“Even a maxed out card can cut a straight line/”

“Momma told you not to stay out too late/ but didn’t momma always tell you not to masturbate?”

Such is the poetry of my old friend Eli Resnick, under his nom de plume…er…de rock, Second String. Tonight, he comes to town to play with his band Second String and the B-Team. Hard-hitting, Lou Reed-ish rock ‘n’ roll, funny, incisive lyrics. Listen:

Lisa Loeb
Satellites featuring Briel
Sidelong Glances

Like it? Come out to the Lion’s Den tonight at 11 pm. 8 bucks, 18+. Here’s some verbiage from Second String:

Deceptively intelligent, Second String and the B-Team are equally at home on a wavelength with Johnny Rotten or Jacques Derrida, and sometimes broadcast both frequencies at once. “Satellites,” the first single off their album “Debatable Atrocities,” (scheduled for early summer release) is a prime example. This song can be enjoyed as another rock-and-roll moan about the boredom of suburban life, an insight into the mind of OJ Simpson, or a hard-rocking song about nothing at all. It really breaks open as a critique of agnosticism and the role of a police force in a democracy, especially in light of Gramsci’s brilliant observation that “there is no ideology but ideology by and for subjects”, but what’s best about it is the way that Second screams the chorus like he’s really about to kill somebody. It’s hard to find that degree of genuine emotion in a band that understands the rules of harmony and respects rhythm.

Full of contradictions, Second is a musical perfectionist who does not permit his band to rehearse, a graduate student in poetry whose choruses (chori?) often have four words or less, a leather-jacket wearing vegetarian, and a sensitive macho pig. The B-Team is a round-robin who’s-who of the Northern Virginia indie rock scene, borrowing pseudonymous members from the Casual Occupation, The Beanstalk Library, Jebus, Instrument Cred, Bring Mommy The Scotch, The Thundertones, Space Friend, Carnegie Stew, The Lost Atoms, and The Alphabetical Order, and introducing new musicians at such an astonishing rate that only two of their shows have featured matching lineups. Behind all of the absurdity is Second’s desire to push musicians to the upper limits of their capacity for listening and creativity, and wring great performances out of them by any means necessary. It’s never an easy show to play, but the results are more often beautiful than not.