Hair's an extension of our feeling

THE twins in New York-based rock trio Blonde Redhead do not welcome comparisons to each other.

That goes for their looks, as well as their music.

"Not fun and tiring," Amedeo Pace, the trio's guitarist and vocalist, said shortly in an e-mail interview when asked about this. One can practically hear him sigh over the cyber- ether.

Amedeo - who will be in town today to play a gig at the Esplanade with his brother, Simone, and Japanese singer-musician Kazu Makino - is not impressed, either, at the suggestion that one could listen to Blonde Redhead's dreamy music while reading James Joyce on a train journey.

WashingtonCityPaper.com had teasingly suggested that it would be the perfect hipster combination, especially if a cute guy or girl struck up a conversation.

"Well, that was not the intention, but everyone listens to music for a reason," he deadpanned in his e-mail response, which he took the time to write while on a world tour.

The trio have made stops in Japan, Australia and New Zealand this year.

Formed in 1993 and named after a song by New York no-wave band DNA, Blonde Redhead found wider acclaim with its sixth album, Misery Is A Butterfly, which hit No. 42 on music charts in the Pace brothers' native Italy.

The 2007 follow-up, 23, got even more people to sit up, with its ethereal mix of melancholic yet head-boppingly good hooks.

Last year's Penny Sparkle album has been described as an electronic reinvention of the band's sound.

So, one jokes, seeing as how none of the members are blonde or redhead, how is it that the band has turned out songs like My Impure Hair (on 23)? Do they have some kind of hair fetish?

"I guess hair is an extension of how we feel," said saltand- pepper-haired Amedeo.

"It sometimes tells you about someone and seems to dictate our state of mind in ways we are sometimes not even aware of."