This amalgamation of transplants–A Weather’s members are from Maine, Vermont, California, Idaho, Maryland and Utah–sounds far less disparate than you might think (not that geographically means that much). And their big-cozy-sweater (with a few loose treads) sound fits right in with its spawned-from-local-incense label, Team Love (you know, the label started by that Bright Eyes guy). After all, Mr. Conor Oberst might not have ended up having all the clout and energy (and finances) to start his own label if he hadn’t been cradled in so much fellow local awesomeness back in the early days of the Omaha, NE/Saddle Creek days. Then again, he does seem like a pretty ambitious guy.

But I digress. The point is, A Weather–whose Team Love-issued 7-inch is due in March–makes darkly fuzzy, warm and tender acoustic folk-pop that lives in the fringes of artists like Low, Ida or Saddle Creek’s own Azure Ray (if you swapped one of AR’s gals for a deep-voiced man). Honestly, I’m not sure who’s who in A Weather, but I do know that Zach Boyle–who used to play slightly happier-sounding folk-pop as Super XX Man’s auxiliary guitarist–is a recent addition to this quartet-cum-sextet, which could only be a good thing.

And the soft ‘n’ scratchy, female voice has to belong to either blonde gal Sarah Winchester or brunette gal Zoë Wright (or a combination of both), while I’m fairly sure the low ‘n’ rumbly male voice belongs to dark-haired gent Aaron Gerber—who also plays with Wright in ambient pop project Music for Six Twilights. Regardless, the contrast between the guy/girl vocals on “Oh My Stars” (an expression I’ve always been quite fond of) is not only striking, but quite lovely. Gerber’s deep repetition of the words “Oh My Stars” under the gal’s slyly sweet “I won’t wake you up” has all the careful timing of David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) or our own Laura Gibson. And the placement of an alternately rising and crashing discordant sound (saw, steel guitar, violin?) adds an eerie effect to the track, a quality that somehow legitimizes the band throwing “whiskey” and “40s” into its influences as easily as “cats” and “cuddling on couches.” Yeah, it’s cute, but just not-cute enough to be really good.

A Weather plays with Laura Gibson; Bark, Hide and Horn and the Cave Singers tonight (Wednesday, Jan. 31) at Holocene. 9 pm. $5. 21+.

www.myspace.com/aweathermusic
www.aweathermusic.com

Photo: from the band’s MySpace. Note how Zach Boyle’s head has been PhotoShopped into an older band photo–pretty sweet, eh?

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