Six Songs

(Ulrike)

Aside from Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs's earnest voice, there's nothing immediately striking in the limited musical palette (two acoustic guitars, two voices, occasional bass) and vocabulary (plaintive, midtempo singer-songwriter folk) of the debut EP by the Finches. Depending on your mood, Six Songs might first strike you as being pleasant — a nice backdrop for a rainy day in a café — but nothing much more. Peel the layers, though, and a compelling harmony of composition and performance reveals itself. The songs are like perfect circles, made so by bobbing chord structures, Aaron Morgan's streaming guitar leads, and Pennypacker Riggs's wistful retracing of lyrics and melodies.

The effect of these entwined circles is comparable to the feeling one gets wandering the streets of one's hometown (the subject of the strongest song, "Daniel"). The muted, plain quality of the lyrics beautifully reflects this restrained, nostalgic sensibility: The narrator is in transition, obsessed with a generalized past tense ("Oh the going, it was much too slow"). Even when Pennypacker Riggs sings in the present tense, there's a remove ("Hello face, you are so tired") that speaks to a quarter-life crisis. Some of the chord progressions sound contrived — or overly self-conscious — and the vocalist slips into affectation when she bestows three syllables on the word "faucets," but, taken as a whole, Six Songs is a charming keepsake from a local duo worth watching. (Max Goldberg)

FINCHES

Tues/28, 9 p.m.

Café du Nord, 2170 Market, SF

Free

(415) 861-5016

READYVILLE

Readyville

(Antenna Farm)

Readyville's self-titled album conjures up the rustic essence that probably drifted around Topanga Canyon 35 years ago. Hell, the duo might have once crashed at Neil Young's ranch for all we know. The twosome brandish "Guntown" and "Lorena" with acoustic vigor and lo-fi tranquility while washing over "Bottom of the Bay" with waves of lustrous organ. (Chris Sabbath)

READYVILLE

Wed/22, 7 p.m.

Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell, SF

$3

(415) 861-2011