Kevin Bronson on April 8th, 2011

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Singer-songwriter-composer Christopher Pappas crafts songs with such exceedingly tender moments you’d think he possesses some sort manual on the tenuousness of the human condition. Reared in New Hampshire and recently relocated to Los Angeles from Boston (where he fronted Northeast favorites the Everyday Visuals), Pappas launched his new project Miracle Parade as a series of bedroom recordings. Rilo Kiley bassist Pierre de Reeder took a shine to the songs, engineered the recordings and signed Miracle Parade to his Little Record Company, which will release Pappas’ debut “Hark! … And Other Lost Transmissions” on June 21. The 11-track outing reveals Pappas as adept as stripped-down folk as he is at meticulously layered indie-pop; the thread running through the songs, though, is how Pappas’ ill-fated protagonists wear their resignation. Those characters – a scientist (“The Dying Physicist”), a displaced romantic (“Los Feliz Spiritual #41), a musician (“Son Son [Son]”) and a star-crossed lover (“Lost at Sea”) – all feel like people you know, and maybe too well.

||| Download: “Sweet Tooth” (and stream three more songs on MySpace)

||| Live: Miracle Parade opens for Jenny and Johnny on Monday at Soho in Santa Barbara, and plays a semi-acoustic set as part of Buzz Bands LA’s SecondTuesday series on Tuesday at Lot 1 Cafe.