The ugly truth

>> Laughing at death and misfortune with the Handsome Family

by CHRIS YURKIW

"All the Wilco fans thought we were making fun of country because we took plastic deers on stage and got kinda drunk and acted like fools," says Brett Sparks, of a recent tour with some Chicago friends. "They thought we were trying to be subversive."

"I loved that deer!" kicks in Brett's wife, Rennie Sparks. "It made me feel like I was out in the woods!"

In fact, Brett and Rennie's duo the Handsome Family is kind of subversive. At first you think the name is a joke or homage--only to learn that they're a real family. And then their songs play the same trick. On the surface it's all about clubfooted cowboys and three-legged dogs--over the top and ol'-stylized folk 'n' country in the manner of Oh Susanna. But then there's the bouncy banjo and tuba number about "The Woman Downstairs" who died from bulimia, or "Weightless Again," that refers to good folks jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, and all of a sudden things aren't so distanced in some imagined, past hillbilly life. And not so funny. Or are they?

"Back in the punk rock thing," says Rennie, who writes the lyrics, "we spent so much of our youth being ironic and distanced and sarcastic about everything that eventually you have to throw yourself in front of a train or find some way to connect to the world. I'm done with irony--I just wanna try to find the truth in what the hell's going on."

Still, the truth is ugly for the Handsome Family, and the truth must be mitigated by larfs--somewhere in there. "People might see us on stage and have the impression that we're just goofing on the whole thing," says Brett.

"We're goofing on ourselves," says Rennie.

"We just fuck around a lot," continues Brett.

"And then we sing a song about somebody dying in the woods," says Rennie. "To us, that makes sense. That's the way life feels to me.

"That's the catharsis," concludes Brett. "You're supposed to sing about death and then toast death and laugh your ass off, because it's absurd."

With Deerhunter and Inchoate at Hotel 2 Tango this Sunday, June 6, 9pm, $6