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December 08, 2004
Sun and Screen
Beulah - Emma Blowgun's Last Stand
When you need a 20-second bongo intro and you just can't wait. Do you desire full, uncompromising strings? How about a trumpet riff that'll nourish you for days on end? This song is layers and layers of sweetness (how about baklava of melody? maybe not), and you should devour it.
The first time I heard this song (which was the first of Beulah's I had ever heard as well), I was floored by how perfect it was- I stood there, with brow furrowed, clutching the CD player in my hands, trying to comprehend how someone could write a song that was just so effortlessly and ridiculously good. I must have listened to it about 20 times consecutively, and I could pick out new and different things about the song each time- the fuzzed-out guitar, the restless bass, the gorgeous background vocals- it's just endlessly involuted and flawlessly wrought.
Mile Kurosky was the main songwriter behind Beulah, and at least some of the creative output of the band was fueled by his love/hate relationship with bandmate Bill Swan (guitars/trumpet)- which conflict may or may not have finally become too much for Miles, Bill, and the rest of the band, since they played their last show on August 5th of this year, in New York. I was lucky enough to see them in 2002, my senior year of college, when they were still touring for 'The Coast is Never Clear', and they just absolutely owned it- such high energy and tight playing, it was hard not to be impressed.
Luckily for everyone who never saw Beulah on tour, the band is releasing a DVD of footage shot during their last jaunt (for the album 'Yoko'), entitled 'A Good Band is Easy to Kill'. No news yet on when this is coming out, but it should be done soon. By the way, this song comes from (in my opinion) their strongest album, 'When Your Heartstrings Break', and you can buy that and most of their other stuff directly from the band.
Posted by matt at December 8, 2004 08:00 AM