Road Warriors: Soft Power

The band is apparently over the whole "dancing in the rain" thing.

Like her own wispy, ethereal music, Mary Timony seems to fluidly re-enter and vanish from view with little or no notice. We had been wondering where the ghost of Helium had disappeared to after 2007’s The Shapes We Make, the Mary Timony Band effort she issued via Kill Rock Stars. Well, as of this morning, we now know: The tender-voiced songstress has started up a new band, Soft Power.

The D.C. group is still brand-new, having only created a MySpace profile last month. The lineup is fleshed out by T.J. Lipple, Jonah R. Takagi and Winston H. Yu.

Of especially curious note to Timony fans will be the fact that she does not man the mic for all Soft Power’s songs, leaving some lead-singing duties to one of her male counterparts. The project is also a little less dreamy than Timony’s past affairs - its softly menacing pop/rock is a far cry from the innocent fairy tale soundtracks she used to dream up.

Soft Power - who are unsigned - have actually been introducing themselves with some shows not far from where they live. On the docket is a Friday show in Philly, followed a day later by a gig in New York, and then one in Boston on Sunday.

But unfortunately, the touring hasn’t gone completely smooth so far - hence this most recent edition of “Road Warriors“: The band had to cancel its Friday show in Fort Worth (D.C.) due to unforeseen circumstances. Those unforeseen circumstances? No, they weren’t a van breakdown, or an illness, or a flying-monkey attack: The rain was at fault. And apparently Soft Power weren’t quite prepared for a wet-’n'-wild outing.

“We got to Fort Reno, loaded our gear, were at set to play, and then the rain came,” the band wrote in a Friday post (typos preserved for posterity’s sake). “So sad! Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who showed up. I really wish we could have played. it would have been much more fun than sitting under a plastic tarp playing tetris pop on my phone. I hope everyone at least got a piece of cake! the green tea cupcakes were amazing. and the cake with an actual Fort Reno on it was a thing of beauty.

“The plan is to set up a show with benjy in September as a kind of ‘rain date’. will update when it is booked.”

Said “Benjy” is Benjy Ferree, we’re thinkin’ - the T.Rex-sounding act is also based in D.C.

If and when we hear about that make-up date, we’ll letcha know.

Road Warrior rating:

No lives lost: +1 point

No injuries: +1 point

One show missed: -1 point

The show will be rescheduled: +1 point

Soft Power put the best interests of the crowd above themselves: +2 points

Green tea cupcakes sound tasty: +1 point

Total: 5 points

Don’t miss these previous installments of Road Warriors: