[Contributor Todd Martens checks in with tonight’s headliners at the

Echo:]

It took a concept that was borderline gimmick to inspire Bishop Allen to complete a second album.

After selling a few thousand copies of its 2003 debut, "Charm School," the

playful New York indie-pop act spent more than a year recording and discarding a

follow-up.

It turns out that all the band needed were some deadlines. The five-piece, led by

Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, who met while attending Harvard University in the late

’90s, opted instead to craft four-track EPs for every month in 2006. The EPs were to be

named for the month in which the songs were recorded, and there would be no turning

back.

"The hardest months were April and May," says Rice, who starred in the 2005

indie flick "Mutual Appreciation." "It just felt like we still had a ton

in front of us. But we believed if we were constantly giving people new music, the EPs

would sort of be like a postcard from a friend."

Of the 48 songs recorded, nine were heavily reworked for Tuesday’s release of

"Bishop Allen & the Broken String." On the 12 finished tracks, Rice’s

scruffy vocals are softened by buoyantly relaxed guitars and a dash of orchestral

trimmings. It’s a pleasant-enough frame for lyrics that deal with the twentysomething

concerns of middle-class bohemians, such as begging a rich uncle for cash.

"There’s truth in that," Rice says. "The kind of music we make is not

about virtuosity. It’s about sincerity."

||| Bishop Allen performs tonight at the Echo, with Castledoor and Page France opening.

||| Download: "Click Click Click

Click."

Other recommendations for Tuesday, July 31

Mercury Music Prize nominee Bat for

Lashes headlines Spaceland tonight while a performer with a very different

sensibility — M.I.A. — holds forth a couple miles

away at the Echoplex. … The Peter Bjorn

and  John show at the Fonda Theatre is sold out. … Maxeen closes out its string of Tuesday night

performances at the Key Club on a bill that includes Carina Round. … And a strong bill of

power-poppers plays tonight’s installment of International Pop Overthrow at Molly

Malone’s, including Chris von Sneidern, Kenny Howes and the Eugene Edwards Band.