Music: St. Vincent at MusicNOW

St. Vincent/Annie Clark is an Indie Pop tour veteran (she’s played with Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens) and a classically trained musician with the voice of an angel and a guitar sound that would probably provoke Ronnie James Dio to throw up his pat

St. Vincent can be deceiving. First there’s the name, which brings to mind a chanting religious dude in white robes (it’s actually a reference to the hospital where poet Dylan Thomas spent his final hours). Then there’s the physical appearance of the person behind the moniker, Annie Clark, a demure woman with a mop of curly, jet-black hair and a face that looks as innocent as Bambi’s.

In reality, the 27-year-old Clark is an Indie Pop tour veteran (she’s played with Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens) and a classically trained musician with the voice of an angel and a guitar sound that would probably provoke Ronnie James Dio to throw up his patented “devil horns.” Actor, Clark’s second solo album as St. Vincent, is a beautifully executed collection of songs rife with melodrama, contradiction, surreal imagery and dynamic arrangements that move from whimsical to dissonant at the stomp of a reverb pedal.

Get show details and read Jason Gargano's full interview with Clark here.