Home Brew Hits and misses in local music EVIL WIENER Evil Wiener Presents ... Billy Sugarfix's Lost Gumdrop Kingdom Smith Level I had a brief epiphany at a house party one balmy Chapel Hill summer night involving the self-made musical world of one Bill McCormick. While revelers sprawled among the perfume of cut grass, hot dogs and beer, McCormick strummed guitar on the porch. An overzealous azalea bush obscured the view of him as he warmly introduced one of his favorite love songs, the chatter of conversations and crickets still audible over his voice. McCormick's reduction of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" to its bare essence, a simple tale of unrequited love, sums up what makes the Evil Wiener and its tugboat captain Billy Sugarfix really chug. Fundamentally a trio with a solid rhythm section of Groves Willer on bass and Chuck Garrison on drums, the Wiener has been sprouting its head above the fauna of Chapel Hill for many years. McCormick spins metaphorical yarns, sometimes by blunt repetition, as in Gumdrop Kingdom's "Marching Band": "You're an hourglass, and I'm a minute-hand/You're a skyscraper and I'm plaster and sand," etc. Endless quirky adorations in "how do I love thee" counting by McCormick abound. Gorgeous barebones pop arises with harmonizing by guests like Adam Price of the Mayflies and Lynn Blakey of Tres Chicas. You'll find tiny fantastical stories of daily life with remarks like "My neighbors think I'm talking to myself/What the hell?" (in the hillbilly number "Fortune") but they're always lifted by unflinching enthusiasm. Tethered to a primitive beat courtesy of Garrison and Willer, the band opens up on numbers like "Marching Band" with horns courtesy of producer Chris Stamey, and super fun instro surf number "El Nino." With cold beer buzzing folks as much as the fireflies that night, McCormick's aesthetic of miniature pop was luminescent. He re-birthed a punk masterpiece like a striped-shirted troubadour, a confused Romeo slowly beckoning to the object of his desire, "Do you love me babe?/What can I say?/Because I wanna be your boyfriend." Chris Toenes