Butterglory

March 14 - 21, 1 9 9 6

***Butterglory

ARE YOU BUILDING A TEMPLE IN HEAVEN

(Merge)

Butterglory was just your basic fun-with-a-four-track after-school project when guitarist Matt Suggs and drummer Debby Vander Wall started releasing singles together back in 1992. But the hums and hisses of home recording really weren't the point for this duo, even on the lo-fi tracks included on last year's winsome Butterglory singles compilation, Downed (Merge). Suggs and Vander Wall just happen to have a fondness for the simple pop pleasures of strum-and-drone guitars, big snare beats, and hummable melodies.

Having added a full-time bassist (Stephen Naron) and enlisted the help of the horn players from labelmates Lambchop, the band set out to make the most of minimalism on their cryptically titled second full-length. Ominous piano chords and a winding clarinet solo reinforce the eerie ambiance of "Boy Burning Down"; a chiming glockenspiel shadows Suggs's falsetto on "She's Got the Akshun!" But mostly Butterglory stick to the basics of idiosyncratic indie pop that ranges from wistful to giddy and occasionally, when Suggs's lyrics are at their most playful, recalls the tuneful absurdity of Robyn Hitchcock.

-- Matt Ashare

(Butterglory open for the Wedding Present this Saturday, March 16, at Mama Kin.)