Dark and Handsome

Not so long ago, The Handsome Family's landlord finally replaced the windows in their apartment. Suddenly, they could see the sky. "It made me forget I was living on this ugly street full of garbage and drunks," says lyricist Rennie Sparks, self-proclaimed New York Jewess with a master's in literature, and wife to Brett, the male component of this Chicago-based, extremely alternative country unit. "I remembered how when I was very young I used to go outside and close my eyes and just float up out of my head like an invisible helicopter.

"Our new record, In The Air, is about that memory and other things in the air - crows in dead trees, giant white moths circling the night sky, the big dead eye of the moon, and the sparrows that swoop around eating mosquitoes at dusk. And it's also about dead bodies in the woods, a man afraid to drive across bridges, a woman kissed hard enough to fill her mouth with blood."

Welcome to the world of The Handsome Family. Like Donnie and Marie Osmond, they're a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll. Unlike the toothsome twosome, however, Brett and Rennie Sparks sport their pearly whites through snaking twists and turns on life's ever-curious roadways. They are, they say - virtually in unison across a shared phoneline from an unspecified US location - a product of their age, people who might draw from country music influences from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, but who nevertheless cannot forget that they grew up listening to the likes of Sonic Youth and Tom Waits.

Married for 12 years (and, by the sound of their cross-cutting, interpersonal phone manner, well used to being the butt of each other's jokes), Brett and Rennie Sparks have been making music since 1993. Brett is the musical one, a man who has lived through playing in metal, psychedelic revival, punk and country bands. Most of which, you will not be surprised to discover, were without any value whatsoever.

"Then post-Nirvana bands came around, DIY bands that were doing simple, great rock. I taught myself how to play guitar, bought a $100 drum kit from a drinking buddy of mine and taught Rennie a few bass lines. Then I asked her to write some lyrics. It was completely in the spirit of the way we do things now. We build our own website, record our own music, do the artwork for our own CDs. I don't like to get other people involved that don't necessarily have the same idea or vision. I know the word `vision' sounds so egotistical and artiste-like, but that's the way we do it."

If you haven't yet heard The Handsome Family, you're in for a treat. It's cornball country with a myriad of influences. Think simple country tunes crossed with warped but beautiful American short stories (Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff, Connor, Robert Coover, Lorrie Moore) and you're halfway there. Several choice examples of Rennie's lyrics include "We stopped for coffee in the Redwood forest. Giant dripping leaves. Spoons of powdered cream. I wanted to kiss you, but wasn't sure how" (Weightless Again), "Grandmother waits for you with a pair of new shoes in a land where the leaves never brown. The hills are scattered with empty wheelchairs and hearing aids thrown to the ground" (Grandmother Waits For You) and "I had nothing to say on Christmas day when you threw all your clothes in the snow" (So Much Wine). Add in a large degree of muscular morbidity, black humour and deadpan singing, and you have a package that has garnered praise from Europe (aren't we the clever ones?) and furrowed brows from America.

There is a downside to such a smorgasbord of influences, however. For some people, perspective means nothing, so while Mr and Mrs Handsome shake fingers - if not hands - with critics ho describe them as "sweet as love and as serious as death", they also have to put up with comparisons to The Addams Family. This is not, as you will shortly discover, A Good Thing.

"That really bothers the hell out of me," gasps Brett. "I can't stand that analogy. I really hate it. It's trivial. What does it say? It says absolutely nothing. I don't know where that was first printed and I don't know how it got picked up. I think it was written in a really small American paper and it got posted in the Internet. I'm gonna go in there and take it off. I'm so f***ing sick of it. It's the easiest, lowest-common-denominator way of describing things."

"I think it's great," argues Rennie. "I'd rather be known as Morticia Addams than a roots rocker. There's much more distinction in that."

Brett: "I never liked The Addams Family, anyway."

Rennie: "I loved that show."

And so the bickering continues. Behind it lies a couple of people who have, in some smart, chilly way, redefined the parameters of redneck, pale-faced country music. They are creating a hybrid of weirdness and woe for Cure fans who are facing middle age.

Rennie, meanwhile is working on a novel. As a lyricist, she writes cinematic snapshots. "I read a lot, listen to a lot of music, and feel sorry for myself at least 20 to 30 hours a week. That all adds up."

Her novel is about insects in apartment buildings taking over. Naturally. "The things that intrigue me are people in an urban setting, who are kind of sinking into this strange, natural world about them. I'm trying to make some sort of connection to the real world that's outside this weird, artificial human world we've created."

Irrespective of whether people think Brett and Rennie are a few hairs short of a beard, they genuinely reckon they're incredibly lucky that they've found an audience for what they do. They are selling as many records in Ireland and England as they are in the US. "It's astounding," says Brett. "Ireland is wonderful. I'd never been until we started touring. It's like an upside-down land where everything is great, although it's obviously not like that if you live there. It's a missing piece to me. We received an email from someone in Dublin who said our stuff was so funny. "In the US, people think we're morbid or depressing. In England people think we're ironic and cheeky. In Ireland, people think it's a slice of life and very familiar to the stories they heard when they were growing up. I don't have to explain myself to Irish people."

"It's really comforting for people like us, who feel like outsiders so often in the US, to feel normal," says Rennie. "It's a weirdo's dream come true."

The Handsome Family play Connolly's, Leap, Co Cork, tonight; Cork's Lobby Bar tomorrow; Galway's Roisin Dubh on Monday; Whelans, Dublin on Tuesday; Auntie Annies, Belfast on Wednesday; and Stables, Mullingaron Thursday.