7#qq$ DDDD N XXtxDD d*~MUSIC/5 CHINESE BROTHERS/5.11 WHO: 5 Chinese Brothers WHEN: Friday, June 2, 10 p.m. WHERE: Manhattans HOW MUCH: $5 by Chris Barrett In the biographies Rich Nevins wrote to accompany Robert Crumbs Pioneers of Country Music, he offers Fiddlin Bob Larkin as something of an anomaly. Larkin sawed a unique, yet distinctly traditional old-time style. His 78s on the Okeh and Vocalion labels throw a curve at musical map makers who attempt to trace ownership of American folk music to the Southern mountains. He was born and learned to fiddle in the heart of Brooklyn. As a caveat, Nevins reminds readers of something all too easy to forgetin the 1860s, when Larkin was born, farmland and rural dwellings were still abundant in and around Brooklyn. Listening to the Brooklyn-based quintet 5 Chinese Brothers, one gets the impression that the members have a sense of the dormant farms and wood lots that lie beneath the urban tangle they tread every day. With spare arrangements of acoustic guitars, accordion, banjo, and a judicious sprinkling of electric leads (a la Bakersfield), the Brothers make for a pleasant surprise. Youd probably dig it no matter where it came from. But when you remember that their Heartland country-rock is coming straight outta Spike Lee territory, it sounds all the better. Our influences come from all over the place, says bassist and banjo player Paul Foglino. Actually, we all come from cities, but weve been listening to rural American music for most of our lives. I grew up listening to folk and country. Thats just what we hear when we pick up our instruments. 5 Chinese Brothers checked in back in 93 with a dandy disc entitled Singer Songwriter Beggarman Thief (1-800-PRIME-CD). After casting that handful of seeds to the wind of alternative and roots radio, theyve been spending their time in the van, finding stages in towns where the album caught on. Curious interest in SSBT led them to Knoxville in January, and the response they received theneven on a cold Monday nighthas tempted them back. The jangly, organic instruments on SSBT, fronted by interesting, earnest-but-not-too-personal lyrics (penned either by Foglino or lead singer Tom Meltzer) boast a lineage that most of us know and miss. The record calls to mind 80s stalwarts no longer at hand, like the Big Sky rasp and rattle of pre-Elektra Freedy Johnston, or Holsapple and Stamey of the dBs, back when they at least pretended to get along. In fact, it is unusual to hear songs that come about 50/50 from two different writers, but still combine for a unified, non-schizophrenic voice. Well, admits Foglino, I learned to write by robbing Tom. Weve been friends for a long time. Weve both become pretty good at writing songs that are right for 5 Chinese Brothers. Their songs are little bales of insight, disgust or quandary, not alarmingly different from the folk hits one ends up knowing by heart without meaning to, your Big Yellow Taxi or White Freightliner Blues or whatnot. But wrapped in the requisite grammar and forced rhymes a writer needs to tie a song together are sweet little jewels of prose. Foglino tosses out lines like I watch my dreams collect like dirt around a poor boys neck and You cant cross the Jordan on the Staten Island Ferry the way most folks dish out spare change to street people. Meltzer dispenses multi-entendres like She reminds you of your mother in a dirty sort of way and Jane moved to Philly and she got along fine/Got herself a job with the Suicide Line as if they were strung across his chest on a bandolier. Foglino says the writing on the new album, Stone Soup, is even better, even more of a piece. But since the pressing of that disc is behind schedule, and may not meet its June 1 release date, youll have to take his word for it in the meantime. Or if you need to know pronto, you could hear 5 Chinese Brothers sing and play those new songs down in the Old City. uaakravdrobbak/tfnoldn{iseht#aeiot@b3A3e,Qo?t@rCivet cYCcidt emo\iHt maePleedr r Jtt;ayJ&rr7QN(ajg3cej> taDtc?uez'eeiʾ<moo$ut)- ' +3=qt @@7Uhuv9H  0 Cq!! !!!! qq qt q  ,]q, - _ 8 f \]+-//02LLLLL,LTi>HH(FG(HH(d'@=/R@H-:LaserWriter 8.0 New York  ESE