A show preview by John Payne which appeared in the April 19-25, 2002 issue of L.A. Weekly. It’s previewing the show at Spaceland on Sunday the 21st.

Edith Frost gives new hope for those seeking that kind of introspective, country-tinged singer-songwriter stuff but who’re bored to tears with the way it sounds. Over the course of a few generally excellent Drag City albums, Frost has taken the form and given it goose, working with your all-stars of the post-rock scene including Royal Trux, Gastr del Sol, Eleventh Dream Day and High Llamas, and with producer* Steve Albini on the recent WONDER WONDER. A singer of subtly ironic affect, Frost skews her downbeatish songs with unusual chord progressions and idiosyncratic instrumental touches like subdued keyboard shards or her favored jaunty clarinets, which lends an inviting ambiguity to the jaded tone she uses to convey her rather personal heartbreak stories.

* Actually, Rian Murphy produced the album; Steve Albini engineered it.