Celebrity News:

When he put together a band to play his melancholy pop-rock, Cleveland-based NASA scientist Chris Sheehan could have turned to any number of well-known musicians around Ohio. He chose to round out the Celebrity Pilots with Columbus musicians, and given the heights ascended by the group on its wondrous second album, Spooky Action, he made the right choice.

After stints playing with Doug Gillard and Bob Pollard, Sheehan has connections in Cleveland, Kent and Dayton. And as a Cleveland resident, assembling a band of Northeast Ohioans would seem to make sense.

But Sheehan had more than geography in mind when he recruited keyboardist Jess Faller, bassist Adam Dowell and drummer Josh Gerken, all residents of this city.

"I was down in Columbus a lot," Sheehan explained, "and especially as you get older and you play in bands, any convenience factor that would come from having them in Cleveland is certainly eclipsed by how easy it is to work with them, and how much fun it is."

It certainly sounds fun. Spooky Action is the first Celebrity Pilots release to feature Sheehan's bandmates, and it's all the better for the collaboration.

After recording basically everything on 2005 debut Beneath the Pavement, A Beach!, Sheehan returned to Todd Tobias' studio in Kent with Faller, Dowell and Gerken in tow. The resulting record is less acutely focused than the first, but what it lacks in cohesion, it makes up for in exploratory wonder.

"I think this record's a little more fuzzy," Sheehan said, pointing out the influence of shoegaze and psychedelic rock on his work and the vast array of sounds Faller coaxed from her keyboard—gauzy synths, chiming piano and soaring strings among them.

This is still Sheehan's baby, though, firmly rooted in his accessible but slightly off-kilter pop vision. He continues to excel as a songwriter, uniting strands from the likes of Brian Eno, Robert Schneider, Pollard and Enon's John Schmersal.

Atop the elaborate arrangements, Sheehan sings literate lyrics like "I don't know why they call me Ishmael, but they do." He's not singing in character like Nick Cave or Eminem, but his dignified, affected tone calls to mind a wealthy heir who chose high fidelity over high society. Ultimately, though, he's just channeling stories from the life of a well-rounded 21st-century Ohioan.

The result of all this is a record jammed with ideas, full of nooks and crannies to discover with each subsequent listen. Few recordings juggle so much simultaneous stimulation from the foreground and background without sounding like a hopeless jumble.

Spooky Action sounds like a lot of work went into it, and indeed the Celebrity Pilots spend much more time in the studio than on stage. The group went on short tours of the Northeast and Midwest this fall—and they're set to play Carabar Saturday—but unless they develop a bigger buzz, Sheehan doesn't expect to pursue life on the road.

At 34, Sheehan explained, touring seems more like a chore. But don't call him lazy; he and the band have already recorded a third album for release next year.

"At some point," he said, "it just becomes more fruitful for you to kind of hole up in the studio."