Day 174. I continue going to the post office to mail Macguffins CDs. Thanks again to everyone! I hope this trend continues! You know, if I get to sell records it means I can put out more records!!
Grids & Dots: this Sydney pop band sounds great! Their latest song is called “The Great Divide” and I am already a fan. I hope it gets released properly. The band is formed by Carmen Minikus, Daniel Handaru and Pat Hisshion.
Agent Blå: the great Gothenburg band is back with just one song, “Frustrated”. It is great, as usual. I don’t have much more to say, this band continues to release great tunes.
Kodiak Galaxy: another Australian band, this time from Melbourne. This shoegazy dreampop band has just released digitally an album called “A Bad Time for Dreamers”. It has 10 songs and I do think it’d be great if there’s a physical version eventually!
The Infinite Daisy Chains: now to the US, to Washington DC. Ian Dandrige and his wife Kristina Westernik-Dandrige are the people behind the music, and they have just released a new song called “Memory Lane”, a superb dreamy song.
Heavy Sigh: and now to New Jersey. Here we discover this five-piece that is releasing their album “Hard to Care” on October 20th. It seems the album will be released digitally. No physical release. In any case we can preview 1 out of the 10 songs. So yeah, go check out “Downtime, All the Time”!
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I discovered The Beatifics through their 2002 album “The Way We Never Were” on Bus Stop Label (BUS1020). It was actually their third and last album. And it is in this album that they wrote the song “February” thus fulfilling my challenge for the month of February. But let’s see what we can find about this classic Minneapolis band!
This last album included 10 songs, “Sorry Yesterdays”, “After All”, “February”, “The Only One”, “When It’s Whenever”, “Different Stars”, “In the Meantime”, “Between the Lines”, “Pt. 2” and “Outro”.
As I am starting with their latest album, I’ll go backwards. Maybe that make sense, their first album is the one many people consider a true classic. Well then, the 2nd album was called “In the Meantime”. Well, it wasn’t really an album. More of a mini-album or EP. It came out 2001 on The Bus Stop Label (BUS1016). The songs on this record were “In the Meantime”, “Different Stars”, “This Year’s Jessica (Again)”, “Outro” and “Longest Day of Summer”. These songs were recorded at Seedy Underbelly, Third Ear, Wigged Out, Albatross, Salmagundi, City Cabin and at home. The songs were produced by Chris Dorn and Eric Kassel.
We also know that the band members were Paul Novak on bass, Chris Dorn on vocals and guitar, Andy Schultz on guitar and Randy Seals on drums. On this album though they had Jacques Wait (France Has the Bomb, Pink Mink, Rank Strangers, The Twilight Hours, Tina & the Total Babes, The Sycamores, Magnatone) playing bass on a few tracks and Keely Lane (Ol’ Yeller, Trailer Trash) playing drums in a couple.
As I mentioned their first album “How I Learned to Stop Worrying” is a true classic. It came out in 1996 on TRG Records (TRG 89338). It had 9 super songs, “Almost Something There”, “Something/Anything?”, “This Year’s Jessica”, “Without a Doubt”, “Last Thing on My Mind”, “Happy to Be Sad”, “Crazy Lovesick Heart”, “Those Kids” and “Read You Wrong”. On this record we see a lot of guest musicians including Ben Wilinski, Andy Sullivan, JimJim Vandalia, Todd Newman, Jay Bennett, Betsy Stodola, Devin Hill, Hans Buff, Tom Rosenthal and Dan Sarka. Were they part of the Minneapolis scene? And speaking of Minneapolis scene, were they close to Grimsey Records?
Anyways, again the band would record in many places including Salmagundi Studios, Synergy Studios, Harper Street, Third Ear Recording, The Ranch and City Cabin. The songs would be mixed at Synergy Studios. The producer was again Chris Dorn with Dave Kent as the engineer.
I’ll return to this album in a bit. Now I have to mention a few other releases by the band and compilation appearances. First there was a 2007 split 7″ with The Deaths on Miniature Record Club. The band would contribute the song “Yeah Yeah” and appear on the B side. Then there is a 7″ on Tallboy Records (TABOY002) sometime in the 2000s. This one included two songs, “Longest Day of Summer” on the A side and “Had to Run Around” on the B side. This last song was a cover of Emitt Rhodes. Another thing I notice is that Keely Lane is the drummer on both songs. Maybe in the end Randy Seals was replaced?
