Little Brazil

Singer-guitarist Landon Hedges--a sideman in the side projects of Conor Oberst (Desaparecidos) and Tim Kasher (Good Life)--looks like a young-adult version of Christopher Robin but sounds like an aspiring Burt Bacharach, his songs bursting with love but countered by a modern cynicism. He and fellow Omahans Dan Maxwell, Corey Broman and Austin Britton fuel this reasonable passion into rock songs that are part Weezer, part Smoking Popes, with a little Magnetic Fields/Tin Pan Alley found in the jaunty ditty "You and Me" (the title track of their debut record on Mt. Fuji Records) and the quiet, jazzy finale of the time-changing, mood-shifting, five-minute track "The Way You Listen." Live, Little Brazil's playful enthusiasm is contagious. Built Like Alaska and The Cops open.