E-Mail This Article to a Friend Found sounds New music from Skating Club and Myanna, and at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum BY TED DROZDOWSKI

If you’ll excuse a terrible pun: the characters populating Skating Club’s excellent new The Unfound Sound (Kimchee) all seem to be on thin ice. They’re fragile, full of regret and uneasiness, dogged by clouds of doubt as they recount relationship-killing mistakes in numbers like the title tune or do their best to live with the consequences in "Summer Time" and other songs.

The music’s a match for those sentiments, full of open spaces and built along the spine of Aubrey Anderson’s airy vocal melodies. It’s a sonic terra firma that’s beautiful yet threatens to crack beneath the pressure of asides like "You’re vicious/So am I" in "Pretty Soon." The only aural defense against potential collapse comes with the churn and ring from the guitars of Anderson and Sean T. Drinkwater, which blossom into the mix in pleasing and sometimes unexpectedly snarling ways.

There’s a well-developed æsthetic at play in the tracks on The Unfound Sound, the Boston-based Club’s third album and debut on the adventurous Kimchee label that’s set for release on November 16. It has precedents in the local quiet-rock outfit Galaxie 500 and the more far-flung Red House Painters, who specialized in lightly sketched complex emotional portraits. Anderson, who essentially is Skating Club, says his songs evolve through a process he calls "creeping production." "They begin with the slow introduction of a theme that usually evolves. I know what the chords will be and the changes, and I usually have a vocal melody. Sometimes I’ll do little loops and move the blocks of sound around. The lyrics are just half the picture, so there’s an emotional element to how the instruments and vocals fit together that goes beyond either the words or the music. And though I’m usually married to the underlying theme of a song, I sometimes cut whole verses without much compunction."

It’s fitting that Anderson considers Skating Club’s creative process evolutionary, since evolution led him to become the Club’s sole charter member. "In the ’90s, I had a space-rock band called Difference Engine. I played as much over-the-top loud stuff as I could, though I’ve never really tried to do more as a guitarist than learn enough to accompany my songs. After a while, being in front of super-loud amps became a hassle. I also got disillusioned and distanced myself from anything having to do with musicmaking for a while."

When Anderson felt the urge to return, it was to the studio, where he became a specialist at recording DIY oriented indie-rock bands. Then he got the urge to DI-Himself, and Skating Club was born. Over the course of two earlier albums, Skating Club evolved as a revolving team of players with Anderson as coach. And shows like the one the Club play next Friday, October 22, at P.A.’s Lounge in Somerville "are really like pick-up soccer games. I have a pool of musicians I call and e-mail to see who’s up for playing, and then we assemble for a few rehearsals and I figure out how to arrange the set given the personnel. It’ll always come off well as long as I have my shit together."

The relative looseness of Skating Club’s live line-up and instincts is in sharp contrast to Anderson’s demeanor in the studio, where, he says, "I’m a super control freak." That’s both revealed and rewarded in the spare, carefully layered beauty of The Unfound Sound. "But my favorite shows are with people who have never played together. Our recent sets have been more rocking and up-tempo, more pop oriented, which seems appropriate for this album."

After the P.A.’s gig, Skating Club will become weekend warriors, playing short strings of shows on the East and West Coasts. Anderson has another pool of musicians he draws on in Los Angeles. "What’s great about these songs and shows is that it’s a discovery process. I micro-manage in the studio as the songs develop, and for shows, I try to keep my focus and let the musicians around me have their own creative input within the structure of the songs. That way, the creative process, to a certain extent, is always under way."

AS ANY MUSICIAN can tell you, bringing a new player into a project sparks new ideas, new feels, new textures. Especially when that player is as bad-ass as drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Local saxophonist Myanna Pontoppidan, who goes by Myanna, tagged Purdie for the sessions for her new One Never Knows, Do One? (Bridge City), which comes out Thursday November 4 and will be celebrated with a show at Scullers in Boston that night.

Myanna was already on track with her new CD when she recruited Purdie, whom she met at a show he played in Chicago. Purdie is an R&B and jazz legend who’s in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most recorded drummer. He plays on five of the album’s nine numbers, adding his graceful but insistent push and sculpting the grooves. Myanna is also joined by a Boston A-team of guitarist Kevin Barry, trumpeter Scott Aruda, and drummer Marty Richards as well as Hammond B-3 organist Ken Clark.

Myanna has had her own voice as a player right from her first group, Lilith, a Northampton-based outfit that she joined in the ’70s. She was also a member of the popular ’80s Boston group Girls’ Night Out, who are contemplating some reunion shows. And when she’s not playing her own tunes on the bandstand, she can be found in the R&B party band the Love Dogs.

In part, the latter outfit accounts for the increase in muscle and blood that brings One Never Knows, Do One? to more vivid life than her two earlier solo albums, Myanna (1991) and After Hours (1997). Original tunes like "Chillin’ at the Lake" swing harder; there’s also just a little more grit and grease in her tone, whether she’s playing alto, baritone, tenor, or soprano sax.

"I wanted to focus more on what’s coming from my heart and the heart of the music that I’ve been writing," she says, outlining the MO for her new disc. "So I think this brings me a little farther away from the smooth-jazz area, where I’ve been categorized. A lot of smooth jazz is based around production. I wanted to get deeper into the songs and the most soulful aspects of my playing. So I made the specific choice to make the album less produced. Almost everything on the CD was recorded live in the studio, and there are no synthesizers, which makes it all sound more organic. Working that way also left all the players room for improvisation."

Then there’s the Love Dogs factor. "I’ve been playing for the last 10 years in the Love Dogs, which is a jump-blues band. Doing that kind of music, my playing is more aggressive. The whole genre is more organic and basic. It would be wrong to try to slip some Michael Brecker licks into a blues tune. So though the whole vibe in my own group is completely different, I think there’s been some crossover between the two."

Myanna’s fans won’t have to wait as long for her next album: she cut 15 numbers during the One Never Knows, Do One? sessions and is writing more. "I hope to go back into the studio and put something else out in a year." As for that title: fans of the classic jazz, blues, and ragtime pianist Fats Waller will recognize the phrase, which he occasionally interjected in his vocal performances and used to comic effect in the great African-American movie musical Stormy Weather. "I just love that little phrase. It’s a wonderful statement on life."

ALONG THOSE LINES, one never knows where a cool new venue will open up. The latest is the carriage house at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, where the "True Blues Heritage Series" kicks off next Friday, October 22, with local stalwarts Chicago Bob Nelson and Chris Brown playing a set of Louisiana swamp blues.

The Anderson Museum isn’t exactly a new venue, but it is an underutilized one. So far, it’s hosted folk performers. But the game plan for the blues series will be similar: low-volume and intimate, with a capacity of about 125 people. Veterans of the late Luther "Snake" Johnson’s band, Nelson and Brown will be followed on November 5 by Little Freddie King, the latest signing to Mississippi hardcore-blues and garage-rock label Fat Possum. King is a juke-joint veteran and an aggressive guitarist, so it’ll be interesting to hear how he scales down his dynamic performing style for the carriage house. A December 17 show will have a Texas blues theme, with performers to be announced.

Skating Club appear next Friday, October 22, at P.A.’s Lounge, 345 Somerville Avenue in Somerville; call (617) 776-1557. Myanna performs on Thursday November 4 at Scullers in the DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road at the Mass Pike; call (617) 562-4111. The Lars Anderson Auto Museum is at 15 Newton Street in Brookline, and concerts start at 8 p.m.; call (617) 522-6547 extension 19.