A Window Open in Art School: The Sea and Cake

Map It:  U Street-Cardozo 

MAYBE IT'S SAM PREKOP'S breathy sigh of a singing voice. Or maybe his bandmates' pedigrees from Chicago tastemakers like the Cocktails and Tortoise. Or the spare, stylish tone that attracts musical aesthetes to their band, the Sea and Cake. But in what's either eerie synchronicity or mass laziness, reviews of the new album, "Everybody," seem to employ one particular descriptor an awful lot.

"The 'breezy' adjective is completely out of control," Prekop says. "That's really starting to get to me." For other bands, certain musical textures — slide guitar, African rhythmic flourishes, warm analog synth, a hint of dub — might signify linen yacht pants or whiteboy dreads. But the Sea and Cake, while superficially easy on the ears, is about as "breezy" as Mark Rothko. Jokes Prekop, "We've been planning our next record to be screeching techno, or really brutal, hilarious math rock."

Not breezy, check. Nor "pop," the runner-up adjective. "I don't feel we participate at a normal level in the pop consciousness of the times," Prekop says. "We're comfortably just outside it." And in that sense they're heirs of art-school bands like Steely Dan and Roxy Music. Or the Kinks, whom Prekop cites as a primary influence for "Everybody." It's audible in the organic live delivery that replaces earlier experimental studio treatments.

Likewise, Prekop's parallel career as a painter seems to mirror his lyrical approach. "I use a lot of impressionistic instant poetry technique to get the ball rolling," he says. "I'm always hoping to arrive at unexpected combinations and, hopefully, interesting words. In finding good accidents."

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with Zinc, Sat., 9 p.m., $15; 202-667-7960. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Bob Massey
Photo courtesy Jim Newberry