Hockey

Hockey is a band who’ve been through a lot. In the four years since their debut Mind Chaos, they’ve cut down to a duo, left major label Capitol and even changed their name—singer Ben Grubin is now Ben Wyeth, in honor of the long and noble labor that produced their newest album Wyeth Is. Naturally, this doesn’t sound like the old Hockey. The best tracks on Wyeth Is (“Calling Back” and “Wild Style,” likely named for the epochal graffiti-slash-hip-hop documentary) add in a certain NYC ’79 feel, sourced from equal parts Sugar Hill Records and Ze Records. And of course there’s a direct line back to the Talking Heads, whose Jerry Harrison almost produced an earlier Hockey LP. At heart, however, this is a pop record that can’t hide its melancholy. Then again, they kinda earned that.

Wed., July 24, 8 p.m., 2013

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