Minus Story

Minus Story seems to be working hard to subtract sales from its upcoming album. The band not only saddled the April release with the ungainly title The Captain Is Dead, Let the Drum Corpse Dance but also dubbed its recording technique “Wall of Crap.” Fortunately, the group’s live shows cut to the charming chamber-pop core without some of the diminishing returns found on its recordings. Originally based in Boonville, Missouri, Minus includes members of Appleseed Cast and Autumn State and lies somewhere between the two in the experimental spectrum. This quartet crafts memorable melodies, and though it does its best to sabotage them with sloppy sonics, the hooks and harmonies still shine onstage.