Quiet storm

Smith and the Softies are both from the Pacific Northwest -- which unleashed the grunge that changed everything just a few years ago. And both are on leave from harder-rocking outfits. Smith is one of the singer-guitarists in Heatmiser, a Portland band who've released two discs on Frontier and recently inked a deal with Virgin. The singer-guitarists in the Softies -- Rose Melberg, who used to front the grrrl group Tiger Trap, and Jen Sbragia -- are also based in Portland. What these outfits share is a minimalist approach that strips songs down to artlessly simple, strummed guitars, poetic, confessional lyrics, and sweet melodic vocals.

On "Needle in the Hay," the first track of his latest disc, a homonymous release on the ultra-indie Kill Rock Stars label, a downcast Smith sketches a painful portrait of a strung-out friend. The specter of drug addiction looms ominously over the stark, steady pulse of an acoustic guitar as Smith sorts through the messy details of watching someone close to him fall apart. It's a veiled theme that comes up again and again on the disc, on the country-flavored "Alphabet Town," the hypnotic "Good To Go," and the haunting "White Lady Loves You More."

But Smith doesn't give in to self-pity or naked pathos. He has a talent for juxtaposing gritty images of drug addiction and despair with pleasantly poppy hooks and melodies, snaring you with one while trying to purge the other. When he fleshes out the mix with a light, propulsive drum beat, the spare drone of a cheap organ, vocal harmonies, and a sharp electric-guitar lead on "Coming Up Roses," or even the less heavily arranged "St. Ides Heaven," the effect recalls that of the Velvet Underground subverting the conventions of folk pop in tunes like "Here Comes the Sun" and "Sunday Morning." The music creates an inviting façade beneath which lurk dark, disturbing, beautiful images like "The moon is a sickle cell/It'll kill you in time" ("Coming Up Roses") and "The moon is a light bulb breaking" ("St. Ides Heaven").

The aptly named Softies offer a less emotionally sullied worldview on their K Records debut, It's Love, one that's more in keeping with the gauzy innocence and childlike simplicity of Moe Tucker's moment in the Velvets' spotlight, "After Hours." Melberg's voice has the proud yet vulnerable quality of a spurned teenager in love on the disc's first tune, "Hello Rain." A gently strummed electric guitar intertwines with an undulating single-string melody as Melberg says goodbye to a lover with the line "I wasted all my wishes on you/I have nothing left to gain."

True to its title, the disc is a collection of songs that deal in matters of romance, mainly broken hearts ("Charms Around Your Wrist" and "Could I"), bruised egos ("I Love You More"), unsettled minds ("Until You Tell"), and the other psychic traumas of falling in and out of love. Sticky-sweet sentimentality can seem disingenuous, and too much open-hearted confession can be self-indulgent. The Softies are a bit of the latter, but they're sincere and skillful enough to pull it off with disarming charm and enchanting, hummable melodies that can be a pleasant change of pace from the churning cynicism of modern rock.

The Softies and Smith aren't the only people exploring the softer side of indie rock. K Records is also home to the folk pop of Maffeo; Kill Rock Stars have the similarly styled Lord. And groups like Sub Pop's Spinanes, Sebadoh, and Damon and Naomi, Drag City's Smog and Palace Brothers, and Smith's Portland pal Pete Krebs of the Sub Pop band Hazel are all helping to define something of a movement that's leading indie rock away from the mainstream aggression of grunge and punk. Whether it'll pan out to be something more than a short-lived reaction is anybody's guess. But if Smith and the Softies are any indication, it's a trend that's opening promising new vistas in the sometimes insular realm of indie rock.