Why? is all about asking questions. Ask front man Yoni Wolf why call a band Why? and he'll shoot back, "Why not?"
"I like the word," Wolf said. "It has an ambiguity. You can infer your own meaning to it. It has no image, so you can create your own. I like that."
It can also quickly deteriorate into "Who's on First?," but Wolf said that's fun, too.
Likewise, when the band busts out its new album, "Alopecia," on Friday, don't expect songs about "Arrested Development" character Stan Sitwell, the hairless real estate tycoon who indulges in extravagant wigs and paste-on facial hair. "Alopecia" isn't so much a hair-loss disease as it is just another pretty word for Wolf.
Wolf, along with Why? bandmates Doug McDiarmid, Austin Brown and Yoni's older brother Josiah Wolf, will perform Friday at Common Grounds, 210 SW 2nd Ave., with Mount Eerie, the breakaway act of Microphones front man Phil Elverum. Doors open at 9 p.m.
Why? refuses to marry off to one sound. Referred to alternately as self-made jangle-rap, indie pop 'n' roll or pop-inflected psychedelic folk-hop, the band strives to forge its own musical path.
"It's sort of a slide show presentation of images," Wolf said of his lyrics. "I like the idea of image after image that adds up in the end to be something that's not necessarily a linear story."
Wolf manages to mutate his monotone throughout the album into deadpan rap, sweet singsong and even a sort of goat bleat, as in "These Few Presidents," which bops in with poppy upbeats and then descends into an ominous funeral organ. Like most of the rest of the album, "These Few Presidents" wavers thematically between love and death, with the standout line, "Even though I haven't seen you in years, yours is a funeral I'd fly to from anywhere," sung almost angelically.
The beautifully crafted "Simeon's Dilemma" follows an endearing creepster who admits "stalker's my whole style, and if I get caught I'll deny, deny, deny" as he follows (on his bicycle, in her tree) his "female young messiah." The strong and steady beat builds up alongside a climbing crescendo of keyboards that twinkle like the stars in his stalker eyes.
"Alopecia" clicks and jangles its way out on "Exegesis" with a suicidal chant pondering death by telephone wire, but still qualifying it with "if I really meant it." Because as pervasive as love and death are, Why? is really all about asking questions.
