#tristan deck

[fairweathermyth]

THE BETHS "Straight Line Was a Lie" on World Cafe Live

The Beths has always been a band with rules. You know, no synthesizers, no tempos below X [...] everyone sings and plays at the same time. This structure has always been part of what we do [...] The structure facilitates the creative side.

[ringtiledlemur]

Queen knows his worth

[march32nd]

[spilladabalia]

The Beths - "No Joy"

[thebowerypresents]

The Beths – Webster Hall – February 23, 2022

New Zealand indie-rock outfit the Beths’ North American tour came through the East Village, with an upbeat, energetic show at a rapt Webster Hall on Wednesday night.

(The Beths play Underground Arts in Philadelphia tonight.)

(The Beths play the Royale in Boston on Saturday.)

Photos courtesy of Toby Tenenbaum | @TobyTenenbaum

[twinkandwink]

Poppy & Jangly, a night with The Beths - The Fleece, Bristol 17th May 2019

Track: Less Than Thou

[twinkandwink]

Poppy & Jangly, a night with The Beths - The Fleece, Bristol 17th May 2019

[sinceileftyoublog]

The Beths Live Preview: 5/22, Facebook

Photo by Mason Fairey

BY JORDAN MAINZER

The Beths’ Future Me Hates Me was one of our favorite albums of 2018. When we interviewed lead vocalist and guitarist Elizabeth Stokes and vocalist/guitarist Jonathan Pearce about it, the band was entrenched in the Auckland music scene and at the point where they could still get away with playing at some DIY venues when touring. Many headline tours and high-profile opening slots later, with music being the band’s full-time job, Stokes and company wrestle with the social price of all that hard work, time spent away from home and friends, on their upcoming album Jump Rope Gazers, out in July via Carpark. So far, the band’s released the album’s first two tracks: opener “I’m Not Getting Excited”, a fuzzy pop song where Stokes’ inner voice tells her to temper her expectations associated with success, and “Dying To Believe”, the band’s typical picture-perfect pop tones combined with Stokes’ reflection, vulnerability, and anxiety. “I’m sorry for the way that I can’t hold conversations / They’re such a fragile thing to try to support the weight of,” she sings, clarifying, “It’s not that I don’t think that my point of view is valid / It’s just that I can’t stand the sound of my own patterns / They always look backwards from the way that I imagine.” She’s always been head-on even with abstract concepts of self, and never so much as here.

Where Jump Rope Gazers is a big leap from Future Me Hates Me is instrumentally. The band’s power pop, chugging, distorted guitar riffs drive “Acrid” and “Don’t Go Away”, while there’s a sense of spacious nostalgia and melancholy to the lovelorn, dreamy title track, breezy, strummed, and shimmering “Do You Want Me Now”, and acoustic “You Are a Beam of Light”. And “Out of Sight” is the first Beths song with bonafide pop punk instrumentation, stellar guitar solos and limber drum fills setting them fittingly alongside the other #RiotFestAtHome bands. Ultimately, what should shine through during their Facebook live stream tonight at 7 PM CST are Stokes’ words. There’s always a sense of magic to the more positive and devotional words--“I keep a flame burning inside if you need to bum a light,” she sings on “Out of Sight”--though her best lines are always hilariously grounded. On the title track, she sings, “I’ve never been the dramatic type / But if I don’t see your face tonight / I...well, I guess I’ll be fine.” A quarantine anthem if there ever was one.