Merrill Garbus, the brain and face of tUnE-yArDs, is a jarring character. Her haircut is confrontationally lopsided, and she performs with a pink boa around her neck and colorful streaks painted across her cheeks. Her pliable, confident voice frequently approaches a yodel, and many of her songs are built upon a ukulele, but there is a momentum to tUnE-yArDs' songs that provides a fierce counterweight to any hippie freak-show leanings. The band's latest,
Whokill, is a kitchen-sink affair — saxophones, blunt noise, traces of punk, reggae and R&B — that has absolutely no business being any good at all, much less one of the more exciting records of the year.
Catch tUnE-yArDs tonight, Monday, November 7, at the Jackpot Music Hall (943 Massachusetts, in Lawrence, 785-832-1085).
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