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Author Topic: Listening Project, Pt. 2: Week 12 - Songs for a Tailor by Jack Bruce  (Read 15501 times)
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« Reply #25 on: December 21, 2014, 03:08:42 AM »

I think feeling the need to find things to say about this album led me to sound more negative than I wished to. I'm sure in time I will give it another listen and enjoy it, and I am nodding my head with approval at some of the other Nick Cave songs mentioned in this thread.

I wonder what the captain has planned for us.
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« Reply #26 on: December 21, 2014, 05:26:16 AM »

I wonder what the captain has planned for us.

Uh-oh, the day I've been dreading! Do I pick something I think everyone will love? Something no one will have heard? Something to show just how cool and eclectic my taste is (he asks with tongue firmly in cheek)? I've actually thought about this on and off throughout the project and am not kidding when I say I'm a little nervous... Anyway, I'll post my choice within a couple hours.
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« Reply #27 on: December 21, 2014, 06:21:37 AM »

while we're waiting...  http://youtu.be/AzNzCiZwk28
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« Reply #28 on: December 21, 2014, 07:15:03 AM »

My decision for our holiday week's album is in … but first, indulge me! I give you the runners up.

As noted in my previous post, I really had a hard time with this. I just want you to love me … or better, to fear me. Bow down!

But seriously, I wanted to walk a line between something different from what has been presented, something likely to be enjoyed by at least some decent portion of the participants, and something at least somewhat unfamiliar to several participants (because what's the point if everyone already knows the album by heart?). Still, part of me wanted to draw on what had been presented before, kind of a continuation.

These are the runners up. They are not my choice. You don't have to listen to them. But you can if you want. I won't stop you.

Second Runner Up: The Brown Flamingos, S/T

http://open.spotify.com/album/0didkBpY2VC7aDuQ35jsRS

This long-since defunct Minneapolis band was only barely a recording project, with only this self-recorded, self-released album officially showing their goods. (There was also a [horribly inappropriate] children's album and an unreleased electro-funk EP, neither of which is really available, I don't think.) What began as a country-folk duo by a pair of multi-instrumentalists quickly became a 10-piece funk band with live shows that to this day are my favorites for indie bands: body-painting performance art, porn giveaways at the door, and a white Wisconsinite sounding more like Prince than he has any business sounding. This falls more in the country-folk duo space, though it meanders. And it's funny. I just love it, even 14 years later. (Also, one of the guys in the group, Bob Parins, is currently Of Montreal's bassist. Just an aside.)

First Runner Up: Puerto Muerto, See You In Hell

http://open.spotify.com/album/7K7zMHgxI8VElQZqwJ04Mx

While thinking about continuing from previous choices, I thought Puerto Muerto would flow well out of the Nick Cave and Tom Waits choices. This album was my introduction to the band, received with no fanfare among a batch of discs to review. (In those days, kids, sometimes reviewers received in the mail silver circles with holes in the middle.) During the first track, I was ready to dole out my 3.5 (out of 10) and call it a day. After the second track I was ready to consider it among my favorites of the year. I became a huge Puerto Muerto fan, though they never topped this one in the remaining seven or eight years of their career.

OK, with that done, my real choice is forthcoming shortly. Start the drumroll.
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« Reply #29 on: December 21, 2014, 07:51:54 AM »

Beulah, The Coast is Never Clear (2001)

http://open.spotify.com/album/56Dr31BA2OyDUJuYLVOVs3

If there is a precursor to my choice, it's actually one I was lukewarm on, Nada Surf's The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, as Beulah's 2001 pinnacle The Coast is Never Clear is a pop record. Or maybe a pop-rock record. It's not dark. It's not even moody, unless you count the bratty moods of a self-absorbed twentysomething. (Or thirtysomething. I'm not sure how old Mssrs. Kurowsky and Swann were when they wrote and recorded the album.)

