Joe Lally, Edie Sedgwich

Former Fugazi bassist Joe Lally has been both blessed and cursed by working with Ian MacKaye. Anytime you can collaborate with a musician of MacKaye's stature, you wind up better for it; the problem is, you also tend to get a bit overshadowed. That's what happened to Lally. A talented musician and songwriter, Lally has been a central figure in multiple projects before, during and after his active role with Mac­Kaye in Fugazi. He even ran his own label, Tolotta, from 1998 to 2002, breaking critically acclaimed bands like Dead Meadow during its four-year run. Two solo records, at least four other groups and collaborations, and a successful (if transient) record label, and still he plays second fiddle. Such are the perils of greatness, and of attaching oneself to it. These days, Lally is on the road, revealing an extremely interesting musical restraint. Most of the arrangements from 2007's Nothing Is Underrated feature little more than Lally's bass and voice, with minimal percussion and guitar highlights. On the U.S. leg of his world tour, Lally is accompanied by transgendered electroclash wizard Edie Sedgwick, whose bizarre blend of politics, cheap beats and bad drag outfits comes together to form an arresting amalgam of bizarreness. Edie herself puts it best: "Le Tigre meets Black Flag for an irony-free dance party with a tranny Milton Berle as MC!" — Nicholas L. Hall