Nobody says Todd Clouser doesn¹t think outside of the box.

His journey began in Minnesota with rock ¹n¹ roll and took him to the

Berklee School of Music with avant-garde gard then Baja, Mexico with jazz

and finally to Mexico City with, let¹s just call it, A Love Electric.

The band A Love Electric this week makes its fourth swing through Tahoe and

two of its intimate venues, the Divided Sky in Meyers and Moody¹ºº Bistro &

Lounge in Truckee.

³Todd and his group are one of the best bands to ever play at Moody’s

Bistro,² Moody’s owner JJ Morgan said.

The most recent visit featured songs from the album ³20th Century Folk,² a

melange of minor chords from Lou Reed¹s ³Heroin,² Nirvana¹s ³All Apologies²

and the theme song from ³Weeds,² ³Little Boxes.² This time the new album is

³The Naked Beat,² which has a cover photo that reveals metamorphosis ‹

that¹s Clouser¹s bent. Previously the music was all instrumental. Now

Clouser sings.

³We¹ve always been very liberal with how we express and not putting any

limits on that,² he said. ³We¹re very inquisitive people. We sort of rebel

against what we¹ve already done.²

His voice? Well, it doesn¹t sound like Harry Belafonte¹s, and maybe that¹s

the point. It¹s delivered with a passionate urgency, which might describe

the whole band.

Clouser¹s apartment is upstairs from bassist Aaron Cruz, a Mexico City

native son. Drummer Hernan Hecht, who is from Argentina, lives down the

block.

³Mexico City is an amazingly vibrant place,² Clouser said. ³It is

fascinating and somewhat chaotic but, in a way, it¹s inspiring

³We¹re really close as friends and musicians and artists in the way we are

Communicating right now. There¹is a powerful statement being made. We were

all able to communicate easily and we have all this energy, this drive.²

A Love Electric fans aren¹t developed from following a specific musical

style and Clouser said that might limit commercial success. However, ³when

we do connect with people it can be in a really profound manner.²