Beulah Breaking Up, Maybe?

[jadetree]

Beulah Finish New Album, Set Impossible Goals
 
 Nikhil Swaminathan reports:
 So, last time we weighed in on the everchanging world of Beulah, we were retracting our story about how the band was supposed to break up after their next album. Well, guess what: we were right the first time. The former Elephant 6'ers have finished their fourth LP entitled Yoko, due out September 9th on Velocette. It will mark the first time in the band's history that they've released two subsequent albums on the same label. After that, they're calling it quits. Yes, for real. Unless they're just fucking with us again. Which is possible!
 
 Anyway, this time around Beulah was less cryptic with their answers, and co-founder Bill Swan let us in on some insights about the upcoming release produced by Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney, Joseph Arthur) and Swan's partner-in-crime Miles Kurosky. Swan commented that the album, recorded at Tiny Telephone studio in San Francisco and The Bank in Nashville, was birthed just as all the other Beulah platters.
 
 "Miles sits in his room with an acoustic guitar and tape machine for months writing half baked crappy songs," writes Swan. "When he finally realizes he's going nowhere he brings the 'songs' to us and then we create what Houdini liked to call 'magic.' Then the record gets released and he gets all the credit, glory, and chicks."
 
 But, there was a conscious attempt to make this record different. Rules were devised to ensure that the collective weren't retracing their footsteps - "more space, more guitars, orchestrate with less traditional symphonic instruments, less clutter, less harmonies, less doubled vocals, more atmospheric horns (more legato and less staccato), a bit moodier, a tad saltier, more minor chords, less California, no na na na's, no ba dup ba's. Basically make a record unlike the last three â?¦ assassinate the old Beulah."
 
 Also different was the recording process. This time around, the guys played the songs live, rather than their usual method of overdubbing. " â?¦ we wanted to sound like an actual band playing in a room," Swan said. "We felt that in the past some of our records lacked a little energy because of all the overdubs." After the tracks were laid, Swan and the rest of Beulah had to wait for Kurosky to write the lyrics, which he described as a gut-wrenching process, though he acknowledged Kurosky's method's virtues, "I think that's why so many of his lyrics cut so close to the bone." Enough talkin' here's the tracklist:
 
 01 A Man Like Me
 02 Landslide Baby
 03 You're Only King Once
 04 My Side of the City
 05 Hovering
 06 Me and Jesus Don't Talk Anymore
 07 Fooled With the Wrong Guy
 08 Your Mother Loves You Son
 09 Don't Forget to Breathe
 10 Wipe The Prints and Run
 
 Wait, a sec. "Wipe the Prints and Run?" Yoko? What are we picking up on? "Well, we talked it over a few days ago and we decided that if this record goes gold Beulah will definitely NOT be breaking up any time soon," Swan said, with what can be determined as a reasonable amount of sincerety. "In hindsight it was probably a mistake to even mention breaking up on the website. I mean, we've made what we think is our best record to date, and we think it would be a shame if the record was overshadowed by the news of an impending breakup."
 
 So, if the record goes gold there will be more Beulah, huh? Wonder how many more records they sold on their last effort The Coast is Never Clear? We asked Velocette A&R rep. and label operator Jason Walden about that. Here's what he told us, "Yeah, it's [The Coast far and away their best seller at just under 30k versus [about] 15k for When Your Heart[strings Break] and of those about 3k sold on the strength of The Coast."
 
 So, all they have to do is sell 16.666 times as many copies of Yoko as they did of their last album which is the most successful of their career. Hmmm, not likely. If we're reporting on them, they probably aren't selling anywhere near that. Translation: this is the LAST Beulah album. Go ahead guys, prove us wrong.
 
 Nevertheless, Swan wants to remind fans, especially those of you who are bad at math, "Remember, gold in the U.S. is 500,000 units sold." Remember Bill, current rock stars have a lot easier time getting chicks than retired ones.

[jadetree]

Also, this was on their website, thought it was an interesting read -
 
 At the risk of being labeled a Luddite, I want to take a moment to discuss a couple of things with respect to the new record, downloads and Ebay. It seems like with this ongoing and often tedious debate, nobody is polite enough to ask what the band thinks. However, everybody seems to have an opinion on what's best for the band. With that said, when our meager livelihood could potentially hang in the balance of this debate, it at least does us justice to air out our feelings on the subject.
 
 First, we've discovered that there are some unscrupulous folks who have taken the liberty to sell promo copies of the new record on Ebay. Beulah does not authorize, support or endorse this, so we ask that you please not purchase the record on Ebay. Frankly, the record's not worth more than the list price and it will be out soon enough. If you really must hear the record before the release date, we prefer that you download it from your favorite file sharing source. We the Beulahs also download songs to check out new music and understand its importance. However, if we decide that we like the band, we actually make a point of buying their record to support them. Now just so you know, we are not in the business of guilt tripping. We just hope that those of you who have heard the record already via downloading and/or file sharing will at some point purchase the album. For those of you who don't like it, well, we don't expect you to buy an album that you don't like.
 
 For the record, we have a terrific relationship with our label. We do not have an adversarial relationship like many bands on major labels. Without Velocette's financial support there's no way in hell we would have been able to record at Tiny Telephone, work with Roger Moutenot, or pay our rent while recording. Velocette is basically three people spending their entire life savings on us and a few other bands. In short, they deserve to be reimbursed. This means they need people to buy their records.
 
 Lastly, I think I should address the myth of record sales not making their way into the band's pockets. Like many other bands on indie labels, we have a split point that favors us, not the label. Once Velocette makes their money back from marketing, manufacturing, press, and radio, everything gets split 60/40 in favor of the band. That means if "Yoko" sells HALF of what "Coast" sold, we're actually making a profit. This means we can pay our rent and concentrate on making music and touring. It's that simple. Anyway, that's how we feel. So if you have any respect or affection for Beulah and want to support indie music, please keep all of this in mind. Thanks for reading.

[Jaguär]

They may be new articles but this is old, old news. Guess they still can't make up their minds.