The Wrong Shapes Record Release Show with The Grownup Noise, Patrick Coman | Club Passim | 18 June

We referenced it last week at the tail end of our review of The Wrong Shapes' delightful full-length debut, but it bears repeating: the Boston chamber-pop duo perform tomorrow night at the legendary Club Passim in Harvard Square. We'd venture to say that we haven't seen a show there in, oh, 15 years, but our recollection is the club retains a feel of old Cambridge, you know, ivy, cigarettes, berets, counterculture, counter-counterculture, horticulture. But we digress. We think you will find The Wrong Shapes every bit as enjoyable in the flesh as you do in the MP3, and so we recommend the show to your attention. You will see plenty of the distaff portion of the pair tomorrow, as cellist Rachel Barringer also abets the also-billed The Grownup Noise, the Boston folk-pop quintet most famous (not really) for distressing us with a cover of an early '90s hip-hop song (okay, that actually happened).

Fortunately, The Grownup Noise's top-shelf songwriting, and said songs' potent emotional payload, make the band very easy to like. Exhibit A is the thrilling final two minutes of "Six Foot Solemn Oath," which features a cracking vocal arrangement winding around a brushed shuffle and amid gentle piano. It's perfection, and it is the sort of thing that makes us ask The Grownup Noise when it will have new music to hear; it's most recent collection This Time With Feeling was released in 2011 (which, now that we look, was also the last time we saw the band). Americana artist Patrick Coman rounds out the bill tomorrow night, and full details of the evening are available right here at this Facebook event page. Spend some time with the embeds below, and then consider making the scene. There is, of course, no shortage of great shows tomorrow, so if you can't drag your ass to Harvard Square or if Passim sells out, consider checking in on Boston dream-pop veterans The Hush Now down the road at TT's, or anxiety-pop titans Chandos across the river at Church. On to the streamable music, indie rock aficionadoes!

Review: The Wrong Shapes | Reverse The Phase

The unlikely but bewitching pop sounds of Boston duo The Wrong Shapes endlessly blossom across the 10 songs of this full-length debut, like a fractal opening into perpetuity. The evocative music wrought by wife-and-husband unit and city scene veterans Rachel and Bo Barringer may be limited in their capacity to illustrate infinity only by their minimalist framework. But even so the collection's thrilling aural reach exceeds its grasp, and taken in sum its songs are much more than an illumination of thousands of small gestural iterations. While touchstones such as the music of Arthur Russell and certain solo work of David Byrne feel obvious, there is nothing obvious about Reverse The Phase. The charming set's mystery, beauty and even sedate pageantry distinguishes The Wrong Shapes' work even within the exceedingly rich Boston music ecosystem.

The Wrong Shapes weave hypnotic compositions from resonant bowed cello, skeletal guitar leads, hand and canned percussion and gentle vocal arrangements. From these elements the pair conjures stirring pop moments, as in the buoyant (and obliquely Jim Morrison-referencing) album highlight "Alright, Alright." But the pair's greater achievement may be the thrumming ambience that cloaks the entirety of Reverse The Phase -- particularly its brilliant instrumental "Actual Girls" and transcendent closing title track -- in a bright and optimistic psychedelia. Perhaps it is the feel conveyed by the attack of the bow across the cello string, but there is a physical dimension to certain of the playing, as well, which firmly roots songs like "My Laugh Is Simple, Your Hips Are Complicated" to a more distinct reality. Ms. Barringer's cello work, in particular, suggests a laborer's craftsmanship, despite an overall soft affect to the music of Reverse The Phase. The Wrong Shapes, fortunately, do not make the listener choose between pop or psych or ambient or rooted: the aesthetics co-exist -- even seamlessly merge -- in a way that suggests, well, the ideal of a marital partnership. Such an abstracted assessment may overlook the humor in the act's music (the song title "My Aim Is Terrible," of course, is a winking riff on the Elvis Costello lyric from "Alison.") and minimize the duo's brilliant composing and arranging. Indeed, there is much to hear in this record, which seems to find new ways of revealing itself with every listen.

The Wrong Shapes self-release Reverse The Phase today as a digital download. The duo fetes the new collection with a release party June 18 at the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge, Mass. The show includes sets by Boston folk rock leading lights The Grownup Noise, for which Ms. Barringer also plays cello, as well as Patrick Coman and the Lo-Fi Angels. Complete details can be found within this Facebook event page. Reverse The Phase is available for purchase right here, and you may stream the entire set via the Bandcamp embed below.

The Wrong Shapes: Bandcamp | Internerds | Facebook