Kevin Bronson on October 5th, 2011

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Ben Cooper, who does business as Radical Face, crafts songs that are somehow more than just words and melody. They have presence, a mystical quality that suggests they are more the sum of their parts. The Jacksonville, Fla., songwriter’s new album “The Family Tree: The Roots” (out this week), based on a strange, fictitious family from the 1800s, is delicate in presentation and bold in imagery – some of which manifests itself in the video for “A Pound of Flesh,” filmed in a Florida swamp by Micheal Walter, Mark Hubbard and Micah Cooper. “Summer in Florida can get pretty mean,” the songwriter writes of the video shoot. “But we were supposed to be sweaty and dirty.” (He needed a doctor’s visit to get anitibiotics for bug bites sustained during the shoot.) On Radical Face’s impending visit to L.A., he’ll be filmed again – he’ll be taped for a segment on “Last Call With Carson Daly” at his Bootleg Theater show Tuesday. As compelling as he was performing solo at Buzz Bands LA’s SecondTuesday songwriter night in August, this show promises more: He’ll be backed by the Easterly Singers Choir.

||| Previously: “We’re on Our Way”

||| Live: Radical Face does an in-store at Origami Vinyl at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 and performs Oct. 11 at the Bootleg Theater.