Shhh ... Conrad Ford's about to rock out

There are some nice benefits to being a rock band that plays really, really loudly. For one, it can cover up the fact that you really don't know much about playing your instrument. And, if people figure that out and yell about it, they might not even be heard above the din. Not so with bands that play quiet, "introspective" music. Such bands had better know how to play.

And you have to be pretty thick-skinned to go on the road as a "restrained" rock band. Conrad Ford, a Seattle four-piece in the vein of Eels and Iron & Wine, found that out last year.

"Even when we're trying to 'rock,' we're subdued," said Jordan Walton.

"On tour, we had someone yell, 'Can you play louder? You're putting me to sleep!' " added Andy McAllister. "In Olympia, someone said, 'Play something poppier!' "

At home, Conrad Ford has found a receptive audience, though even being heard above casually chatting fans — have you noticed how loudly people talk when they're drinking? — can be a challenge.

From a Georgetown rehearsal space below a motorcycle repair shop, McAllister strummed a new song, accompanied by Walton on banjo and April Sather on piano. (Drummer Nathanael Butler was not present.) It was an underplayed, muted song, with McAllister singing, "City blocks callin' a criminal I once knew ... he's a business card with no business to do."

That's one of the songs that will eventually show up on Conrad Ford's second album. The first, "Don't You Miss Yourself," came out early last year. Phil Ek mixed the album, which surely is a big part of the reason this self-produced debut CD has such an assured sound, at once complex and easy on the ears.

McAllister and Walton started Conrad Ford (the band name is an amalgamation of director John Ford and director of photography Conrad Hall) as a duo, playing around Seattle clubs. "It was just the two of us juggling all these instruments, then we realized, 'This is ridiculous.' "

Now as a foursome, the band brings to shows quite an assortment of music makers: acoustic piano, banjo, Wurlitzer organ, drums, omnichord (an electronic harp of sorts), pedal-steel guitar, "baby glock" (mini glockenspiel), ukulele, harmonicas various.

Walton often will play two instruments on the same song, sometimes simultaneously. "He's kind of like a jack-of-all-trades," McAllister says with understated admiration.

The two joined forces when McAllister — who grew up in Seattle — was living in Texas, and captivated by the Townes Van Zandt sound (introspective country folk, emphasizing storytelling).

He came across Walton's lap steel work on MP3s of Bosque Brown and sent Walton some of his own songs. The two eventually met, and Walton grabbed a banjo — rather than a lap steel — to flesh out some of McAllister's songs; McAllister liked it.

The soft-spoken (big surprise), bearded, dark-featured singer-writer often brings new songs to the band's rehearsal space, and lets his bandmates toy with what they call "sprinkles" of sounds. Most often, the music strolls along easily in the background, with McAllister's pleasant voice sketching vivid scenarios.

"He's a great storyteller," Walton says of the Conrad Ford singer. "We want people to hear the stories he tells."

Conrad Ford brings its stories — and multiple instruments — to the Tractor Tavern (9 p.m. Monday, $6).

Also on the bill is the reverb-heavy (à la Band of Horses or My Morning Jacket) Amateur Radio Operator, another promising new local band.

• The Hands, an up-and-coming garage/glam band that gleefully borrows from the Rolling Stones, play on a bill with the Cops — shades of the Clash — at the Tractor (9 p.m. Saturday, $7).

• And for some Australian epic rock, the Tractor has Catherine Wheel singer Rob Dickinson (8 p.m. Sunday, $12).

• The Purrs and the Sun the Sea are on the High Dive bill (9 p.m. Saturday, $7). The former is a young Seattle psych-rock band with a Dandy Warhols accent; the latter is a side project of Peter Holmstrom, the Dandy Warhols guitarist.

• The Kindness Kind, one of Seattle's most promising new bands, plays its electro-pop grooves at the High Dive (9 p.m. Thursday, $6).

Dolour musicians Nicolas Danielson (keys, programming) and Charles Larson (guitars) started the Kindness Kind with drummer Kevin Bray, bass player Brian Todd and singer Alessandra Rose. She has a thrilling voice, not far removed from Heather Duby. You can hear demos — the band is recording its debut album — at myspace.com/thekindnesskind.

• KEXP DJs Riz, Masa and Kid Hops spin a live broadcast of "Expansions" — various shades of electronic music, from ambient to drum-and-bass — from the Baltic Room (9 p.m. Sunday, $5).

• Damien Black and Abyssinian Creole lead a big local hip-hop show at West Seattle's Youngstown Arts Center (4488 Delridge Way S., www.youngstownarts.org) at 8 p.m. Saturday ($3, $2 with canned-food donation.) The show is presented by Seattle Young People's Project (www.sypp.org).

• Also in the hip-hop game, hard-edged rap crew Dim Mak and hilarious MC — he boasts of being the last thing you'd want to be called — Terry Radjaw whoop it up at Chop Suey (9 tonight, $5).

Tom Scanlon: tscanlon@seattletimes.com