Beulah - Burned By The Sun: The Best Of Beulah (2003)

Beulah was an American indie rock band from San Francisco, California, formed by Miles Kurosky and Bill Swan in 1996, while the pair were working in the same office. They discovered that they shared similar musical tastes and, disregarding some mutual dislike, decided to form a band. This early incarnation of Beulah recorded a song every six weeks for 16 months on their four-track recorder, and they eventually received attention from The Apples in Stereo frontman and Elephant 6 member Robert Schneider, who expressed interest on releasing what was to be their first single, 'A Small Cattle Drive In A Snow Storm', on Elephant 6 Records. Their first album, 'Handsome Western States', was released in the same year, also on Elephant 6 and mastered by Schneider, and the record soon sold out. This association with the collective has continued throughout their career, despite the fact that Beulah did not release anything more on the label. In order to tour in support of the album, the duo added Steve La Follette, Steve St. Cin and Pat Noel to the line-up, and they played their first shows in support of the Apples In Stereo. Their second album, 'When Your Heartstrings Break', followed two years later to critical acclaim, mainly because the sound of the band had changed to become a bit more polished, and they now incorporated several dozen instruments, using eighteen additional musicians, and with strings and horns now being heavily incorporated. Also at this time, the band added keyboardist Bill Evans to its line-up. As the band were picking up sales of their second album in the UK, Shifty Disco Records released two U.K.-only singles in 1999, 'Sunday Under Glass' and 'Score From Augusta', with 'Emma Blowgun's Last Stand' released the following year. 

These singles featured b-sides culled from 'Handsome Western States', which at the time was unreleased in the U.K., until 2000 further copies were made available by the band in 1999, with different artwork. The band continued to tour extensively throughout 1999, taking a break in 2000, after which Steve St. Cin left the band and was replaced by Danny Sullivan, best known from his days in Screeching Weasel. Kurosky went to Japan, staying with a friend for eight weeks, and wrote the songs that would eventually turn into Beulah's third album. He mailed demo tapes of the songs to each band member, who mailed back their own versions of, and additions to, the songs, with Kurosky turning these recordings into the basis of the band's new record, 'The Coast Is Never Clear'. During the recording process, however, Kurosky was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and took daily therapy sessions, which informed the lyrical mood of the record, making some of the incredibly downbeat lyrics very much at odds with the breezy, summery feel of the music. When recording was complete, Beulah encountered problems with the release of the album, as their record label Capricorn Records, which had signed them after 'When Your Heartstrings Break' was released, was bought out. In the end, the record was released on newly founded independent label Velocette Records in September 2001, and once again it gained a great degree of critical acclaim, with the band continuing to tour, despite having to cancel its European dates that winter. Shortly after the release of the record, Steve La Follette and Bill Evans left the band and were replaced by Eli Crews and Pat Abernathy. 2002 saw the then-out-of-print 'Handsome Western States' repressed for the third time, along with another U.S. tour, after which the band settled into rehearsing material for its next album. 

The period surrounding the conception of 'Yoko' was one of great personal strife for the band: Kurosky separated from his longtime girlfriend, and three of the six band members went through divorce. Amid this, the foundations of the group appeared to be shaking, with  rumours of a break-up being rife. The mood of the album was therefore much darker, and the band phased back much of its instrumentation, preferring to create more of a live sound than layering multiple overdubs atop the mix. The album took a much rockier direction than previous releases, but on its release in 2003 it attracted a similar lauding that had greeted their previous two records. At this time, Beulah appeared to be falling apart, with cryptic messages alluding to a break-up appearing on their website, and the band itself stated that if 'Yoko' did not achieve gold status, its members would split. Though it received the best reviews of the band's career, the record failed to achieve gold status, and so true to their word, the band split up after one final tour. Beulah were always one of my favourite power-pop groups of the early 2000's, when the genre seemed to be producing great new bands every few months, in particular the Elephant 6 collective mentioned earlier. This collection of some of their best work will introduce you to a band which quickly scaled the heights, only to cruelly fall apart and just be remembered by those few loyal fans that they picked up along the way.  

Track listing

01 A Good Man Is Easy To Kill (from 'The Coast Is Never Clear' 2001)
02 Landslide Baby (from 'Yoko' 2003)
03 Shotgun Dedication (from 'Handsome Western States' 1997)
04 Matter vs. Space (from 'When Your Heartstrings Break' 1999)
05 You're Only King Once (from 'Yoko' 2003)
06 Gene Autry (from 'The Coast Is Never Clear' 2001)
07 I've Been Broken (I've Been Fixed) (from 'Handsome Western States' 1997)
08 Emma Blowgun's Last Stand (from 'When Your Heartstrings Break' 1999)
09 The Battle Cry Of The West (b-side of the 'Popular Mechanics For Lovers' single 2001)
10 My Side Of The City (from 'Yoko' 2003)
11 Burned By The Sun (from 'The Coast Is Never Clear' 2001)
12 If We Can Land A Man On The Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart (from 'When Your

                                                                                                           Heartstrings Break' 1999)
13 Dig The Subatomic Holdout #2 (from 'Handsome Western States' 1997)
14 Wipe Those Prints And Run (from 'Yoko' 2003)
15 Weight Of My Tears (b-side of the 'Popular Mechanics For Lovers' single 2001)
16 Gravity Is Bringing Us Down (from 'The Coast Is Never Clear' 2001)