But this album was a part of my re-entry to contemporaneous pop music. I had spent most of the previous decade diving into the past, whether the classic rock of the Beatles, Beach Boys, Queen, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppe--why am I telling you whom "classic rock" comprises? I'm guessing you're familiar… Anyway, that. And some more esoteric acts like Zappa, VU, Beefheart. And jazz. Lots of jazz. Because for better or worse, the reality is when Nirvana broke things, I wasn't happy about it. I hated Nirvana. And I hated the crap that followed under the nom de plume of "alternative" even more. Just hated it all. So I checked out.

In the early 2000s, I started coming around. I'd been familiar with Cotton Mather's masterpiece KonTiki since the guys themselves dropped off a copy at the music store where I worked. (They were in search of vintage gear as they stopped in that little college town to do a show; I took the disc home with me at the end of that summer, not willing to leave it behind.) A friend introduced me to Splitsville's Pet Soul--then just an EP--and it was impressive to me at the time.

So a few years later, I shared these with musical friends at work; in turn, they asked whether I'd heard of this collection--collective, actually, though the term has become tedious as relates to musicians since then--of Georgia-based musicians who really captured a lot of the styles of music I loved in their new, mostly self-produced and -released music. (Obviously, they meant Elephant 6.)

I had not. But soon, I was pretty damn familiar with Of Montreal, Apples (in Stereo), Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, Olivia Tremor Control, and the fifty-billion other "bands" under that umbrella.

One of the most interesting was this badly named band, Beulah, who weren't Georgian at all. In fact, they weren't E6, aside from having done one earlier album with E6er Robert Schneider in his Colorado studio. But their obvious reverence for '60s pop music made it easy to keep lumping them in with the E6ers.

The Coast is Never Clear was the first Beulah album I bought while it was new. (There would be only one more Beulah album, their breakup album Yoko, a couple years later.) And it was magical to me at the time. The riff that opens "A Good Man is Easy to Kill" complemented in short order by that go-g0 60s percussion and then the background "ba da bap bap ba-dah dahs," … I'm in heaven. Horns? Yes, please. Vitality! It's not a fast song, but it drives ahead. It rocks while not really being a rock song, riff notwithstanding.

It set the pace for the album--and the album lived up to its opener. (I'm not counting "Hello Resolven," here, which is more an introduction than a song.) Miles Kurowsky isn't the strongest singer in the world, but he holds his own, all through a kind of cynical-but-doe-eyed hipster sneer that hit the spot for this then-24-year-old.

Most of all, the kind of hook-oriented rock that bands like Weezer were doing at the time always left me unaffected because their arrangements bored me. They were mostly just straight ahead, maybe a clean-toned arpeggio section and a distorted power-chord section, but nothing else. This, this Beulah, threw in the kitchen sink, and the sink fit goshdarn well. Lead vocals doubled by octave. Background vocals like I mentioned before, all those glorious ba-da-das that make my world go 'round. Tambourines, shakers, a vibraslap. A VIBRASLAP! Piano, organ, trumpet, strings, acoustic, electric.

And it wasn't just there to be there, it all fit these songs. These lovely songs that felt comfortable from the beginning, but still new to me. Like those on KonTiki they didn't feel like rip-offs so much as forgotten classics or even continuations. Singable hooks, lovely memories, mostly mid tempo, all rolling along (and occasionally even rocking along).

Lyrically it's what you'd expect from people who are as self-consciously hipster as Beulah were. They seemed eager to drop references, be they musical or verbal (in interviews). It's clever, it's self-absorbed. I want to hate them, but I can't do it. Anyone who does the instrumental (plus oohs) break of "Popular Mechanics for Lovers" gets a free pass. They just do.

Beulah broke up a couple years later. I saw their last two Minneapolis shows, one in October '03 with John Vanderslice (whom I hated, who sounded like pure pastiche that night, as I could name the overt inspiration for every song the man played) and one in June '04. There has been little in my life that competes with the live-show experience of guitarist-singer-multi-instrumentalist Bill Swann reaching back to whip out a trumpet and dive into the fanfare of sorts that is the the ending of "Gene Autry." In an era when most indie bar bands were "just" rock bands, this sort of DIY was absolutely ecstatic for me.

