Real Talk

Keepin’ it real is integral for a folk artist, so big ups to Phoenix (by way of Las Vegas) singer-songwriter Jacob Smigel for realizing that nothin’s realer than the messages on an old answering machine. His new album, Hope This Passes the Secretary, weaves Smigel’s lo-fi, often minimalist indie folk style with snippets of found audio from thrifted answering machine tapes, and wraps it all up in what feels like a heartfelt mixtape composed just for you. If the sensitive tunes don’t make you shed a tear, the desperate heartbroken boy’s voice wishing that the answering machine “had a ‘hug’ mode on it” so his beloved could “get a free hug” could.

Sat., Jan. 16, 8 p.m., 2010