Vaughn: Pop Classicism and Borderline Camp

It’s not always easy to tell just how far Ben Vaughn has his tongue in his cheek when he plays his bare-bones pop-rock and sings rhymes of the “She won’t look my way / My desire won’t go away” variety. Probably not very far. This New Jerseyite’s somewhat nostalgic grooves and borderline campy lyrics find their simplicity less out of irony--though there’s plenty of that--than out of a real sense of pop classicism.

Leading a rockin’ trio he called the Ben Vaughn Desert Classic on Saturday at Club Lingerie, the singer revealed himself as much fan as artiste. “This is kind of a little beach-music vibe here,” he said, providing a handy description of one new song. He prefaced another by saying it has “a Neil Diamond kind of groove.” Just call him Ben, the critics’ pal.

But listen, Cherry baby, Vaughn--a skinny, T-shirt-and-jeans kind of guy--is much funnier than Diamond even, and sounds more like Lou Reed (without the surliness) or Jonathan Richman (before he latched onto dinosaurs and babies). What’s certain is that after three LPs he still hasn’t been “discovered” yet, but with I-can-identify songs like “She’s Your Problem Now,” there isn’t any compelling reason why Vaughn’s wry tongue shouldn’t be chic.