Doowop-ing with The Fratellis

The gig 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 30
Genre alt-pop
Where Pabst Theater, 144 E. Wells St.
How much $10
Info www.thefratellis.com

Doo-wop the Monday blues away, here’s three things you didn’t know about the Fratellis!

One You may know these Scottish boys aren’t brothers at all, but the Fratellis (Jon/John Lawler on vocals and guitar; Barry/Barry Wallace on bass guitar; Mince/Gordon McRory on drums) say it’s not a nod to the Ramones. “It wasn’t some sort of big gesture on our part – it just seemed like since the Fratellis was our name (it means ‘brothers’ in Italian), it was the obvious thing to call each other. Other people would type ‘Fratelli’ after our names on their cell phones and that just how people recognized us,” said Jon.

Two They don’t get on each other’s nerves: “We don’t have to hang around with each other all the time,” Jon started. “We keep to ourselves in the nicest possible way – we’re not one of those bands tht hate each other,” he said.

Three They think pigeonholing music is rubbish. Jon agrees that The Fratellis’ upbeat pop tunes, which are often said to have a ’60 feel to them, are influenced by Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Clash, music he’s always loved. It’s music you can treat “as a comfort blanket,” he explained. “I’ve never heard the term dad pop,” he said. “But everyone’s got a dad, so I think that’s cool.” Still, he continued, “I don’t believe in labels in music, I just believe in rock and roll.”

P.S. Jon has a crazy-cool vaguely decipherable Scottish accent. Just so you know, he did say he just started listening to Bright Eyes. But I had to ask him to spell that for me. He said, “Oh, he’s really famous, you know, b-r-i-g-h-t …”