The Beets
(Captured Tracks)
One's first impression of The Beets might regurgitate memories of school days; hanging out with pals in the stairwell of the dorm or on a pal's front porch and being entertained by a few guys who have a band or are thinking about assembling one, who are plunking out some new tunes for their friends. Their musical attitude comes from a place where they would want to call their first album Spit in the Face of People Who Don't Want to be Cool. The songs are cool and everyone has a great time.
Actually, what you DO get with The Beets is, that the production on Stay Home DOES sound like it was recorded in a stairwell, with the hard acoustic amplification and slight echo it provides, and they DID name their first album Spit in the Face of People Who Don't Want to be Cool. The Queens, NY trio have been performing their little strum-alongs in party-like surroundings for five years now, usually with an audacious effect on their audiences. Many of the songs on Stay Home are slow to mid-tempo concoctions that cleverly blend a ‘60's garage sound with a ‘60's folk delivery. These are rather basic little tunes, without much meat on their bones. Think lo-fi downshifting into no-fi. Think Harlem slowed down and with only acoustic guitars. The songs usually feature duo vocals of head Beet, Juan Wauters and long-time buddy Jose Garcia singing together. If all this sounds as weak-kneed as a stool-mounted, manically depressed, guitar strumming folksinger bleating his intellectually deep, but ultimately gloomy songs in a café corner, rest assured it isn't. Kumbaya this ain't. The lyrics are smart and hip, never stilted, preachy or political, like traditional folk or James Taylor treacle.
Each song expands with a couple of listens, and dismisses any notion that many seem to sound alike at first. I will posit that the few songs where they pick up speed, are little nuggets. "Knock On Wood" is about as non plus ultra as a two-minute song can be, not to mention catchy. "Floating" is about a stoner's day of just hanging out on the grass, enjoying the sun and rain, going home to chill some more....
Oh, the clouds were floating, Yeah yeah,/
They were all inside my head, Yeah yeah,/
I thought that I was floating, Yeah yeah,/
But I was lying on my bed, Yeah yeah, Oh yeah.
"Watching TV" is just that, a fast-strumming paean to watching television! Can I come over and watch? Pass the popcorn, please! The theme here is, after all, staying home! Do The Beets rock? Folk yeah!
BONUS: Free download of new single - "Time Brought Age." http://bit.ly/eEo714
DOWNLOAD: "Knock On Wood", "Watching TV", "Cold Lips." BARRY ST. VITUS
