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Issue
#85
May '06
Low Beaming:
A gradual build to a grand and glorious implosion (sexual innuendos
apply).
Slip behind the
wheel of your
’72 four door or ’60 ford galaxy – return
to a time when all that mattered
was cruisin’ with your girl/guy down by the shoreline at
dusk. Slip in “fashionable
driving songs” by Low-Beam
and be carried back to when the
most important thing in your life was clumsily getting it on in the
back seat.
Low-Beam:
Jaimee Weatherbee (voice, keyboards), CJ Stankewich (voice, guitar),
Rich Freitas (drums),
and Richard Martin (bass) suck us in with an implosion of alt. Lo Fi
– very intense,
very smooth. A laid-back assault of our senses that brings to mind
Dinosaur Jr., it lays
low, grooving, taking in life through such a mellow enraptured mood
that by the time we
realize the music is kicking ass – it is.
Implosion:
a burst inward.
You know how a band
will build a
musical structure until they just explode and blow you away? Well, Low-Beam
builds such an intricate sonic landscape (a la early Smashing Pumpkins
and Psychedelic
Furs, Joy Division, and Sonic Youth) that it carries us into an
ultra-soothing,
transcendental dreamscape until it implodes and sucks us inward. There
we find that not
only is Low-Beam an intense musical equivalent of a Quaalude, but they
also bring us
inward with a variety of lyrical genius that gets us to feel and
imagine the tales that
are unfolded. For these tales are a total mental interaction experience
set to a
soundtrack that affirms the autoerotic mystique of Low-Beam.
Low-Beam sets the
stage with Low Beaming,
gliding us into the old
cruisin’ cars of past summers, where there’s
“room in the back for a
kiss,” and as the Fuzz guitar soars erratically
above the controlled rhythm
section, the Boy/Girl harmonies vocalize the passions that are tripping
over each other -
as each tries to calmly deal with each new experience as if they were
hip to it all along.
After all, that’s why we’re so cool -
that’s why we’re along for the
ride.
Once there, Parabellum
plunges us into a soap opera of a relationship. It’s a bad
pairing from the start:
“Your interests never seemed to follow
mine/You’re eager to get into the
shade of my heart.” But a sexual fire burns, and
it turns them both on so much
that even though they can’t get along, they can’t
get away either. Feelings so
intense that a public display of their anger is un-acknowledgeable:
“What the
hell’s the problem here/Why’s everybody stare.”
Both are too stubborn
to see anything but their own point of view and are fine parting
because of it: “You
said it once/You never said it twice/You walked away and I walked
alone/You were entirely
wrong/I was entirely right/You walked away and I was fine.”
As the tension
builds, we can feel the underscore trying to reign in the sensibilities
that will keep
them both walking away - but the dam bursts and everything implodes:
“Set me on
fire and I don’t say shit/Set me on fire and I
don’t say half as much.”
There is no walking away. They melt in their uncontrollable passion,
forgetting the scene
they created (and are climaxing while those who have witnessed this
turn of events turn
away). Expertly using CJ’s and Jaimee’s Boy/Girl
vocals to characterize this
emotional conflict and harmony, Low-Beam
produces a song that mirrors
this troubled mating dance. It isn’t until after the fall of
the final crescendo,
when we hear the loud but weakening trumpet (sounding spent), that the
imagery of sexual
conquest is complete - Declaring victory, while succumbing to defeat.
Angry
and AWOL
continue to explore
troubled relationships while the music takes on a much darker Velvet
Underground texture
to collaborate with the subjects, all the while allowing
Jaime’s girl vocals to soar
over CJ’s boy vocals. But again it is the musical composition
that allows us to be
privy to these tales of passive/aggressive (Angry)
and
withdrawn/isolated (AWOL)
individuals. Down and dirty, fuzz guitar
chords flow in Angry
and bounce off walls in AWOL.
Both soar smoothly while assaulting the stories involved, lending an
eeriness and passion
that is as disturbing as it is consoling, all the while churning under
the weight of the
subjects.
Not to loose sight
of the
backseat sexual symbolism of the CD on a whole (Tracks 1 & 2
cruisin’ &
parking, track 3 getting it on, track 4 implosion/climax, track 5 and 6
the wind down),
the final two tracks lighten the subject matters a bit (still
commenting on slightly
fractured relationships), while clinging to a Lo Fi, Echo & The
Bunnymen-esque
structure. Noodling guitar and slightly buried keyboards, mixed once
again with the
conjugal Boy/Girl harmonies and a solemn rhythm section, sublimely hold
our interest while
we reach for the cigarettes, pull on our clothes, and start the car.
Should we send roses?
Nah, just hit repeat, let’s go Low Beaming again.
fashionable driving
songs by
Low-Beam
is available now for $8.98 + s/h*
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