Low Water, Brian Deer, Hey Hey Melodica
Birdy’s Bar & Grill
Thurs., July 5, 8:30 p.m.

A critic recently proclaimed Low Water’s sophomore album, “Who Said that Life is Over?,” as “anti-hipster.” Johnny Leitera, lead guitarist and vocalist for the rock band, is not sure what to make of that label; he prefers to think of his band’s sound as “honest,” but he seems to appreciate being differentiated from that particular scene.

Despite living in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, which Leitera calls “probably the hippest neighborhood in the world, unfortunately,” it’s true that the band has a sound that is decidedly down to earth with its fuzzy guitars and literate but accessible lyrics.

“I never understood people who judge people by their music taste,” Leitera says of music snobs. The band’s own musical tastes are wide-ranging from Wilco to the Beatles to lesser-known bands like Australia’s You Am I and the Phoenix Foundation out of New Zealand to the even less expected bands like Mastadon or My Chemical Romance. Leitera thinks that such wide-varying taste is something that is, or at least should be, inherent to musicians.

“Everyone I’m in this band with are real musicians,” he says of his bandmates — bassist Dave Rubin and drummer Joe Burch.

The band has been together for three years now as Low Water. They started to take themselves seriously after they moved to San Francisco and tried to do it professionally when they moved to New York after Rubin got a job there. In the meantime, the band lost their original drummer, Nick Davis, and picked up Burch, whom Leitera says has been a “perfect fit.”

The name Low Water comes from ’40s slang for having no money and also loosely reflects the band’s aspirations, since Leitera once joked in an interview that he planned to call the band the Low Thirties for the amount of money he ever hoped to make playing music. “We’re just happy to be doing this,” Leitera adds.

On Thursday, Low Water will take the stage at Birdy’s Bar & Grill, along with local acts Hey Hey Melodica and Brian Deer.