Tom Lynch

Piss and shit only goes so far in the orchestral indie pop world.

Singer and songwriter Joel Gibb and his Hidden Cameras made their mark with previous records "The Smell of Our Own" and "Mississuaga Goddam," two albums of flavorful, lovable perversity that include tales of urination, explicit sex and enemas. Of course, Gibb wasn't being cheeky for the sake of it--political observations abound in the openly gay records from the mouth of the openly gay Gibb, and while the metaphors may be distracting, at least they're interesting.

"I'm trying to do a bunch of things," Gibb says in response to music critics "simplifying" his work. "It's not about shock. It's something that I decided on when I decided to pursue songwriting. What do you want to do? What do you want to write about? What are the pillars of songwriting? Is one honesty?"

On The Hidden Cameras' charming new record, "Awoo" (Rough Trade/Evil Evil/Arts & Crafts), Gibb slightly tones down on the attention-grabbing lyrical fare, but the music and melodies are as strong as ever, as opener "Death of a Tune" serves as a pop kick-start to the system, a quick, priceless introduction. "She's Gone" is a nice, breezy entry, easy on the ears but heavy on the heart.

"It's a little more rock `n' roll...much less reverb--I used to drench everything in reverb," Gibb says of "Awoo." "There are orchestral elements, but they aren't all piled on top of one another. It's a bit simpler. More direct."

Gibb is in charge of nearly everything that has to do with the band, from the songwriting to the production, to the artwork to the music videos. Does he consider himself a control freak? "I think if you're the songwriter you should have creative say [in everything] without being a control freak, but it's about more that I know exactly what I want to hear, so, yeah." He laughs and rescinds. "No, no. I really enjoy making the art. I enjoy playing all sorts of instruments in the studio. I can't do that live. Sculpting songs in studios, to me it's all one thing."

The Hidden Cameras play December 11 at Subterranean, 2011 West North, (773)278-6600, at 9:30pm. $12.

(2006-12-05)

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