Keyboardist James Weir has already made an impression on Chicago’s indie-rock scene in Ne-Hi and spin-off band Spun Out , but with his first album as a bandleader, he leaves the sweaty basement venue for a chill lounge. While his previous bands were rooted in the raw, fiery rock and postpunk he loved as a teen, his new project, Blue Earth Sound, draws on the diverse music he discovered as he developed his ear in his 20s and early 30s: Italian soundtrack music, Japanese jazz, sophisticated art-pop a la Talk Talk, and more. The project is named for his hometown of Blue Earth in southern Minnesota, whose biggest tourist attraction is a 55-foot statue of the Jolly Green Giant. The town sits at the confluence of two branches of the Blue Earth River, and Blue Earth’s debut album, Cicero Night

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