These two shows were both part of a massive farewell tour, their breakup already announced before Yoko had even been released. I felt like I was breaking up with the band, especially since their inability to get along especially well was pretty obvious. (I felt a kinship as my band at the time seemed--and was--similarly doomed, minus any semblance of success first! My singer was, to me, Miles Kurowsky.)

I listen back and I still smile. I still love The Coast is Never Clear. I don't think it's a groundbreaking album by any stretch of the imagination. But I think it's a great album anyway. I think it's the kind of album that people will look back at and call an under-appreciated gem.

With that, I give unto you, Beulah's The Coast is Never Clear. Do you know it? Like it? Bored by it? Hate it? Hate me? Let me have it.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2014, 08:03:10 AM by the captain » Logged

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« Reply #30 on: December 21, 2014, 03:58:37 PM »

Halfway through my first listen, sounds good so far! I saw them play in 1999 or 2000, and I may have heard their previous record back then as a friend of mine had it. Will comment more after more listening.
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« Reply #31 on: December 23, 2014, 09:46:14 PM »

Nice pick for Christmas the captain.  Checked your runner-up groups.  This is the best of the three.  I've listened to the album and got to know the band a bit.  I like Beulah's short career.  I haven't got around to many tracks from the first and fourth albums, but I did check their second.  When Your Heartstrings Break (1999) showed a lot of promise, and The Coast is Never Clear (2001) delivered.  Those horns are rock on.  I love big layered albums like this.  And this is the closest to what I listen to often as any pick so far.

Early favs are "What Will You Do When Your Suntan Fades" and "I'll Be Your Lampshade."  It's gonna take me a few days to come to an opinion.  I want to play this for some folks on Christmas day.  I'll get something up by the week-end.

Hope you guys are having a nice holiday week. 
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« Reply #32 on: December 23, 2014, 09:54:55 PM »

I want to play this for some folks on Christmas day.

You mean you're not going to play Nick Cave on Christmas?  Huh
I'll listen to this album soon, just a busy time of year.
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« Reply #33 on: December 23, 2014, 10:17:47 PM »

busy, but fun busy!  I'll try to find the perfect Nick song.  The one where he kills somebody towards the end of the song after he's got you hooked on the melody.  Always makes for the merriest of holiday discussions.

Merry Christmas everybody.  The only time of the year when we stand around a dying tree strung with lights acting like it's normal it's there.  Then we start handing out gifts to celebrate.
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« Reply #34 on: December 24, 2014, 12:04:00 PM »

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« Reply #35 on: December 24, 2014, 12:18:12 PM »

Can't we just share a download link , instead of spotify. I've been out of the loop since the last youtube link. I don't want to have to "join" you spotify. I don't know what you are. I'm not downloading itunes im not joining spotify.( I like old fashioned piracy, thank yu very much. )I know BB bootlegs are a no-no.   But what about these albums in the listening project thread. Can't the person whose week it is just upload the album to sendspace or something?? (And post it here. or , is that against the rules. This board sucks sometimes* )that would make things so accessible.

I'd rather not withhold the fractions of pennies that bands get from purchases (ideally) or streaming (as a later resort)--especially bands like Beulah, who actually broke up in large part for that very reason. If you're opposed to the no-charge Spotify and it's 30-second ad every half dozen songs or whatever, maybe youtube will work for you. No download / membership required.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjDuOd5_9vDdHz27KCbXQtDaNrwjIK5c8

Otherwise I'll meet you at Electric Fetus and buy you a copy, if it comes to that. Actually my friend Dave still has my first copy, which he borrowed circa 2003. (I bought another a few years later, realizing the first one wasn't coming home.)
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« Reply #36 on: December 24, 2014, 12:30:19 PM »

