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Understanding Beulah requires
that you know a few very important things. One thing you should
know is that Beulah’s reputation as low-fi wonders is the product
of necessity more than noble indie rock intentions. Kurosky and
Swan recorded a song every month and a half for 16 months in the
beginning, using only guitar and drums, and recording in their offices,
living rooms, bathrooms and hallways onto a Maxell cassette. The
resulting album, 1997’s "Handsome
Western States," scored the band enough indie cred that
they were invited to join the renowned Elephant
6 collective, alongside such bands as Apples
In Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel.
They pieced together a touring ensemble, played a few shows around
the U.S. and U.K., and saved up enough money to get a reel-to-reel
tape machine and some decent recording equipment. On 1999’s
"When Your Heartstrings Break,"
they went, as Kurosky puts it, "from low-fi to mid-fi."
The final thing you need to know about them is that they are brilliantly
creative musicians. Beulah’s new album, "The
Coast Is Never Clear," is a tribute to every pop album
ever made as well as a fresh statement in itself. Their patchwork
song assembly was smoothed over into the shimmering pop melodies,
cascading harmonies, dramatic flourishes and bittersweet lyrics
that compose "The Coast Is Never Clear." With the support
of a bigger record label for the first time, the band recorded in
a proper studio with engineer John Croslin (Guided
By Voices, Spoon) and mixer Roger
Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Lou Reed), yielding their best-sounding
album yet.
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