(Velocette Records)
If there's one thing that is hard to come by in today's whole lot of indie rockin' bands, it's complete conviction and sincerity. On its third full length release, , Beulah manages to not only stand out for this reason, but also for its ability to write creative pop in its own unique style without resorting to mimicry or mediocrity.
Not since Neutral Milk Hotel's , almost four years ago, has a band from the Elephant Six collective released such a great pop album. Throughout the course of the album's 40-plus minutes, Beulah takes the listener to excited highs and heartfelt lows while continuously revealing a new side to its sound.
The album starts out with the hushed circus symphony of 'Hello Resolven' and quickly turns into a mad dash of electric guitar, horns, viola, violin and flute, with the racing 'A Good Man is Easy to Kill.'
The album flows well as a whole, with each song never denying the effects of the others. For instance, the softer, smoother songs like 'What Will You Do When Your Suntan Fades'? are padded on either side with rougher, more upbeat songs in order to sustain the album's overall energy.
Every song on is loaded with ultra-catchy hooks, making for an easily memorable album. One minor problem with this is that after several listens it becomes easier to let the music go in one ear and out the other. However, it can take quite a while to get to this point because there are so many unpredictable twists that make the album worth coming back to over and over again.
Minor complaints aside, remains a great collection of pop ditties, and with it Beulah establishes its foothold as one of those bands that makes you open your eyes and smile for the future of pop.
(Omnibus Records)
As the title of the album suggests, the San Francisco indie-pop duo Mates of State's is a collection of lo-fi tunes that sound as if they were recorded in the basement of some college's music hall. On their debut album, organist Kori Gardner plays away while she shares the vocal duties with drummer Jason Hammel. With an opposite-sex drums-organ combination like this, first-glance comparisons to Portland's Quasi can hardly be avoided. However, Mates of State have a far more youthful, sweeter manner to them, and the boy-girl vocals sound more like The Spinanes or Rainer Maria.
begins with a cover of the 'Cheers' theme song, the familiar vocals barely audible under a large amount of electronic noise. 'Proofs' follows with a laid-back '70s-style organ accompanying Gardner & Hammel's voices. The duo's singing is great, the lyrics are not overly emo and the fact that they're both almost always singing together gives it a different feel from other boy-girl bands in which usually one or the other handles most of the vocal duties. Hammel's drumming is also very polished. The real star of Mates of State, however, is the above-mentioned organ. With its somewhat cheesy vibrato and nasal timbre, it makes any Mates song instantly recognizable. When Gardner plays an accompanying melody, it sounds like an old Nintendo game soundtrack or like the music on a '50s soap opera. On songs like 'What I Could Stand For' it casts a poppy, jazzy feel. At other times it can create something totally unexpected, like the tropicalia-esque beats of 'Nice Things that Look Good.' Gardner also often breaks off into little improvisational sets, which add a lot of variety and flavor.
Mates of State is proof that you don't need a guitar and bass to form a successful indie rock band. In fact, if a guitar and bass replaced the organ as the source of accompaniment, the Mates would sound a lot more average.
(BMG/RCA)
Teen movies have an important place in society where all the hormones and angst of adolescent culture can be celebrated thoroughly. The love scene, the breakup, the big game'these movie moments need the perfect blend of catchy, uninspiring and ultimately forgetful music to succeed: exactly what the Verve Pipe has to offer with . Best known for the lighter-waving hit single 'The Freshmen,' the band has continued its chart- friendly style to only lukewarm response. aims to reverse its slide into obscurity but rarely succeeds due to a comprehensive lack of creativity.
'Only Words' opens with a delicate mix of shiny mid-tempo rock that proves, if nothing else, that the album gleams of expert studio polish. Unfortunately, with lyrics like 'I'm getting to like this feeling I've found / I'm getting to love the thought of having you around / and I will never let you down,' Brian Vander Ark's airy vocals don't add much for content. In fact, the band works best when turning away from well-tread pop territory as dirty, distorted guitars take center stage on 'Medicate Myself' while Vander Ark chants the mantra, 'one more drink and I will be drowned.'
But after such a refreshing surprise, The Verve Pipe hastily returns to the safety of formulaic alt-rock for the remainder of the album. As it sleepily wraps up with the title track, one can't help but feel disappointed. The band is gifted with a fine singer and tight musicianship, but their encompassing lack of originality and inspiration is damning. Luckily for them, as long as we have bland teen movies, we'll always have bands like The Verve Pipe.
