Uncle Bonsai resurfaces with trademark melodies, wit intact

If Uncle Bonsai's past habits are anything to go by, you should catch them now — because their next gigs might not be until the 2020s.

Who or what is Uncle Bonsai?

A Seattle vocal trio with harmonies as tight as the Andrews Sisters' and acerbic rhymes worthy of Tom Lehrer.

Led by songwriter-guitarist Andrew Ratshin, the group got its start in 1981, called it quits in 1989, resurfaced sounding better than ever between 1998 and 2000, then went on hiatus again until early 2008.

At the moment, they seem in business for the long haul. They have a new member on board (singer-songwriter Patrice O'Neill, replacing Ashley O'Keeffe) and a new album in the works, "The Grim Parade of Cat & Mouse," due out in October. Over the last year, they've been circling us with gigs on Bainbridge Island, in Kirkland, Tacoma, and, tonight, Carnation.

Friday, they'll strike the heart of Seattle itself, with a Saturday night show at the Triple Door — their first inside our city limits in over 10 years.

New tunes in their repertoire include "The Baby's Head Is a Hexagon" (although its shape does change over the course of the song) and "Anne," an ode to a woman who, mystifyingly, is able to do it all: keep her house clean, love her kids, get along with family. She even "likes her job the way it is."

Ratshin's nimble, pizzicato touch on his guitar strings provides both a percussive and melodic backdrop. Against its stark setting, words are continually at play, whether the subject is that unfortunate hexagon-headed baby ("It's almost like something Picasso had drawn/I guess you could say that its features are strong") or the more familiar problem of information overload. The technology-resistant narrator of "20th Century Man," for instance, complains about being moused, modemed, bitted, byted, rammed, rommed and other ordeals.

Speaking of ordeals, there are more twisted relationships featured in the Uncle Bonsai repertoire than you can shake a stick at. A recurring character named Doug seems to suffer a plethora of problems with his mother, wives, girlfriends, job and more — all of them wittily dissected.

Singers Ratshin, O'Neill and Arni Adler are pitch-perfect in their delivery of often complex harmonic arrangements. And if there were an Ella Fitzgerald Award for Exquisite Elocution in Song, they would surely get it. The trio officially bills itself as a "folk" outfit, but has none of the naiveté that label might suggest. These are nicely edgy, sour-sweet songs, written for grown-ups. You can check them out at www.unclebonsai.com.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com