Brighton, MA
The Flawed Men That Become
Dec 10, 2008
Words by Sean Moeller
Illustration by Johnnie Cluney
Sound engineering by Mike Gentry
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Welcome to Daytrotter
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Not Our Fault
original version appears on Amateur Lovers
One of the first tunes finished for Amateur Lovers, "Not Our Fault" came together as naturally in our living room as it did in the studio. Devon ended up recording the drums in lieu of Sam's absence that afternoon giving the tune a distinctive sound. This take, with Sam back on kit, doesn't rely as heavily on space-echo violins, duct-taped piano strings, or synths as the album version does.
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Fare Thee Well
unreleased
We tried two new songs which we've enjoyed playing at our recent live shows. As yet unreleased, these tunes were written in our brief but productive 4-piece lineup this past summer. With "Fare Thee Well," we chose to work through a set of dynamics driven by the vocal phrase. These dynamics, along with rhythmic variations and harmonic shifts between verses, allows the form to constantly move forward rather than rely on a strict verse-chorus relationship. Probably the biggest departure from how we write and think about a song, "Fare Thee Well" represents a new sound we will be working with on our next record.
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Underground
original version appears on Amateur Lovers
Originally a slow ballad, this tune was debuted at a Matt Kerstein solo show at Schubas in Chicago. When the band got a hold of it, we worked through a new arrangement playing it in double-time. With a constant quarter-note pulse a la "Paint It Black" on the drums, we were able to open up the arrangement to two rhythmically-intricate electric guitar parts. Lyrically, the song was inspired by an old photo of Churchill's residence during the Blitz where sat a proper dining table set for tea in a room that had been turned into a bomb-shelter.
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Sweet Delusions
unreleased
That "new sound" was discovered while drunk and trying to locate the seemingly forgotten art of "jamming." With a drum and bass groove that never lets up, raunchy Neil-Young-like riffing, and lyrics that reference our friends in the Warm Ones, this "bad jam" has become our go-to show-closer in recent months.
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Sunblinded
original version appears on Amateur Lovers
"Sunblinded" was penned in the cold winter of 2007 after a brief tour with Elvis Perkins and completely transformed the idea of what kind of record we planned on making. Perkins' approach to songwriting specifically his melodic ideas and performance intensity gave more than its fair share of inspiration for us. And while this song isn't in Elvis' "style," we can hear his influence. The lyrics bring together the disjointed but blissful feeling of John Cale's "Sun Blindness Music" and the idea of losing ones sense of stability by leaving "the gold standard."
A man who runs with the wolves - or a pack of men who run with the wolves - are most notably of a different breed. They are of a different cut and wake up in mornings with the aftertaste of blood that kind of reminds the buds of pennies, along with the red meat it came from and cockleburs stuck into their greasy and matted hair and there's a constant consternation of how it all happened, again.
It's a reoccurring scenario after the dreams have been killed, put down for another night's sleep during the broad part of the day, for that's when the exhaustion sets in and things get blurry around the curling edges. Brighton, MA is a band that runs with these very wolves and operates under brilliant night lights, just letting the feelings and the temperatures act themselves out in their music as if they can control them little more than one can control a flood or an ice storm. It's as if they have no choice in the matter, getting overtaken by some of these grander ideas of personal legitimacy, making good on love and the passage of time that somewhere along the way turns it into history. People, whether they let themselves do it or not, have so much that they can think deeply about that should stop them stiff in their tracks and all of the riddles and puzzling combinations of others, their words and letters, that living throws at them should be draining.
Matt Kerstein and his crack squad of players - guitarist Jim Turek, bassist Devon Bryant and drummer Sam Koentopp - sink themselves into a general mood that feels like sad chandeliers, a cold frost and men sipping glasses of brandy or whiskey in glasses that are almost always empty and in rooms that are dimmed and staring back with an anxious tension. The songs on Amateur Lovers and their new brothers are a combination of these scenes and the anticlimactic (or most interesting) narratives that have shown the characters as the flawed, yet resiliently trying men that everyone starts out as and winds up as through no lack of effort. These are thoughts that build into a kettle of steam that announce their presence over the course of time, seeping out slowly without the whistle. These are thoughts that one catches himself thinking and knows not where they came from or how they found him, just that they're right or they're more right than wrong. Kerstein has one of the most engaging voices and lyrical minds anywhere and Brighton, MA has already made an album that should be recognized, not necessarily alongside other albums that are marveled over, but sharing quarters with prized literature, the pleasure and pain of solitude and mankind's corrupt beauty.
Brighton MA MySpace Page
