INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Catching Yorn’s 'Nightcrawler'

Pete Yorn, Aqualung, Minibar
Music Mill
Wednesday, Feb. 28, 8:30 p.m., $22/$25

Pete Yorn can sound a bit schizophrenic when he talks about his third studio CD, Nightcrawler. On one hand, Yorn feels Nightcrawler is his most adventurous album yet. “I look at the songs and I definitely got, at least to my ears, pretty experimental on a few tunes,” he says. But Yorn also considers Nightcrawler to be very much a natural successor to his previous two CDs, Musicforthemorningafter and Day I Forgot — so much so that he calls Nightcrawler the third chapter in a trilogy of albums.

“I’ve said before that I feel like the records kind of all are companion pieces,” he said. It turns out both of Yorn’s observations are fair.

Musically, Nightcrawler will sound plenty familiar to Yorn fans. Like his previous albums, the new CD is anchored by rockers like “For Us” and “Maybe I’m Right,” which feature sturdy guitar-driven melodies and Yorn’s pleasantly grainy vocals, as well as more laid-back acoustic-textured tunes like “The Man” and “Ice Age.”

But at times, Yorn takes left turns. On “Policies,” he creates a gauzy rocker that recalls the noise pop of the Jesus and Mary Chain more than his usual earthy rock-pop.

And if Yorn’s approach to the music was similar to the first two CDs, he didn’t follow exactly the same blueprint in making Nightcrawler. One key difference is the absence of R. Walt Vincent, the primary producer on the first two CDs. For Nightcrawler, Yorn recorded primarily with Michael Beinhorn and Tony Berg, while Butch Walker, Ken Andrews and Evan Frankfort also co-produced songs on the CD.

“It was time for a change,” Yorn says. “And one day I’ll go back to Walt’s garage and maybe make another great record with him. I love Walt.”

Berg, in particular, pushed Yorn’s more adventurous tendencies.

“The Tony Berg sessions were the most interesting in the way they turned out, I guess, where there was a lot of experimentation going on, more kind of musically,” he says.

Having finished three CDs that Yorn feels have a lot in common, he said he looks forward to stretching farther musically on his fourth CD, but first will come touring with Yorn’s new backing group Minibar, a British roots pop band that has just released its third CD, Desert After Rain.

Editor’s note: Aqualung will also perform at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28 for free at Luna Music in Broad Ripple for an all-ages in-store show.