Consistency is an underrated virtue in these challenging and changing times. Just as you can count on the stock market to recklessly bounce up and down like a fat kid on a trampoline, for years Boston has been able to count on the reliable Emergency Music to deliver the goods for the able ear. Delegates of pop perfection, old Emergency will headline an increasingly rare appearance this Saturday at T.T. the Bears. Bostonist caught up with singer and LOST devotee Jesse Duquette while sharing a couch during last Thursday’s spell binding episode. Naturally, the two subjects transgressed into one another.

You used to play shows all the time. Now I can count on my one little hand how many shows you've played in the last year. It's not an Emergency to get out there anymore? Why are you playing hard to get?

Jesse Duqette: We used to play more often because we were a new band trying to get to as many people as possible. When you're younger, you'll play anywhere you can. Now, we're more interested in spending time working on new songs, recording, and watching "LOST". This way, when you spread out your shows, you have an opportunity to make them more of an event. Like Cirque Du Soleil or Desert Storm.

You are known to your fans, friends, and enemies as being a proficient wordsmith. What lyrical yarns have you in store for us in the future, and where do they spring from?

Jesse: I’ve always thought of myself as more of a blacksmith, but I suppose the pen is mightier than the sword. I definitely put an emphasis on lyrics as a way to mask my lack of guitar virtuosity. That attention to the written word is evident in the working title for our forthcoming ep: "Toni Morrison Hotel".

More after the jump. Image courtesy of Jesse Duquette.

Your last album was free for download on the interweb. You've just recorded a new e.p. Will that also be available on the interweb?

Jesse: The new e.p. will be available over the interweb, but we'll probably press actual physical copies this time. Coming up with an interesting artistic layout and cover design is something I am personally looking forward to a great deal.

You single-handedly illustrated a couple hundred individual album covers for your record release party last November and then gave them all away. What the hell were you thinking, and do you plan on doing this again?

Jesse: The cover thing started, initially, as a joke when we were thinking of ways to make the release of the record interesting. I suggested drawing the covers individually knowing full well I would never be able to draw enough to give to everyone at both cd release nights and to those friends of ours who lived too far away to attend. But, drunk on ambition and PBR, I plowed ahead anyways. I would only do this again if I were drinking Allagash instead of PBR.

Are you going to be able to perform with so many questions left unanswered in Thursdays' LOST? What are the rescuers really after? Is Benjamin Linus really an owl, and is that owl, at his core, actually good?

Jesse: I'm just going to try and stay strong. We'll just have to channel our inner Sayid to bare knuckle our way through the maelstrom of emotions we'll all surely be feeling. We may have to break a few songs into the set on Saturday to bounce some theories off of each other.

There is little to no popular soundtrack on LOST, save for the creepy accompaniments of horns, etc. Could you see your songs as a soundtrack to the show?

Jesse: I don't think our songs are very soundtrack-appropriate. At least, until we release our cover of Mama Cass's "Make Your Own Kind Of Music". Michael Giacchino, the wunderkind behind the LOST soundtrack, actually used sounds made from banging on a plane fuselage to make those creepy accompaniments. Those are some crazy but way-smart shoes to fill.

How does LOST inform your musical ambitions?

Jesse: Asking how LOST informs my musical ambitions is like asking how the sky informs a peregrine falcon's ambitions. That shit is one and the same.

Do you have something special in store for the audience this Saturday?

Jesse: We've got lots in store for the folk this Saturday; we'll be joined by a couple of friends on percussion and steel guitar (the same folk who assisted in our cd release show) and we'll be unveiling a brand new song or two. We'll also allow people to buy us drinks if they feel it completely necessary. It's a win-win.

You are a knowledgeable man of the mouth. If EM were a wine to accompany a fine meal, recommend a restaurant to explore before your show.

Jesse: I'd have to go with a fine little trattoria right around the corner from T.T.'s, Hi-Fi- Pizza. The colloquial abbreviation "Hi-Fi" is short for "High Fidelity", referring to the complex and colorful palate their expansive menu has to offer. I think they even have A&W root beer, the Brunello of the soft drink world.

Emergency Music play T.T. the Bear's in Cambridge, Saturday March 22nd at 9pm with
the great bandini, the fatal flaw, & the sunsets quick