Anthology

By KELI DAILEY | SIGNONSANDIEGO STAFF WRITER

No pictures. No promotion. Make sure to put Vincent Gallo‘s name before Sean Lennon‘s.

That was the official word from the PR guy at Anthology, where the eccentric pair are playing at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14.

And just what are the indie Republican (seriously Wikipedia?) and the son of a Beatle playing? A despairing kind of ambient art pop. It sits on a soft, dark cloud next to the late Elliott Smith, poring over photos of ex-girlfriends.

On Vincent Gallo, solipsism and hookup tunes

I bought Gallo’s sedated lounge album “When” (Warp Records) back in 2001. I’d say listening to it alone in my studio was better than playing it during makeout sessions. But just barely.

Anyway, I emailed Gallo, asking for a photo. I added something about when I liked to play “When,” and he asked for a picture of ME instead.

Gallo’s an eccentric nearing 50, and all that living means his path’s crossed with many New York nuts and luminaries. He once played in a band with Brooklyn artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Yet his music is not stuffed and overripe with experience (or something offensive, Gallo is L’enfant terrible in interviews, and upset the world over his oral sex scene with ex-girlfriend Chloe Sevigny in “The Brown Bunny”).

Instead Gallo goes for musical minimalism … a vintage keyboard, his voice just above a lover’s whisper … like Joao Gilberto, whose delicate “Besame Mucho” cover is also a good hookup backdrop.

Check out Vincent Gallo’s MySpace.

On Sean Lennon, Xanax and celebrity hounds

Sean Lennon’s melodies are well-suited to those quirky, sometimes intense intellectuals who dress in ironic kitten T-shirts, who are looking for an escape hatch back into their adolescence, who pass out Xanax pills at their house parties.

I actually like Lennon’s piano progressions: They walk sleepily over slowed down rhythms. But his vocals are delivered a little timidly for my tastes. He tries to be heard, but comes off like a sensitive kid at an all boys’ school being bullied into selling chocolate.

I wonder how many anti-anxiety drug users will be at this show? How many who just want a sneaky-poo because of Lennon’s parentage (and Gallo’s movies)? And can people with panic disorders be celebrity hounds, too?

Sean Lennon’s last album “Friendly Fire” came out in 2006. “Into the Sun” got a better reception back in 1998. Check out his MySpace.

On The Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger

The opening act, The Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger, stars Sean Lennon and a hottie he’s kissing in the band’s MySpace pics, Charlotte Kemp Muhl. Her voice is wistful, sparkling, something I could hear over a Paul Williams score, singing a duet with Kermit the Frog.

She adds something to the Lennon melodies. That something would be stronger vocals.