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Also this issue: Rebirth of Butterfly Where House? Hurricane Mozart The Downbeat 5 Jonathan Richman Glass Candy Gold Chains Dynamo Productions |
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June 26-July 2, 2003
hearhere
Buried Alive The Buried Beds' coming-out came and went all too quickly. It consisted of a CD release party at Soundgun Studios for their self-titled four-song debut and a couple subsequent follow-up shows. Then the two Beds, Eliza Hardy and Brandon Beaver, took the summer off to write songs, travel and not play any shows together.
To tide us over we have the EP, a charming and subtle taste of this duo's country-pop and Appalachia-influenced throwbacks. Track one, "Camellia," is particularly captivating, a pining and desperate love song that could have been written when Ralph Stanley was a boy. "Camellia, you're a flame in my heart and I just can't live without you/ I don't see much in this world, but I see my arms around you." The violins swoon and the simple, heartfelt imagery takes you places. Musically, it's not the sort of stuff you generally hear around these parts (unless, you know, you're at a She-Haw show).
"I'm a classically trained pianist from a bluegrass family, floundering between Beethoven and Bill Monroe," explains Hardy (vocals, keyboard, harmonium), who grew up in and around Philadelphia. "Family gatherings have always been raucous nights of banjo-picking and eight-part harmonies. So the old-time influence is all mixed up with the more fleshed-out conception of melody and harmonic progressions."
Her partner, Beaver (vocals, guitar, drums, bass), grew up in a small North Carolina town. He was, he says, "like every other kid in the late ’80s and early ’90s -- that is, lost in some weird vortex of self-deprecating music and Cross Colors pants."
They currently reside at the New Planet art collective in West Philly. "As cliché as it sounds, the music we make just comes out naturally," says Beaver. "Ultimately, we gravitate towards an old-fashioned country-style songwriting, but we like to experiment with various arrangements and compositions to develop some songs past the standard formula."
The duo is planning to go back to Soundgun to work on a full-length CD this fall. In the meantime they’ll rake in inspiration from curious places. Right now, Beaver’s on tour with his other band, New Planet Make a Rising. Then, he says, "in July and August I’ll be working on an organic farm in France."
"I’ll be here for most of the summer teaching piano," says Hardy, "until August when I’m taking off for Bahia, Brazil, to go to the Sisters of the Good Death Festival, dance in the streets, eat fruit and be far away from Philadelphia. Nothing like African deities and the French countryside to inspire some good Americana music."
If you wanna buy the Buried Beds EP, you can order one by writing buriedbeds@yahoo.com. It’ll cost you four bucks.
Back in Red Jen Turrell, the singer/songwriter who left Philly and took the Red Square record label with her, is touring with a new CD. One Night The Stars Began To Fall And Would Not Stop is a very long title for a 30-minute, 15-song record. The music is blissful, understated, electronic-tinged guitar pop, like if Velocity Girl, The Softies and Turrell's old band, Rabbit in Red, had a staring contest and somehow that made music happen. She's just a drop in the huge bucket of indie going on at the DRAGONBALLZ Festival this weekend.
Sat., June 28, 2 p.m., with Semiautomatic, The Three Rs, Stay Fucked, Big A Little a, This Invitation, Dream House/Dirty Rainbow, Sweathearts, Lucky Dragons; Sun., June 29, 2 p.m., Boyracer, Jen Turrell, Origami, Illoin, Golden Ball/Ex Reverie, Wrist and Pistols, The Nine Billion Names of God and some kind of band featuring members of Fursaxa/Bardo Pond/Espers and/or Gamelon, Friendship House, 1822 N. Hancock St., 215-425-2879. Both shows are free and all-ages. Feel free to bring food, drink and donations.
Game On It just wouldn't be a HearHere if I didn't mention that those intrepid No-Libs folks are trying to put on a free outdoor music festival to benefit their favorite little park. Rained out twice already, The Northern Liberties Music Festival Two-and-a-Half will make another go of it this weekend. "I just love effing with those hipsters," says Mayan rain god Chaac, of Bella Vista.
Sat., June 28, 2 p.m., free, with Psy-Ops, The Espers, The Wayward Wind, Lara MacCallum, Kenn Kweder, Asteroid No. 4, Mazarin, Mike Simons, Helen Back & the Str8 Razors and The Northern Liberties Dance Band, Liberty Lands park, Third Street, between Poplar and Wildey, 215-627-6562. Might as well write this down: rain date Sat., July 5.
’Head Case
Remember Mary Bichner? She’s the 20-year-old keyboard-playing, songwriting, mighty morphin’ teenage mutant polymodal synesthete who uses her natural-born perfect pitch to transcribe her favorite band, Radiohead, into piano sheet music and post it on her website -- and who was given a cease-and-desist order by music publishing company Warner/Chappell because, hey, that’s copyrighted material! Any of that ring a bell?
Turns out it was part of a Web-wide sweep by W/C on a bunch of Radiohead fan pages. Since then, many of those sites -- mostly ones that specialize in lovingly reprinting lyrics (but listen, in "Creep," he’s not saying, "I’m a window") -- have been granted little one-year licenses to put their stuff back up. Bichner’s "Radiohead for the Pianoforte" project took a little longer to figure out. It’s like, who even does piano tablature?
W/C finally granted permission to re-post the pages, with a few terms (like attributing songwriting credit where it’s due). Furthermore, Bichner’s handwritten scores will be considered by the publishing company’s "staff arrangers" (does the band do anything by itself?) for consideration, should they one day start publishing Radiohead music for the piano. "If they like them and believe that they are commercially viable," says the letter from W/C, "I’m sure we can work something out with you to help us produce such a product. I hope this is agreeable to you." Agreeable? Bichner’s plan to one day join/marry Radiohead is working perfectly! Go to www.littlerowboat.net.
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