Sorry if I came off as a dick there, btw. Not my intent to judge, just sharing my position on the subject.
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« Reply #37 on: December 24, 2014, 12:48:45 PM »

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« Reply #38 on: December 24, 2014, 01:26:29 PM »

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« Reply #39 on: December 24, 2014, 01:41:20 PM »

ooh yeah, that's better than the one I've been playing - and less commercials.  Now I've played the whole album in order twice, and favorites a few more.  Adding a new very favorite - "Night is the Day Turned Inside-Out"

This is going to go over big time with my crowd tomorrow.  Thanks for the new link captain.  I have spotify, and use it in a pinch, but it doesn't work well with my browser.
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« Reply #40 on: December 24, 2014, 01:56:41 PM »

I never tire of Memphis or Mariachi horns.  Where are you hearing Memphis Horns?  I'm finding this more Mariachi/Southern California.  Reminded often of Burt Bacharach or Tijuana Brass - great 60's feel.

The horns are the white chocolate* mousse filling holding the musical cake together.

* It could be any filling, that's just what I put in my Christmas cake this year.


Edit: hal your posts are disappearing.
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« Reply #41 on: December 24, 2014, 10:01:05 PM »

"Hey Brother" - you are right.  Memphis Horns.  They're throwing a lot of styles into the blender.  I've added the song to my favorites list.  I like the lyrics.
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« Reply #42 on: December 25, 2014, 06:08:28 AM »

Glad you guys are enjoying. I was fearing that a choice so firmly down the middle might not be anything to get excited about on a thread focused on introductions, broadened horizons, etc. But while Beulah is a mainstream sound, they certainly never hit the mainstream, so my fingers were crossed. Still, it was a very good, short career. The aforementioned When Your Heartstrings Break, this one, and Yoko are the only albums I could recommend in good conscience. (The debut, Handsome Western States, their only E6 album, was nothing special. Though maybe I'll give it another listen today, just because.)

By the way, allmusic.com summarizes them thusly: "Sleek rockers whose upbeat indie pop take on alt-country melancholia earned critical and cult plaudits in the early 2000s."

That might be the funniest summary I've ever read.
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« Reply #43 on: December 26, 2014, 07:36:03 PM »

I'm listening now and... eh Shrug I wish I liked more people's suggestions cuz I haven't really seemed to enjoy many of them so far. I don't much like the singer's voice, and he often sounds completely bored and/or disinterested while singing. During the second song, "A Good Man Is Easy to Kill", I find the song's transitions to be jarring and it gives me the impression of them just throwing in a bunch of instruments for the hell of it. The flute (recorder maybe?) and heavily-distorted guitar combo just doesn't work. I get what they're trying to for with the lyrics - they're hip, clever, and they would definitely appeal to a certain audience - but they're not for me it seems. I do like some of these songs titles, though.

I have found some moments that I like throughout the record, though. I think the arrangement for the opening of "Popular Mechanics for Lovers" is quite pretty, although the singer's voice comes in and they change things up and kinda throw cold water on the whole thing. "I'll Be Your Lampshade" is a great song and it seems like they were actually able to restrain themselves and deliver a solid, focused song instead of indulging in their whims to change things up. I also liked the music for the first song on the record, and I think the seemingly-group vocals help to compensate for my distaste of his voice and delivery.

So far, to me, they just seem like a bunch of young-adult-slackers who got the urge to make music. Charming slackers, mind you.
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« Reply #44 on: December 26, 2014, 10:50:11 PM »

