If You've Never Heard of Moody Singer/Songwriter Cass McCombs, Get Acquainted With Him This Sunday at the Tractor

Cass McCombs is a weird guy. The kind of guy you'd expect to find huddled in the corner at a party, bristling at social interaction. He's a loner but a self-inflicted one, choosing to live in a world of his own making rather than the one he finds himself in. Five albums since his debut release in 2003, his catalog explores themes of isolation, life, and death, and religiosity with such depth of feeling, unmasked frustration, and gorgeous articulation that " . . . you suspect that we're dealing with a genius," said Pitchfork's Michael Idov.

Tinkering with genres from garage rock to somber, guitar-heavy anthems, the self-admitted "lyrics are my racket" songwriter never settled on a musical style but Wit's End, his recently released new album, is perhaps the most consistent sound the artist has conceived yet. The existential crisis ever-plaguing McCombs is at critical levels but is still intriguingly listenable, this time not hurried off by any kind of notion of pop palatability. His hyperlyricism is front and center (just dig the conversation between the singer and his muse on "Knock on the Door"), his fragile tenor somewhere between John Lennon and Robyn Hitchcock. All this from a man who prefers to write letters over giving interviews.

See McCombs croon away his demons this Sunday at the Tractor with old-timey banjo man Frank Fairfield. Tickets are $12 in advance, $14 day of show. Doors at 8 p.m.

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