Ben Kweller's current CD, Sha Sha, is the sort of strikingly melodic song cycle that could inspire folks to hang terms like boy genius on the baby-faced 21-year-old. But please don't -- the Texas-born singer-songwriter has already been down that road.
Back in 1996, Kweller's self-described ''teenage punk rock band,'' Radish, was signed to Mercury Records by ex-Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg. The resulting album, Restraining Bolt, came out the following year, preceded by the sort of publicity coup most young bands only dream about -- a lengthy and laudatory New Yorker feature that essentially hailed Kweller as both the second coming of Kurt Cobain and the future of rock & roll.
The funny-only-in-retrospect punchline: Restraining Bolt sank without a trace, while acned labelmates Hanson ushered in the teen-pop era with the simultaneously released Middle of Nowhere. Two years later, Radish disbanded.
''It seems so far away and strange now, all that pressure of being signed to a major label at 15,'' says Kweller. ''We were from a small town [Greenville, Tex.] and didn't know anything about the music business. I mean, we were this little band that was into the Descendents and Nirvana -- what were we doing in a highbrow magazine like The New Yorker?''
After Radish broke up, Kweller moved to New York City. He gigged around and eventually self-released his first solo disc, Freak Out, It's Ben Kweller, in 2000. ''I didn't want to get signed to a major label again,'' he says. ''I just wanted to build a fan base and not be bothered by businesspeople.''
Luckily, the next suit to pursue him also happened to be a fan. Michael McDonald, co-owner (with Dave Matthews) of ATO Records, signed Kweller because he'd heard and loved Freak Out. Kweller was given complete creative control to shape Sha Sha, and the result is one of the year's best pure-pop efforts.
''This album surpasses anything Radish did,'' says Kweller. Sha Sha's first single, ''Wasted & Ready,'' has been seeping onto the airwaves since the CD's release last March, and MTV2's recent emphasis on the video has increased his audience. ''I'm going on tour with the Strokes in November,'' he says. ''Then I'll do some headlining shows, and a full tour next year. In December, I'm shooting the video for my next single ['Commerce, TX'].''
Can a New Yorker profile be far behind?
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