oo, well I'm liking it a bit more than that.  I used charming in one of my track notes descriptions, you beat me to it.  I'm going to have to look up slacker - I haven't heard that word in years.  You mean like "I'm a Loser, Baby, so why don't you kill me"? - yeah, Miles' has that bad.  I've never looked too deep into the E6 artists either.  I see some mention in the What are we Listening To thread, but didn't like the ones I checked except of Montreal (only a half dozen or so).  Haven't tried Apples in Stereo, but Neutral Milk Hotel I don't like.  As the captain said, Beulah had little to do with them anyway.  I'm callin' them Indie Pop.  Sunshine Pop.  Fluff lyrics for sure - I've heard much more cleaver than this.  Hip maybe, but mostly meaningless save a few that clicked.  They fall into the background after a few listens, or just become part of the production.  Some of the words work better in the live versions.  I don't have any problems with Miles' vocals, or any of the vocals - this stuff is pretty breezy.  Listened to all the tracks a couple more times now.  This is a solid album with no weak tracks.  Today I got to Yoko, and found some live stuff from the last tour.  Should have my notes up in the morning.

Yesterday got some opinions on Beulah, and played some Nick Cave and the other artists we've been talking about.  Showed them what we are up to here, they're not posters on Smiley - but they like some of the Beach Boys stuff.  Everybody already knew most of the acts.  I don't know anybody that doesn't like Waits.  The star of the evening was going to be Judy Collins' DVD Christmas at the Biltmore Estate (1997), so it was easy to fit some Brel into the day.  Beulah, I only played our featured album, went over well enough - some comments were like Bubbly's "...there's thousands of bands like this out there through the years.  This is just another."  And they're right.  We don't get around to listening to most of them tho.  Beulah was "out of the blue" for me.  I used Nick near the beginning.  I had discovered a neat little concert shown on the BBC, sort of like their version of VHI's Storytellers called Songwriter's Circle.  From 12 May 1999 - John Cale, Chrisse Hynde, and Nick.  http://youtu.be/ynoGfFpaizc    Nick plays "The Ship Song" and "Into My Arms" and a solo "Henry Lee" with a harmony by Hynde.  Played "To Be by Your Side" - then the killer couples tunes "Where the Wild Roses Grow": his.  "Henry Lee" (with P. J.): hers.  Everybody liked the P. J. version best, me too.  "The Weeping Song" was the rousing closer.

I couldn't keep up the attention to youtube more than a couple of hours - most folks want better quality sound and pictures, but we had a good time with it.  I had a nice Christmas, hope you all did too.   
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« Reply #45 on: December 27, 2014, 05:22:12 AM »

Bubbly Waves, I agree with quite a bit of your post, with the primary difference being that after it all, I'm a fan of the album. Sorry you didn't enjoy it more. (But not that sorry ... I didn't write and record the album!)

As for the slacker thing, i definitely understand where you're coming from. But do note that it's just an image. Consider how much effort goes into making an album sound like this one does. The slacker vibe was an image of people that age and the era, but not necessarily a reality. The guys who were slackers and had bands kept it to sloppily played and badly produced stuff, not highly arranged and produced pop songs. The smartass cynical thing is in common, but it belies the effort here.

What I really wanted to share, anyway (after a few left-field artists) was some solidly done pop music. Nothing about Beulah changed pop music. They didn't invent a new system, or even any new plays ... but they executed the game plan really well. It's sadly a surprisingly rare thing.

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« Reply #46 on: December 27, 2014, 01:12:55 PM »

I had fun looking into Beulah.  Most of the music I listen to these days is populated by copyists, but that's okay.  So were my 60's/70's favorites.  Beulah traveled a well worn road.  The "spot the reference" game would be easy, but they put the music together with care.  Already said I love big layered sound like this.  And Bubbly, I looked up slacker - no, I think they thought they were putting something important together.  You mean doing something just to have something to do?  The Beck song I mentioned was a joke, he started off with that one but went on to have an interesting career.  There have been many bands/artists who try and fail.  Many who just can't get their stuff played on radio or get a tune on a movie soundtrack, or tour with the bigger acts to get noticed.  It's always been hard to break in America, Beulah should have given it more time.  It's a big place, you can't just hit the big cities and expect it to work.  You need a champion like a John Peel - something like that.  Even The Beatles needed one.  They struggled for over a year in America on any label that would release the early singles, then by circumstance Sullivan came across them at an airport and put them in front of a national audience.  Not saying they are as good as The Beatles or the many artists I love that came before (and influenced) them.  Just that Beulah didn't get that break and broke up out of what they thought was disinterest.  They didn't have big record label support either - a sore point with me and the artists I want to make it.  Artists who I think should be much more popular than the cult status they end up with.  I would have bought any of Beulah's last three records if I'd heard them in the time they were together.  Not sure how much it will help them now, but I'm going to buy first the DVD and Yoko.  Already found a good price on those.  Then look around for used copies of the rest.  That's what I mean by "not sure how much it will help now."  But.  No bigger compliment can be made - I like it enough to buy it.


