The Be Helds - Volume 1
No matter how many times I listen to the Be Helds' debut Volume 1, I can't shake the feeling that I've heard it before. That's not necessarily an insult. Well, no, it's not an insult at all. Records like Volume 1 are the musical equivalent of Brigadoon to me. Every few years the garage rock revival gets a shot of steam and WHOOP!, another pretty great record appears out of the mists. This ain't no King Kahn or Black Monk Time, but where the Be Helds lack some of that special weirdness, they gain a hell of a lot of points for speed. I mean, they kinda jumped out of the ashes of the Cruel World Dream Band overnight with a fully realized set and an album almost in the can. Said album is now released online (like just about everything these days) and it's been floating around the KBGA offices and some of the local "heads" for weeks now. Good job dudes. There's tons of potential here. Like, tons. I think the Be Helds have done something that's deceptively hard to do. "Garage rock" in at least the commonly used sense of the term, usually refers to stuff like Them or early 'Stones or stuff like that: simple rock & roll that's been borrowing heavily from the R & B playbook. It's hard to write in a genre that's nearly fifty years old and still do something interesting. Just look at all the idiots still scatting. For the most part, the Be Helds are succeeding. The sound may not be theirs per se, but they've made it theirs. It sounds to me that these dudes just want to write fun songs about hanging out and girls etc. etc. They do that. In fact they do it pretty well. I may be predisposed to weirder stuff but this just isn't that kinda record. It's really straightforward. The songwriting is quick and without a whole lot of surprises (the whistling in "This World Ain't Mine" or the harmonica in "Leave It Be" are two notable exceptions) but it's still good and at the very least these two can write a ton of catchy melodies. Their strengths lie in something more ephemeral: every song captures an abandon that's just hard not to smile in the face of.
Recorded by Chris Baumann, Volume 1 is available for a "name your price" download from their Bandcamp page.
<a href="http://thebehelds.bandcamp.com/track/leave-it-be" _mce_href="http://thebehelds.bandcamp.com/track/leave-it-be">Leave It Be by The Be Helds</a>
<a href="http://thebehelds.bandcamp.com/track/girl-from-my-head" _mce_href="http://thebehelds.bandcamp.com/track/girl-from-my-head">Girl From My Head by The Be Helds</a>
<a href="http://thebehelds.bandcamp.com/track/whose-afternoon" _mce_href="http://thebehelds.bandcamp.com/track/whose-afternoon">Whose Afternoon by The Be Helds</a>