The resident chameleon at K Records for a while now, Jason Anderson got his start drumming for the expansive space-rock band Yume Bitsu, whose albums on Ba Da Bing were criminally overlooked. Then Anderson turned front man, starting the one-man-band Wolf Colonel to knock out Guided By Voice-inspired nuggets of crunchy basement rock. Once he got that out of his system and started performing under his given name, Anderson was knee-deep into lengthy, piano-anchored ballads recalling a sadder, sleepier Neil Young, even when friends joined in. He loped off in yet another direction on his fourth post-Wolf Colonel outing, The Hopeful and the Unafraid, a loving ode to Bruce Springsteen's glory days. Anderson's stuffy-nosed singing remains intact, though, and he's as effortlessly charming as ever.
Wed., July 16, 7 p.m., 2008
