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	Related Links Bourbon Princess' official Web site Jon Garelick reviews Bourbon Princess's Bottom Up. Ted Drozdowski reviews Bourbon Princess's Black Feather Wings Mary Timony's official Web site

THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF CHANGES in Mary Timony’s life since 2002’s The Golden Dove (Matador). For one thing, she no longer lives in Boston: last May, she moved back to Washington, DC, where she was raised and where she formed her first band, Autoclave, in the early ’90s. For another, she’s changed both bands and labels: she’s now part of a duo with drummer Devin Ocampo (who also plays guitar in the Dischord band the Medications), and she’s left Matador (where she’d been since Helium’s debut 10 years ago) and joined Lookout!, the Berkeley indie that put Green Day on the map.

But the biggest change on Ex Hex is musical: Timony has turned up her amp and become more rock-and-roll than she ever was in Helium or on her previous solo albums. Ex Hex draws much of its power from classic rock (as in Led Zeppelin), marrying crunching riffs with her usual melodic finesse. Ocampo whacks hell out of the kit like John Bonham on a bender. And Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, who produced the album, keeps the sound bright and lively. (When bassist Jeff Goddard got sick before the sessions, Timony either played the bass parts herself or did without them). For her part, Timony matches rich melodies with all manner of creative guitar riffage. And she writes with unusual candor about relationships, screwed-up and otherwise, largely avoiding the fairy-tale imagery.

"I think I just wanted to have a little more fun, and the music on this album reflects that," she says over the phone from her new home. "The lyrics are a lot less coded than they used to be, just because they had to be like the songs are — more direct and more rock."

Timony does a lot of things intuitively, and choosing to rock out on the new disc was one of them. "When it comes down to it, I do things for the stupidest reasons. I had a bad guitar sound and didn’t realize it; that was one of the reasons I stopped playing — the guitar I was using just had a crummy sound. At the time, I thought keyboards were more inspiring, because they gave me more ways to manipulate sound. But after a while, I started to miss the level of expertise I have on guitar, which I never really had on keyboards."

Leaving Boston was also a fairly quick decision. When she’s not walking her dog, she works as a guitar teacher. "It’s mostly to younger kids, which is really fun — there may be one of them who knows that I have a band and that I’ve made records. I’ve gotten sick of Boston before, then I’ve gone away and changed my mind. But right now, I’m really enjoying myself here. The music scene in DC is smaller and a lot more cohesive; that’s the main difference. And some of the girls at Lookout! used to be members of Bratmobile, so I’ve known them for a while. Otherwise, it’s not that much different doing music out here. I still have the same trouble motivating myself to go to band practice."

Old habits do die hard: there may not be any fairies on the new disc, but Timony does manage to sneak Jesus into two songs. "Well, it sounds intriguing. And that’s really what it is; I’ll write something because I like the sound of it. You write a grungy rock song that mentions Jesus — that’s weird and I like it. You know what’s funny, though? I notice this new psychedelic movement, people like Devendra Banhart. All these people writing songs about fairies, and they’re cool for doing it. When I was doing it, everybody thought I was a geek."

Mary Timony returns to Boston this Tuesday, April 19, to headline T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square; call (617) 492-BEAR. Bourbon Princess celebrate the release of their new CD on Friday April 29 at the Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, with Caged Heat; call (617) 547-0759.