The greatest pop singers create alternate universes, and it’s safe to say that Robyn Hitchcock and Grant-Lee Phillips have fashioned their own personal cosmologies. Since his days in the power pop-meets-New Wave band The Soft Boys, Hitchcock has specialized in surrealistic songs that often display the influence of such British Invasion titans as Syd Barrett and John Lennon.
On last year’s Love From London full-length, Hitchcock applied pop music’s structures to lyrics that had a political bent. A folk-rocker who favors spooky, gentle music that builds upon the work of Neil Young and other ’70s singer-songwriters, Phillips released the 2012 Walking in the Green Corn, an acoustic record that was both tough-minded and impressionistic. Hitchcock and Phillips’ live performances are always fun — their bulging songbags include tunes by David Bowie, Carl Douglas, and Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.
Tonight's show at The Basement costs $10 and will start at 8 p.m.
