Frankie Cosmos brings new Fit Me In EP to First Unitarian Church

With four songs clocking in at eight minutes, Frankie Cosmos’ new 7” EP may seem like a mere blip for an artist whose Bandcamp back-catalog numbers over four dozen releases.  But being only Cosmos’ – a.k.a. Greta Kline’s – second-ever physical release, and her first notable recorded statement since last year’s unflappably adorable break-out LP, Zentropy, the just-released Fit Me In bears a bit of scrutiny.

What it reveals: Evidently, at some point over her past eighteen months of burgeoning indie-fame and impressively steady touring – this Saturday’s gig at the First Unitarian Church marks at least her fourth Philly appearance this calendar year alone – Kline has picked up some electronics.  Without sacrificing an ounce of her affably low-key charm, Fit Me In trades her typically scrappy guitar work for some woozy, twinkly synth pads and clicky drum machine loops.

It also offers something like a statement of purpose – or maybe understatement of purpose is more like it.  The lackadaisically catchy, gorgeously self-harmonized “Young” starts by catching new listeners up on the major points of her career to date – “I wrote some songs that I sung / and have you heard I am so young” – before getting cosmically poetic to befit her pseudonym, and then concluding, abruptly: “I just wanna be alive / that’s it.”

Whereas Kline, with her close connections to fellow DIY-scene notables like Porches (Aaron Maine) and Eskimeaux (Gaby Smith) – both sometime Frankie Cosmos band members – feels a bit like a New York analog of prolific Philly connectors Katie and Allison Crutchfield, Maryn Jones might be the equivalent figure for Columbus, OH.  In addition to her membership in the rootsily-inclined Saintseneca and her hauntingly spare solo project Yowler, she fronts All Dogs, whose recent debut, Kicking Every Day, is a very fine, decidedly Waxahatcheean entry in the currently prevalent strain of earnest, grunge-inflected, and appealingly drawling punky guitar-pop. You will hear her on Saturday night as well, along with Amanda X offshoot Eight.

Tickets and information for the all-ages show can be found here.