In the compilation department they appeared on at least 11 different records. In 1996 they had “Almost Something There” on the TRG Records compilation CD “Precious Moments: The Big Sound of Now: Volume 2 a TRG Sampler” (TRG 893462). That same year this same song would appear on “The B.L.A.S.T. Modern Rock Program #22” CD compilation on S.I.N. Both of these releases were for promo purposes.
In 1997 the band would have their song “Almost Something There” on 2 compilations, first on “Sam Goody Samples Minnesota” and then on Not Lame Recordings’ comp “The World’s Best Power Pop Compilation… Really!” (NL-0038). That same year, “Happy to be Sad” appeared on Yesterday Girl’s CD compilation “Pop Under the Surface” (YES 001).
1998 would have their track “This Year’s Jessica ’98” on Lazy Cat’s “Somewhere Down the Road” (SCOP-01) CD. In 1999 their song “Rock and Roll Part 3” would be included on the “Teenster” compilation put together by Back of a Car magazine.
In 2001 they would work again with Yesterday Girl. They would contribute their song “Meantime” to the compilation “Pop Greetings Volume Three – Minnesota” (YES 006). That same year their song “Longest Days of Summer” would be on “Hit the Hay Vol. 5” double CD compilation put together by Sound Asleep Records (ZZZ011) and the track “Sorry Yesterday” would show up on “What’s Up Buttercup” (MEOW 05) a compilation by Lazy Cat. Lastly in 2002 Not Lame Recordings’ would include them on a compilation called “Right to Chews” with their song “Superman”.
A new label called Grandma Camp Records would contact the band in 2015 and would eventually release the first album “How I Learned to Stop Worrying” as a 20th anniversary release on vinyl in 2016. There is a bit of a story of how this come together on the blog “Pop Music as Pornography“. To make it special it would include a 10” vinyl record called “Live on Vin Scelsa’s Idiot’s Delight”. Indeed the 8 songs on this record were recorded at Vin Scelsa’s show on WNEW-FM in New York on April 20, 1997. Here we see the original lineup of the band and they recorded these songs, “Almost Something There”, “Something/Anything?”, “This Year’s Jessica” and “All Your Former Boyfriends” on the A side; “Happy to Be Sad”, “Last Thing On My Mind”, “Longest Days of Summer” and “Junior’s Farm” on the B side. The engineers were David Vanderheyden and Paul Altemus. This release, to my surprise, seems to be available still on the band’s Bandcamp!
From what I understand buying this release also gives you access to rare demos by the pre-Beatifics band The Rockerfellers! Oh! I’d love to hear these. I should order this soon. I just spent quite a bit of money, but I think I can make the effort.
Googling to find any other details I see a ton of reviews of their records. But I am looking for details really. Like where in the world did they play live. What are they up to these days. Are there unreleased tracks by The Beatifics. Where does their name comes from. That sort of details.
In Youtube I find the band playing the song “Those Kids” on February 13, 1998, in Mesa, Arizona! The only other good find on Youtube a video of the band playing 7 minutes at the Hex in Minneapolis. Can’t say when was this recorded though.
On Soundcloud there is a live concert (about 30 min.) of what was “Live in Minnesota“. This was a benefit gig for local musician Dan Boardman and The Beatifics were part of it alongside Stingray Green and Magnatone.
Then I find a book called “The Hopefuls: Chasing a Rock n’ Roll Dream in the Minnesota Music Scene”. This book mentions that a Heath Henjum was part of The Beatifics at some point. I believe he would replace Jacques Wait.
And that is it when it comes to The Beatifics. For sure I learned a lot about them. I must admit I didn’t know their first record touched so many people. I am really impressed by the amount of posts on the internet about this record and the praise it gets. I discovered it much later of course. I wonder if I had listened to it in 1996 I would have written posts about it on the previous blog I used to have.
Now I have to order the re-release of their classic album and of course hope that someone can tell where are The Beatifics now!
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