The Cardinals

Squirrelly as ever, Ryan Adams isn't in favor of bills that list his name "and the Cardinals." So we'll oblige. In fact, if he changed his name to a Greek letter and reduced his backup band to a lunchbox full of snails, we'd still listen — as long as those snails could nail the awe-inspiring multi-part harmonies that the Cardinals (Neal Casal, Brad Pemberton, Jon Graboff, Chris Feinstein and Adams) dish out live. Meanwhile, on the blog at Cardinology.com, Adams — calling himself "R2-D-Tune" — posts experimental, lo-fi demos that sound either truly sweet ("Sunflowers and Hotels") or totally ridiculous ("Multi-Corn, Crush That Butterfly"). All this precedes the October 23 release of Cardinology, the 14th studio album to have Adams' name on it — or not, as the case may be — as a chief songwriter. Next year, he publishes his first book, Infinity Blues. The year after that, he predicts your future and cooks you a light ragout. But at the Uptown this Thursday, expect tau and his snails to set the mirror ball on rainbow meltdown with renditions of some of the best love songs of the era, written by a guy somewhere named Ryan Adams.