Jad Fair Drives Women Wild

Edith Massey said it, in her ditty "Punks Get Off the Grass!": "Sincerity counts when you're talking to me." And who can argue with Edith Massey? Not Jad Fair, certainly, who outsinceres even Jonathan Richman in his plaintive wails about monsters, parents, dresses, girls, and other pressing subjects. Jad (you have to use the first name of this endearing guy) recently teamed up with Kramer on the CD The Sound of Music: An Unfinished Symphony in 12 Parts. The extra-needy founder of the seminal naive-punk band Half Japanese is always teaming up with somebody -- Yo La Tengo, Teenage Fan Club, Moe Tucker, the Pastels -- but ace musician Kramer offers a particularly sweet backdrop for Jad's zany lyrics. The hooks on The Sound of Music -- not to be confused with the hooks that "the thing" used to "pull the heads off boys and girls in lover's lane" in an earlier Half Japanese tune -- are superb, droning Eno-ish riffs that spotlight Jad's unique ravings. He frets about a "horrible-lookin', blood-drinkin' menace" in "Our Cause to Worry," but quickly recovers with whoops and hollers in "Here Comes Roxanne," with whom he expects to "get some kicks!" Terrorized by a 1958 exploitation movie in "The Faceless Man," he manages a comeback in "Pretty Angel Eyes," where he noisily imitates a feline on catnip, and "Sleeping Beauty," with its unforgettable insights into the Big Apple: "As they say in New York, 'Ooh la la!' " Adult Rodeo opens the show at 9 p.m. Monday, followed by Milksop Holly, as the "Shimmy-Disc Tour II: The Sound of Music" rolls into Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St. (at Texas), S.F. Admission is $7; call 621-4455.

-- Gary Morris