The trio have quite a varied fan base—young people mouthing along to the words, parents with kids in tow (quite the progressive bedtime in our estimation—we remember begging to stay up till 9 p.m. for 90210) and indie-rock club rats. The show was tight, mellow and pretty—and it was actually a nice twist to know which song was coming next. Co-singer Jillian Leigh might just have the prettiest voice in town outside of the whole girl-with-a-guitar-and-a-whole-lot-of-feelings thing. Its sweetness is casually subversive, especially paired with her coy grin.

Both guitarist Zachary Gresham and keyboardist Jillian Franklin (who pass singing duties back and forth) have expressive, musical voices that prevent their sound from ever veering toward farce. Their songs are atmospheric collections of bizarre images drawing on offbeat themes - Gresham's "Bat's in the Belfry" sounds a bit like your crazy old uncle playing an out-of-tune piano in the attic, but in a charming gothic way. That's the thing about this band: they're idiosyncratic, at times dissonant and often strange, but never boring-especially onstage, where they perform with the reckless energy of a high-speed chase.

"Wiseman" itself is one of those songs that once it gets under your skin, there's almost no way of detaching yourself from its clutches. With echoes of XTC and Radiohead bouncing around its jazz-rock magnificence, "Wiseman" sets the tone perfectly for Umbrella Tree's conquest of your heart and mind.

With eclecticism at the core of Umbrella Tree's agenda, the likes of the whimsical "The Bird & the Fish," with its mixture of ukulele, melancholy piano and jaunty counterpoint, showcase the band's creative spark brilliantly; At times ebullient, dramatic, classical, or downright pleasant, What Kind of Books Do You Read? is worth investigating, especially for the splendor of "Wiseman" alone. It is that good.

The shared vocal mix between the three, (two guys, one gal) make for great harmonies and great contrast at times. Very much the free spirit musically,, the trio have a lot more going on for it than bands that have been around years and years in the music scene waiting for their big break.

Larger than life music, sweet vocals make What Kind of Books Do You Read? A true aural delight. Despite gothic tones and an affinity towards the progressive, you don't have to have an acquired taste or live in Europe or Japan to appreciate Umbrella Tree.

Their music doesn't really fall into any of the popular indie rock subsets in town, or fit in with the more alt-rock aspects of Nashville's non-country music scene, or even any of the other current styles sweeping international indie-dom. After listening to the band's debut disc, What Kind Of Books Do You Read? we've found that the easiest mathematical path to get to Umbrella Tree's unique sound is The Pixies + Jeff Buckley + The Decemberists + Dresden Dolls = Umbrella Tree.

From The Pixies, Umbrella Tree borrowed the weird, ecstatic male vocal versus cool, disaffected female vocal combination and the famous Boston band's notorious disconnectedness from local trends. From Buckley, the group received the gift of speaker-bending dynamics without ever resorting to heavy metal power chord posturing. Like The Decemberists, Umbrella Tree foregoes self-indulgent soul-baring in favor of fable-like storytelling and strange odes to Western movies and Sasquatch.

But the band Umbrella Tree is arguably most similar to in this musical equation is current Spin-approved buzz band Dresden Dolls, whose obsession with Edward Gorey-like gothic imagery and early-century entertainment reflects Umbrella Tree's own bent toward circus freak show sounds, albeit in a much more rock 'n' roll context.

All these influences add up to an album whose compositional conflicts are ultimately cohesive and whose multiple musical allusions never result in the band bowing to any single one of them.