By Jimmy Draper

Bewitched: Mary Timony trades glances with her drummer Devin Ocampo, who's also in the Dischord band the Medications.

Since the late '90s, the former Helium leader has largely been tagged as some sort of loopy, real-life Renaissance woman who, between tours and recording sessions, has little more on her mind than the next Dungeons and Dragons convention. Which, to be fair, isn't entirely unfounded: after all, until the tail end of Helium's reign, especially on 1997's prog rock masterpiece The Magic City (Matador), rare was the moment when Timony wasn't waxing poetic about such fantastical pastimes as, uh, seducing unicorns and riding rainbow dragons. By the time she released her even more medieval-themed solo debut, Mountains (Matador), in 2000, she'd firmly cemented her rep as the good witch of the indie world.

But what many people have failed to realize is that her imagery, like that of any good writer, was never meant to be taken literally. Decoding Timony's verses holds much of her music's immense allure, and though they've proved frustratingly arcane at times, they ultimately tell poignant, even humorous tales of desire, loneliness, and romance. So contrary to popular belief, she doesn't actually see herself as a character in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

"The way I'm portrayed is totally stupid," Timony says over the phone from Washington, D.C., where she relocated last summer after living in Boston for nearly 15 years. "I mean, I guess I can see where people got that idea about me a little bit from my lyrics, but it's not an image that I ever intended. The times I did play into it, I was just joking around and having fun with it. But people took it seriously. That's part of the reason I left that territory with my new album – people just weren't getting it."

Rated 'Ex'

The recent Ex Hex (Lookout!), Timony's third solo release and first since parting ways with longtime label Matador, should go a long way toward finally changing her image. Though 2002's dreamy, psych- and folk-inflected The Golden Dove (Matador) – a heartrending account of her breakup with former Helium bassist Ash Bowie – found her slowly starting to relax her fairy tale-esque songwriting, loyal listeners may be shocked to find that the new album features nary a reference to anything even remotely related to magic, the supernatural, or Middle-earth.

Rather, Timony takes a more straightforward lyrical approach akin to that of her early Helium days. Not since the band's 1995 breakthrough, The Dirt of Luck (Matador), has she filled an album with lines as direct as "When you heard those chicks talking about your best friend / Did you tell them that it hurts to offend?" She's not exactly returning to the heady subject matter of her past, though: whereas Helium's first releases were filled with songs about prostitution, feminist fury, and fucked-up men, here she vividly relays seemingly random, lighthearted encounters with blind bus drivers, Jesus freaks, and drunks who fall asleep in her doorway.

"To me, the songs on this album are all just comical situations," she says. "Like, 'On the Floor' is not real at all – it's just me imagining a person passed out in front of my door and so I can't get out of my house. I mean, it might be a metaphor for something, but I didn't intend it to be one. I wanted it to sound more literal, like a funny situation. They're all kind of made-up situations that I'm sure come from some place real in me, but there wasn't anything too deep going on – at least that I'm aware of!"

Feeling fresh

If Ex Hex strays from the surrealistic imagery that has come to define Timony's lyricism, it's also a musical return to form of sorts. Produced by Fugazi's Brendan Canty and recorded with drummer Devin Ocampo of Dischord Records' the Medications, the album finds her ditching her keyboards – which have dominated her music since Helium's 1997 No Guitars EP (Matador) – for her most raucous, stripped-down sound in years. Throughout, she downplays her artier tendencies without losing any complexity, letting her superb, Pete Townshend-like guitar playing come to the fore.

"I was playing guitar more and writing stuff on guitar because it seemed fresh again," she says. "I had burnt out on writing stuff on the keyboard, and collaborating with Devin definitely inspired [the guitar-driven sound] too. And maybe the songs are less meditative and more rockin' because the lyrics are more straightforward this time. Whatever the lyrics sound like, the piece of music should match."

Indeed, in stark contrast to Timony's first two harrowing, intensely contemplative solo albums – which she says she "agonized over" both thematically and musically – Ex Hex actually sounds like she's having, well, a blast. Songs such as "Friend to J.C." and "Return to Pirates" are looser, catchier, and more confident, and she lets out uncharacteristically giddy exclamations like "That's wack!" and "You rule!" Perhaps most surprising to fans, however, may be that Timony needn't indulge her inner medieval maiden to craft some of her most enjoyable music to date.

"For me, the new record feels less in my head than my past stuff and more just, I guess, fun," she says. "It's the first record I've done that's actually fun for me to listen to, so I hope other people think so too."

Mary Timony performs Fri/22, 10:30 p.m., Cafe du Nord, 2170 Market, S.F. $10. (415) 861-5016; Mon/25, 7 p.m., Amoeba Music, 1855 Haight, S.F. Free. (415) 831-1200. She opens for Sleater-Kinney June 4, 9 p.m., Warfield, 982 Market, S.F. $20. (415) 421-TIXS.

To purchase the music featured in this article, visit iTunes:

1. Mary Timony, Ex Hex (Lookout!)

2. Mary Timony, The Golden Dove (Matador)

3. Helium, The Dirt of Luck (Matador)