Wow. My mind is blown. My world is rocked. And nothing will ever be the same. Sitting down to write this piece about “Dry the Rain,” the penultimate Beta Band song from their 1998 album The Three EP’s, I had planned to reminisce about how it was my go-to song in college on days when I felt everything falling apart around me, on days when I felt destined to stumble and crash, on days when everything seemed doomed. Along with The Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” I found it particularly comforting during any post-exam comedown, a jittery mix of nerves, fatigue, and fatalism. The Beatles would sing to me about how “life goes on,” and I’d start to fell better about my perceived impending failure. The Beta Band would sing to me that “I will be alright,” and the future wouldn’t seem so bleak or foreboding…except that’s not what they were singing to me.
Damn near 20 years later, and it turns out I was mishearing the lyric all this time. The line is not “I will be alright.” The line is “I will be your light.” A quick Google search just completely took the wind out of me. I don’t know what anything means anymore. Someone just exploded a bomb in my head.
I’m not sure where to go from here. I’ve got some soul searching to do.
This is going to be a crazy busy week for me trying to get everything done with work and prep for Christmas before my holiday break starts on Friday. In the past, the mellow sounds of The Beta Band always got me through the frenzy. So here they are with "Needles in My Eyes," our Daily Jam.
We've had a 40 degree shift in temperature here since yesterday afternoon, and it's pretty damn cold now. Gonna work and listen to The Beta Band for a little while. Dig on the weirdness and the "Black Hole" sample on "It's Not Too Beautiful" below, our Daily Jam.
And now for a little music from The Beta Band. Their oft hypnotic mix of psych folk and other weirdness takes me back to college every time i listen. Here's "She's the One," our Daily Jam.
There was a brief moment in time when i was in college that i was just a little bit obsessed with the weird sounds of The Beta Band. Groove with me with "I Know," our Daily Jam.
One of my favorite bands to come out of the late 90's was UK experimental pop act The Beta Band ("Dry the Rain" is probably one of my favorite songs of all time). Part pop, part folk, part psych, part prog, part trip-hop, their run was all too brief. At any rate, former Beta Band member Steve Mason has just released a new solo effort entitled "Monkey Minds in the Devil's Time," and it's pretty damn good. Elements of The Beta Band are definitely there, but there's much more of political feel on these new songs, as most certainly evidenced by the track "Fight Them Back," as well as the accompanying video. Check that out below and get the record from Double Six.
