TONIGHT: Tyler Weinrich at Chain Reaction

Publicity photos are more powerful than you might think--I had never heard of Sacramento's Tyler Weinrich before today. and I probably would have never bothered to check out his music, at least at this point in time, if not for that amazing picture.

More to the point, I'm intrigued by all the tantalizing questions that photo conjures up. Is it sincere? It can't be, right? It has to be ironic. (Right?)

So, naturally, I launched an investigation to find out the truth, and was even more confused by what I found--his music, for the most part, is super-sincere singer/songwriter stuff, like his song "Dizzy" ("he tells you that he loves you, he says that he'll be there, hope he feels like I do, really hope he cares"). So, not exactly the kind of music that would lend itself to hilariously (?) ironic press photos. The rest of his photos are all of him, like looking serious in spiffy duds, playing an acoustic guitar.

BUT, he also has songs like "Love Sick" (also gloriously available for free streaming on his MySpace), that's the kind of slick pop-meets rap combo that hasn't been seen since the heyday of SoulDecision and "Faded." Guest rapper "Reallionaire Jream" (uh, what?) has fun spitting lyrics mentioning DeLoreans, spreadsheets and Jay-Z. Yeah.

It gets better! Weinrich is playing tonight at Chain Reaction (his MySpace says "first LA show," hmm), and Reallionaire Jream himself will be opening the show, and surely showing up for that track. $10 at the door, starts at 7.