The Coast is Never Clear (2001)                Beulah




"Hello Resolven" - the king/queen theme gives this a Beatles nod, or they wanted the record to have an opener like Friends.

"A Good Man is Easy to Kill" - loved it the first time I played it.  Strange, very strange, lyrics and all - where does he come up with the idea to screw holes in one's head to stick on a halo?  Charming arrangement.  I can see how the lyrics would give the impression that they don't care what their singing about.  I wouldn't even call this hip.

"What Will You Do When Your Suntan Fades?" - two things came to mind when I heard this:  sounds something like the feel of My Brother Woody's first album and Stephen Bishop.  I can see how Luther thinks Miles is the right one to sing his songs too.  When I first commented on the captain's music, now nearly a year ago, I would have made the connection if I'd known who Beulah was.  I'm okay with the lyrics on this one.  A favorite.

"Gene Autry" - the mariachi horns are great.  The lyrics only give mention of Autry, the song is not about him, just that he likes his voice in the first verse, then off to sing whatever comes to his mind for the rest.  Lyrics are the band's biggest weakness.  I've already defended them by saying they are just part of the production.  The more I listen, the more easy it is to ignore them.

"Silver Lining" - the bass guitar and horns carry the tune along with more meaningless lyrics.  This may have been influenced by Alex Chilton.  Those E6'er boys Beulah was hanging out with were from Ruston, Louisiana - not Georgia.  Memphis music is well loved there.  I grew up about thirty miles from Ruston, home of Louisiana Tech. and...well not much else other than Pine trees.  You couldn't even buy booze there.

"Popular Mechanics for Lovers" - definitely a favorite, but again a plea with the right words that never come.  Noel Gallagher did this all the time - in fact this uses the same Coca-Cola commercial melody Noel used on "Shakermaker" - so Noel did it first (1994).  Pay attention to:  "Just because he loves you too, He would never take a bullet for you.  Don't believe a word he says.  He would never cut his heart out for you."  This may have been a tribute to Oasis - it also sounds like a slowed down "Digsy's Dinner" in spots.  Mile's might have felt justified using "just throw something out there" lyrics, cause Oasis was having hit after hit with the same formula.  Noel even used the "not gonna cut my heart out for you" lyric.  A copyist copying a copyist.

"Gravity's Bringing Us Down" - another "spot the reference" track, with the Harrison slide guitar touches.  On the live take, all the influences are stripped away, leaving a rocking song.  I would have loved to see them live.

"Hey Brother" - as hal pointed out, they are stealing the Otis Memphis Horns riff.  This became another favorite after a few listens.

"I'll be Your Lamp Shade" - the record only picks up steam for the closing set of tracks.  I love everything about this track, including the simple lyrics.  The music is super cool.

"Cruel Minor Change" - the melody is so strong the lyrics don't matter.  I don't even remember the lyrics.

"Burned by the Sun" - the lyrical imagery on the last two tracks is pretty good.  The song is very Beatles musically.  When I read they sound like The Beach Boys I don't really get that.  Some of the instruments are found in Beach Boys tracks, but I don't hear a direct influence in the writing.  Love how the track is held together by mandolin moving in and out of the mix.  This one and "I'll Be Your Lamp Shade" are the only tracks I hear anything like alt. Country.  Wilco is alt. Country, or the Jayhawks.  This ain't that.  Just putting a steel guitar on a track does not make it that.  Beulah does remind me of the Jayhawks, not musically, but they have a similar goofy character.

