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Nora Keyes performs "Small Apart"

As the singer of LA neo-new wave goth-punk band the Centimeters, Nora Keyes’ vocal style ranged from Casio-cute to downright vampiric. But on her elaborately titled solo record, Songs to Cry by for the End of the Golden Age of Nothing (Dual Plover Recordings), Keyes’ freaky-deaky delivery sincerely creeps the fuck out of you, for lack of nicer language. Cackling like a witch or purring like the ghost of a dead little girl stuck in some musty, Victorian-era purgatory, she renders decrepit vaudeville tunes over a droning pump organ accompaniment. The sinister, spooky quality of these instrumentals suggests rotting homes and shadowy nightmares, and her haunting lyrics and gloomy, sepia-toned melodies give the impression that if punk had never happened, she would have been destined to become the eccentric madwoman who never leaves the big, dark house on the corner. To welcome the audience to Keyes’ nightmare is Madame P., who loops and manipulates her voice in real time against simple beats. The other opener is local solo artist Cages, who creates deeply haunting soundscapes by singing over reworked, lo-fi cassette tape recordings and dis-tuned string instruments.

Tuesday, June 27 at 9pm. Soundlab, 110 Pearl St. (440-5907). $6