Thurs. Nov. 8

     Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" was the most chilling true crime book (novel) I read and then came the equally haunting black and white movie with Robert Blake (yes, in retrospect rather gulp-inducing the see him play the killer he became, sort of). Years later, the Philip Seymour Hoffman movie, "Capote," centered around the late writer's research into the grisly crime. Why was it all so damn powerful? It was one of the first true-crime books-into-movies I'd seen that burned the truth - or its version of the truth - into your head. (This was pre-Manson.) And the horror of what the Clutter family no doubt felt, psychologically and then physically, as they were led to the slaughter - a rural Kansas farm family that had done no wrong, victims only because of misinformation given to killer Dick Hickock in prison and carried out, in a rage, by Hickoff and (less than 100 % willing) accomplice Perry Smith. It was the most mindless of mass murders and, remember, this happened before these sort of "random" killings became part of our landscape, both as entertainment and real-life horror. (I'm thinking of the New Hampshire doctor who survived as his family was slaughtered.) 
    This brings us to Jaggery, a  Boston quintet which  will celebrate the release of "Private Violence," (out Nov. 13) a haunting EP inspired by the murders and murderers depicted in "In Cold Blood" with a short tour of the East Coast this November. The first show will be their release party at Oberon in Cambridge on Thursday Nov. 8. "Private Violence" takes a turn for the macabre, adapting its title from criminologist Richard Rhodes’ book, "Why They Kill," which describes criminals as “differ[ing] from the rest of us in following through with private violence.”  Nowhere is that more evident than through frontwoman Mali’s primary inspiration behind the EP: Perry Smith, "misunderstood murderer." Not sure about that "misunderstood murderer" part, but that was Capote's take - that Smith never would have partaken in this without Hickock (and also that Capote had something that was maybe more than a crush on Smith.) Capote described the 1959 murders as “four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives.” 
    Mali and Jaggery opt for musical approach to the tragic Kansas crime scene. “Hostage Heart,” the first song written on the EP, works as both a tribute to Perry Smith and an identification with the murderer. “I was looking at myself, and looking at Perry, yet also expressing the wonder and horror over what his hands were capable of,” explains Mali. “Oh my god” is a dark, gritty jazz recounting of Smith’s hanging, and the EP ends on the aptly titled “End Song,” a wistfully sung ballad to Smith as a confused and abused child. “Hostage Heart” link: http://glgpub.com/file_download/392/Jaggery-Hostage-Heart.mp3
    Joining Mail in Jaggery are a rotating lineup of musicians and instrumentation including Daniel Schubmehl and his West African and jazz approach to the drum kit, Tony Leva’s gritty, often prepared upright bass, Rachel Jayson’s avant-classical viola, and Petaluma Vale’s glistening Celtic harp and backing vocals.  The sound moves from haunting lullabies to intricately-woven, mixed-meter rants to catharsis-inducing, barn-burning mini-epics ~ oftentimes within the same song. You'll hear elements of darkwave, jazz, classical, ethereal avant-rock, and chamber art-pop - a Cocteau Twins for the 21st century perhaps.

Opening: What Time Is It, Mr. Fox and Gem Club. Doors at 8. Tix: $20 & $15.

2 Arrow Street, Cambridge, 617-496-8804 www.americanrepertorytheatre.org/oberon  www.jaggery.org