"Night is the Day Turned Inside-Out" - what can I say that I haven't already said?  I thought this was maybe the second best track on the record, but due to the very powerful live version, I'll call it a tie with "I'll be Your Lamp Shade."

I've got a few more notes on the other Beulah records, and the wonderful live/road stories DVD I'll have next week.  Have to wait to give them a try-out on the big system.  Youtube doesn't do them justice.
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« Reply #47 on: December 27, 2014, 05:37:56 PM »

feelsflow, I really am happy you're enjoying this so much.

Couple things: regarding reference/tributes intentionally added, there is another very obvious one in "Popular Mechanics for Lovers": "I heard he wrote you a love song, but so what? / Some guy wrote 69...," a nod to the then-recent Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs.

And re the Alex Chilton influence, very, very much there. The opening scene of that DVD that's on the way adds a little context, if I'm not mistaken. And I am pretty sure Miles wore a Big Star t-shirt both times I saw them live.

And re Ruston, interesting that you were from near there! It has almost a mystique for me because of the E6ers starting off there. (Hanging out at the La Tech radio station as adolescents was apparently a big, big deal to their interests in music.)
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« Reply #48 on: December 28, 2014, 03:02:40 AM »

I thought this was a solid album with some high points but not one I'll be returning to very often. In another time in my life I would have listened to it more perhaps.

In the mid-90s I was caught up in the UK "britpop" boom. I never wanted to be parochial so I was however also always on the lookout for great melodic pop and rock from around the world. At college I was aware of Elephant 6 movement, saw some of the bands but never bought too many of the records. I preferred to see it live.

At the time I saw Beulah play I was briefly living in Toronto, and as a Brit I was flattered that an American band seemed (to me) to be so in thrall to British influences. I thought they were the nearest U.S. band I had seen so far to a Britpop band. With further experience, I now realise the thing about Britpop is it had basically all been done before, mostly in the sixties. So it was perhaps more a general sixties influence. In this album I hear many other influences, including ironically the early 90s American alt-rock that the captain had shunned. Throughout the record I keep hearing bits that remind me of other songs, before the song changes course so that no single song sounds like a complete rip-off of another single song. It feels like a patchwork. It doesn't sound too distinctive to me. For example, I don't think if I heard the singer's voice on the radio singing with another band, that I would remember ever having heard it before.

Later my own band was (thanks to another member of the band) kind of heavily influenced by elephant 6 and it's outgrowths, and we played with lots of those bands, as well as with other British bands that were influenced by them. As a result maybe I had a surfeit of this kind of material, and tried to write songs in different styles myself. Of all the records chosen so far (except the Bonzos) this is probably closest to the type of music I've spent most of my life listening to. The trouble is I'm not much in the mood for listening to it now, though it's very pleasant and I don't think there are any bad songs here.

Oh, and I enjoyed to nod to Stephin Merrit. I saw the Magnetic Fields play in support of 69 love songs in Toronto around the same time I saw Beulah, and that is one band and and one album I never tire of.

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« Reply #49 on: December 28, 2014, 06:05:36 AM »


"What Will You Do When Your Suntan Fades?" - two things came to mind when I heard this:  sounds something like the feel of My Brother Woody's first album and Stephen Bishop.  I can see how Luther thinks Miles is the right one to sing his songs too.  When I first commented on the captain's music, now nearly a year ago, I would have made the connection if I'd known who Beulah was.  I'm okay with the lyrics on this one.  A favorite.



Funny you should say that Will as this album was the biggest influence on me production wise for that album.

Its still one of my favourite albums. Always adored "I'll be Your Lamp Shade" closely followed by "Suntan" and "Popular Mechanics".

The part in "Night is the Day Turned Inside-Out" that goes "There is a place in the red light district
Of your heart that I used to visit" always really gets me.
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