The Hearers

Never heard of the Hearers? Well, they haven’t heard of you, either. They were too busy holed up in basements, figuring out how best to pervert the formula for classic Americana in ways that would still yield songs. Soon to be released on local label Anodyne Records, the Hearers’ second album, Don’t Make the Captain Cry, sounds like, well, a lot of things. On album opener “Great Magnetic Pull,” the band resembles local dark-folkies In the Pines (with whom this group shares a member) jamming with Scott Weiland in rehab. But then the Hearers turn right around on the next track, “Bathroom Wall,” all sweet and subdued, crooning meekly about heartache over a distant pedal steel. This is one band that truly seems up for anything. Credit that to core members Darren Welch, Mark Tweed and David Moore, a trio of local experimenters who are just as passionate about strumming a guitar all night and singing of the human condition as they are about mashing up their music with strings, slashed-speaker sounds, electronic pings, hand claps, spoken word (sometimes in French) and all-around weirdness. The band in full comprises nine musicians — a force, basically — and if indie rock were welcome at the Folly Theater, that’s where the Hearers would best be heard. But they’ll probably be more comfortable playing their CD-release party in the Brick’s smoky confines.