Nov 5, 2003
ABC Pick
The Beatings
Saturday, November 8, X-Ray Café
Any indie rock band calling Boston, MA home inevitably has Pixies dust pumping through its veins. The Beatings have never been an exception... until now. With the release of the Midriff Records EP The Heart, The Product, The Machine & The Asshole.
The band's debut full-length Italiano soared with Mission of Burma angularity and roared with Pixies power, solid and promising but hardly a revelation. Building on the post-punk framework, the Beatings have since grown exponentially, honing their songwriting skills to razor sharpness. The songs now are much more patient, with tremolo guitars wavering around a near-drone of sound. A bit of twang pops up, but it's more of a bar band or spaghetti western feel than anything country. Lead singers Eldridge Rodriguez and Tony Skalicky have grown more comfortable with their voices and hit levels of beauty throughout the six-song EP.
"Transvestite Bar" is a definite highlight and the band's most daring composition to date. A simple banjo and organ begin the seven-minute journey through a late night "when the bars are closed/ and I can't get to sleep in my pantyhose." The song slowly fades beneath guitars and a baritone backup chorus, perfectly placing the listener's mind in the bar with the band. The final two tracks, however, hit the hardest. The amazing "Sick Day" sounds like a rough-around-the-edges Interpol; the two-and-a-half minutes of whirling guitars and intense shouted vocals will bring shivers. Closing things out is "These Will Be the Old Days Someday," a somber heartbreaker and the perfect autumnal end to a unique (and far too short) record. "As the sceneries change, you remain the same," is one haunting lyric. The Beatings, however, have changed. This is a very, very good thing. [Michael Wehunt]
Any indie rock band calling Boston, MA home inevitably has Pixies dust pumping through its veins. The Beatings have never been an exception... until now. With the release of the Midriff Records EP The Heart, The Product, The Machine & The Asshole.
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The band's debut full-length Italiano soared with Mission of Burma angularity and roared with Pixies power, solid and promising but hardly a revelation. Building on the post-punk framework, the Beatings have since grown exponentially, honing their songwriting skills to razor sharpness. The songs now are much more patient, with tremolo guitars wavering around a near-drone of sound. A bit of twang pops up, but it's more of a bar band or spaghetti western feel than anything country. Lead singers Eldridge Rodriguez and Tony Skalicky have grown more comfortable with their voices and hit levels of beauty throughout the six-song EP.
"Transvestite Bar" is a definite highlight and the band's most daring composition to date. A simple banjo and organ begin the seven-minute journey through a late night "when the bars are closed/ and I can't get to sleep in my pantyhose." The song slowly fades beneath guitars and a baritone backup chorus, perfectly placing the listener's mind in the bar with the band. The final two tracks, however, hit the hardest. The amazing "Sick Day" sounds like a rough-around-the-edges Interpol; the two-and-a-half minutes of whirling guitars and intense shouted vocals will bring shivers. Closing things out is "These Will Be the Old Days Someday," a somber heartbreaker and the perfect autumnal end to a unique (and far too short) record. "As the sceneries change, you remain the same," is one haunting lyric. The Beatings, however, have changed. This is a very, very good thing. [Michael Wehunt]
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