Tom Lynch

Possibly the most bizarre element of New Jersey's wisest Christian rock spawn is that it all began as a school project by frontman Daniel Smith, as his senior thesis at Rutgers. After making a serious impression, he kept the union of his five brothers and sisters, took in some other members, and began creating some of the most likeable yet still unsettling pop in a long while. Smith's voice is the patriarch--an overwhelming, high-pitched falsetto, which complements the Famile's Pixies-esque song structures and head-shaking hooks. Their 2001 release, the Steve Albini-engineered "Fetch the Compass Kids," combined atypical pop-rock mayhem with an assortment of instruments, from xylophone to flute to piano, and became a mega-record for Secretly Canadian. It's understandable why the Famile's advanced peculiarity may cause an eyebrow to raise here and there, but their costume-clad live shows haul in the believers in droves. Amusingly quirky isn't the perfect description for Smith's capivating endeavor, but it's certainly the first one that comes to mind.

The Danielson Famile plays November 6 at the Intuit: The Center For Intuitive and Outsider Art, 756 North Milwaukee, (312)243-9088. The Lonesome Organist opens.

(2003-11-05)

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