Indie-rock trio Wild Pink hail from the boroughs of New York City but sound like they’ve only ever known the quietest stretches of the heartland. Their recent third album, A Billion Little Lights (Royal Mountain), evokes the wonder of gazing up at a night sky unclouded by light pollution and getting lost in the constellations. Wild Pink embellish salt-of-the-earth folky rock with lush, quasi-orchestral arrangements that stretch out to the stars. On the album’s ambitious lead single, “The Shining but Tropical,” front man John Ross lends a human-size face to bombastic percussion and maximalist synth flourishes with his placid, plaintive vocals, and the band’s performance makes even the rare recycled platitude in his lyrics feel as invigorating as the rest. “The Shining but Tropical” sounds great stripped-down too; on the new A Billion Little Lights (Live), recorded in Ross’s living room, Wild Pink capture the soaring evanescence of the studio version with a lightly funky bass line and some rococo slide guitar.
Wild Pink, Deals, Joey Nebulous, Thu 10/7, 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $14, $12 in advance, 21+