by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“The first band I really, really loved was Mötley Crüe. I sort of picked up the guitar because of them,” says Eric Elbogen, the singing, songwriting centrepiece of Say Hi to Your Mom. He’s absolutely off hair bands these days, preferring a motley of charged guitars, busy synths and wry but earnest lyrics to the squealing solos and V-licking poetry of Vince, Tommy and co. His sense of humour has been compared to Morrissey’s, his voice to Conor Oberst’s and adjectives like “clever,” “sly,” “quirky” and “contrived” seem to gravitate to him.

“Elbogen has a kind of snot-nosed cockiness that you don’t typically find in a genre that exalts the perpetually wounded,” said one critic. True, wallowing isn’t his style. Just peruse such long, cheeky Say Hi song titles as “Poor Pete Is a Bit Self Conscious,” “As Smart As Geek Is Chic Right Now” and “Yeah, I’m In Love With an Android,” the latter one of many paeans to the mighty robot.

But not everyone is down. Another critic, in spearing the band’s latest album, Ferocious Mopes, said, “A certain careerism is sweeping even the once-artiest loft apartments,” suggesting that Elbogen’s on some sort of Bright Eyes/Arcade Fire bandwagon. True, he’s committed the sin of expressing a desire to be signed (and booking studio time for his next LP), having written, recorded and released three albums on his own, in his home, since relocating from L.A. to NYC in 2000.

“One of the things those cities share is that there are way too many musicians, and I’d say 90 per cent of them, if not more, have dreams of becoming rich, famous rock stars,” says Elbogen, not counting himself among them. “It’s pretty apparent, when you go see a band or listen to their record, what their priorities are—artistic integrity vs. making money. Of course, there are smart ways to do both. There are decisions one makes while making a record, to either include or discount the flavour of the month.

“But don’t get me wrong,” he adds, “I enjoy making money.”

With Bad Flirt at Zoobizarre on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 9 p.m., $8

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