Music: Noisy landing

Normally, it's not a good sign when a band clears a room. I had the opposite reaction, though, the first time I saw the 757s.

A band of veteran players too seasoned to care much about being liked by anyone else, they hit the stage at the Nomad Pub a couple months ago to headline the Ruckus on the West Bank and made a lasting impression.

The room was mostly full of cute, wee-sized, college-age Radio K listeners in Urban Outfitted punk gear (i.e., the kind of kids who most often go out to see live music, so God love 'em). A brooding, downbeat, Radiohead-loving band called North went over well in the slot before the 757s. It couldn't have been a poorer setup for the noise that followed.

The sound system at the Nomad literally hit overload. The music -- a bastardized blend of the Replacements' thunder-n-blunder, Guided by Voices' melodic rip and the Who's meaty and bouncy -- was dirty and damaging, and it was beautiful.

Even one of the four guys in the 757s, Jimmy Peterson, winced the first time he heard fellow singer/guitarist Seth Zimmerman crank his amp at their very first practice. That first gathering was literally their only rehearsal before going into the studio to record their debut album, "Tell the Pilgrim It's a Potluck."Seth was playing at airport-level volume," Peterson recalled, providing an explanation for the band's name. "I looked at him like, 'Are you serious? Is this really what you want to do?' And Seth is such the ultimate optimist, he said, 'That's the dream, isn't it?'"

Dreams for these guys -- all dads with young kids and birthdates around 1968 -- don't come cheap anymore. Peterson watched two excellent previous bands dissolve: Bellwether and, in recent months, Missing Numbers. Drummer Steve Sutherland was a part of Grant Hart's post-Hüskers band Nova Mob.

As for Zimmerman and bassist Paul Pirner, they're both undoubtedly leery of rock's fame game thanks to their uncle and brother, respectively (Bob Dylan and Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner). Zimmerman nonetheless made an admirable go of it with Tangletown in the '90s, while Pirner has played around in bands including Best Red and Mosquito Ranch.

"We're all of the similar mind-set that we don't want to deal with any of the B.S. of being in a band, just the fun stuff," said Pirner, who could be mistaken for his brother when he steps up to the mike.

"There's no lifeguard at the gene pool," he quipped.

Pirner, Peterson and Zimmerman share vocal duties in the 757s, which might be the ultimate sign that none of them is in it to be a rock star. "Tell the Pilgrim," however, proves that they don't take the band lightly. Besides that brawny sound, there's ample brain and heart in the songwriting (also a shared chore within the band). The disc opener, "1981," reads like a short story on the death of disco, and tracks like the feedback-ridden "Undermined" and "Shoegazer" are laden with all-too-believable characters and vivid imagery.

Songwriting apparently comes easier than planning rehearsals and gigs for these guys, who are at work on a second album even as they celebrate the release of the first one Saturday at the Fine Line (currently their only gig on the books).

"We're going to try to make it down to Chicago and play around here when we can, but there won't be any big tours or anything," Peterson said. "Most of our ambition is in the music. That might be the thing that turned some people off [that night at the Nomad]: The days of earnest rock -- or earnest anything -- are over."

Polara opposite

Ed Ackerson could be forgiven for not straying far from the blasting, reverberating sound of his fuzz-loving band Polara on his first solo album. However, Ackerson's eponymous album -- made in his own studio (Flowers) for his own label (Susstones) -- tellingly kicks off with a jangly acoustic guitar instead of feedback, and in the end it suggests that Ackerson's favorite records are by classic bands from the '60s instead of indie-rock bands of the '80s.

It's amazing how little electric guitar is on the disc, but how much of a kaleidoscope it is sonically. "Three Great Days" and "Flashes of Light" sound like "Rubber Soul"-era Beatles, and rootsier/folkier gems like "Wired Weird" show why Ackerson has made a great recording partner with Gary Louris in recent years. "Some people need a lot of sleep/ I'm glad that's not me," he sings in the Byrdsy nugget "To the Contrary." Apparently, there's lots more where this came from.

Ackerson's band for tonight's release party at the Varsity Theater includes Marc Perlman, Peter Anderson and the Alarmists' Eric Luvold. Openers are the Melismatics, Mood Swings, Strange Lights and Marc & Janey (9 p.m., $8-$10).

Random mix

After sounding rather destitute last year, when she solicited fans to put up money for the recording of a new CD, singer/songwriter Ellis is gearing up for a comeback, and maybe even a bigger coming-out in her decade-old career. She performs Saturday at the Bryant-Lake Bowl (10 p.m., $15) to preview "Break the Spell," an 11-track collection produced by Marc Cohn's studio ace Ben Wisch. An early listen to the disc finds it brimming with dramatic, Cohn-like arrangements while maintaining Ellis' intimate, burning appeal. ...

Just back from a tour of Switzerland with Willie Walker, Butanes frontman Curt Obeda tipped me off to his band's new gig every Friday at "the Celtic Poodle." He means the former Poodle Club on Lake Street (at 30th Av), which has reopened as an Irish pub called McMahon's but is keeping a lot of the same music. ...

The best little newspaper for making up lies, the Onion, is also pretty good at making up local music compilations. Charlie Parr, Roma di Luna and Black Audience perform Saturday at the Nomad to plug the Onion's latest "I'm in a Promising Local Band" CD, also featuring cuts by Atmosphere, the Alarmists, Fog and 16 others (10 p.m., $5). ... The Owls feature a few weeks ago was Peter Scholtes' last work as a City Pages staffer. Hoping to follow other avenues, Scholtes quit what he called "the only job I ever looked forward to" after 10 years there. Here's hoping CP doesn't lose its local-music focus with him.

chrisr@startribune.com • 612-673-4658