thrillingly romantic “Movie Loves a Screen” and the rough-and-tumble “Terrible Things.” Smith seems to be able to write a catchy hook in her sleep, from the strip-teasy “Can’t Say No” to the bouncy “Colors,” with lyrics that detail in-between relationships as lovers chase, stalk, or leave one another, never in full bliss. “It does no good to resist your charms / I just come running back with open arms / You treat me mean, you hurt me so / I should have learned my lesson oh so long ago,” Smith sings on “Can’t Say No.” She also displays a wry sense of humor on “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” admitting, “Oh, you’re so enchanting / when your mouth is closed / And with a mouth like that / who needs politics and prose.” April Smith and the Great Picture Show will be at Brooklyn Bowl on May 14 as part of the Deli’s Best of the NYC Fest, with Motel Motel and Shayna Zaid & the Catch, and at Maxwell’s on May 22 with Hey Battlefield.