POP MUSIC

Cotton Jones Basket Ride

"I gotta cheer up now" was the chorus of the first song Michael Nau leaned into, eyes closed tightly, at Iota Monday night, looking like a man who was trying to leave something behind. Which he probably was.

Nau was in Arlington leading the Cotton Jones Basket Ride, the awkwardly monikered quintet he's formed in the wake of mystic-eyed indie rockers Page France.

Nau has been ambiguous about whether he would release another record with that much-loved band, but it was clear from Monday's brief but enchanting set that he's all about the Basket Ride.

As she was in Page France, singer and keyboardist Whitney McGraw is up front with Nau, harmonizing and providing velvety organ swells.

Nau, however, sounds like an artist feeling along the walls of a dark basement, singing about half-remembered dreams and being, as one song put it, "the king of nowhere."

On songs like "Gone the Bells" and "Midnight Monday and a Telescope," that basement could very well be Big Pink, as heavily reverbed, blues-derived riffs evoke a time out of time.

"Fruits Are Overflowing" extended the '60s vibe, using a somber, Doors-like intro that escalated into a soulful duet between Nau and McGraw. And if lyrics like "Black is the color of the heart they gave me" stand in direct contrast to many of the sentiments he expressed in Page France, Nau seems entirely connected to the divergence.

Regardless of which direction he takes -- or what he's calling his latest band -- Monday's performance clearly marks Nau as an artist with major potential.

-- Patrick Foster

Pela

"This is fun," Pela singer-guitarist Billy McCarthy exclaimed halfway through the encores Monday night at the Rock & Roll Hotel. The charismatic California transplant to Brooklyn was on the pop music disabled list for nearly three months after falling off the stage on a broken pint glass and slicing tendons in his left hand. Joyfully making his return to the concert world, he enthusiastically jumped about, chatted between songs and sang and screamed passionately.

While there was no denying the onstage energy of McCarthy and bassist Eric Sanderson, the band's songcraft was only intermittently vibrant. Inspired by U2 and various lesser bands also known for melodramatic melodies, Pela routinely featured McCarthy's wordy emoting and the group's shimmering and buzzing walls of guitar on too-similarly-arranged fast numbers, and equally fervid renderings of slow numbers. This four-year-old combo's first encore, "Holiday Song" by the Pixies, clearly exhibited the source of some of Pela's loud-soft-loud approach.

Sometimes Pela added elements that transcended formula. On "Lost to the Lonesome," the drummer's loud in-the-mix rhythmic pulse and the singalong "Heys" did the trick, while on "Philadelphia," guitarist Nate Martinez's use of effects pedals and McCarthy's frenetic picking built into an affecting tempest-tossed roar. The verses and martial beats on "Tenement Teeth" approached Big Country style bombast, but Sanderson and McCarthy's use of Beach Boys harmonies in the song's closing section redeemed it somewhat. The band finished strongly with the a cappella chanting and psychedelic feedback of "Cavalry."

-- Steve Kiviat