Where it started for The Wallflowers,

1992: Everything about the Wallflowers suggests that they want to be heard as a band for the music they play and nothing else.

Last May, a new band the Wallflowers appeared at the Chestnut Cabaret opening for another new band Cracker. Both bands share the same record label, Virgin, but the Wallflowers' album hadn't been released yet and they wanted no publicity either before or after the show.

Five unpretentious looking young men wearing jeans and flannel shirts —despite the warm May weather — took the stage and played a stirring, exciting set of hard edged songs that sounded... well, kind of like The Band.

The lead singer kind of looked a little familiar in the way he stood and held his guitar. He and the other members of the band said little and not one member was introduced. When the members of the band came out to mingle with the crowd and to watch Cracker, they were only interested in knowing what it sounded like.

Their eponymous debut was released a couple of weeks ago and is similarly unpretentious right down to the waist-down scruffy cover shot and inside photo with the credits printed over everyone's faces. There's no long list of name-dropping credits or thankyous to God or other unknown persons, no lyrics, just the names of the musicians, producer, engineers and other people involved with the album.

Recorded live in the studio, it has pretty much the same feel as that night at the Cabaret. The songs come first and the band has a nice way of tailoring them for drama and impact. Keyboardist Rami Jaffee has obviously paid attention to the work of the greatest organ player in rock music, Garth Hudson and lead guitarist Tobi Miller knows what not to play, spicing his guitar with the right amount of funk and grunge and playing concise, moving leads on songs like "After the Blackbird Sings."

The lead singer has a gruff voice and a definite way with words. The musicians know how to create a mood around the words illustrating key lines. A good example is the mysterious, stately "Somebody Else's Money." When it comes to the line, "Swing through the skies opening," the guitar and keyboards create the opening. It's a strange song. Reading the lyrics, about spending huge amounts of money on objects useless and absurd as the neighbors greedily watch, they're quite funny, but are sung with hellish despair.

Another standout is "Honeybee," a soft song (this band isn't afriad to do ballads) reminiscent of (the late) Richard Manuel in the way its constructed with the airy melody augmented by bluesy interlude that keeps threatening to take over, and turn into a hard rocker, but never does. Even when they finally let loose on an instrumentall at the end, they hold back at just the right moment. Guitarist Miller's work on this song is particularly imaginative.

The songs are never overly catchy, but it's pretty hard to resist the guitar and organ combination that highlights the opening track, "Shy of the Moon," or the funky groove that underlies the disturbing portrait of "Sugarfoot," about a man "who don't know what to do with love" with a "bed in a gallery" where the "colors shine like flames coming in through the window pane."

Similarly interesting are the images evoked in "Hollywood": "Everybody's got their own smokescreens/And personal armies for everyone in between," or "She don't give food to eat/Or anybody anyplace to sleep, but she can tell you what you can and what you can't create."

Most of the songs are detailed portraits of crazy romances, but some like "Ashes to Ashes" are steaming with anger and resentment, while others like "Asleep at the Wheel" sung over a solo sweetly finger-picked acoustic guitar, are ambiguous in their targets, but colored with images that seem to light up as they're sung. The Wallflowers treat each song separately, letting the song define itself, rocking when they have to (which is quite often) but not necessarily. They're obviously more interested in making music than cashing in on any popular trend.

The singer and songwriter's name, by the way, is Jakob Dylan, but everything about the Wallflowers suggests that they want to be heard as a band for the music they play and nothing else. Given the media in this country, it's doubtful that will happen. However, their performance earlier this year and their debut album show they should be judged on their own merits.