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World Leader Pretend with Lying in States
Where: Schuba's, 3159 N. Southport Ave., Chicago
When: 8 p.m. Monday
Tickets: $8; (773) 525-2508; (312) 559-1212
World Leader Pretend had the dream scenario this year. After making an album on their own dime, getting scouted in Atlanta by a Warner Bros. rep who fell in love their sound, they signed to the label, which released "Punches," their impressive major label debut, in the thick of summer.
Then Katrina hit. World Leader Pretend happens to be a band from New Orleans. The hurricane and flooding disaster forced the band off tour and back home to assess damage.
Their van and trailer disappeared under 12 feet of water. A tree fell through the roof of guitarist Matt Martin's house in nearby Slidell and then he had major surgery after a spider bit his leg. Otherwise, everything is fine.
"It seems like everything is piecing itself back together," said singer-songwriter Keith Ferguson. "We're definitely coming back."
The band is unique for many reasons, the first and foremost being they are a pop band from New Orleans, a town that in recent memory has exported only the frat party band Cowboy Mouth and the once favored radio band Better Than Ezra. Despite the rich musical threads that have run through that town since the beginning and its current feast of first-rate jazz and funk players, New Orleans routinely comes up short in exporting viable pop bands outside its borders.
"Punches" is an exciting album for all the right reasons, the most immediate being it has both the majestic reach and homespun warmth most associated with U2 and Coldplay. This is richly orchestrated pop fit inside songs motored by gorgeous melodies. Ferguson steps into...