"If you’re the sort of person who reads this blog regularly, you probably know where Radiohead got their name from; but can you tell where Dallas boys The Vliets (pronounced like “vleets”) got theirs? If this seems like a very obvious question to you, then congratulations: you officially have some serious musical chops. If not, I wouldn’t worry. The answer is that they’re named after Don Van Vliet, better known to the world as Captain Beefheart. Pretty cool, huh? If I’m honest, I’ve never managed to listen to a whole Beefheart album without my brain turning to mush, but then I guess that’s the point. There was something about a valley and wind singing? I dunno.
Anyway, if the name didn’t make it obvious, Vliet’s front-man Ty Bohrnstedt is a bit of a Beefheart fan – in fact, the Captain is his “favourite artist, second to The Beatles, of course”. Of course. It’s a great travesty that, to this day, people still have to specify how much they love The Beatles: why doesn’t it just go without saying? Since this is analogous to saying that the religious figure you most admire is Jesus himself, it shouldn’t be too surprising that The Vliets make some pretty damn fine music.
In theory, they’re a five-piece, but they take a slightly unusual approach to how they do things: each band-member writes and records their own songs in their entirety, and the other members only get involved for live gigs. I’m entirely behind this: so many bands are dominated and often destroyed by one or two members holding complete creative sway, whereas this seems to give every member a chance to shine. Debut EP “The Vliets” is all Ty’s work, so we’ll just have to wait and see what sort of direction Dan Gonzalez, Luke Ferrell, Jonathon Merla and Adham El-Effendi take things. Between them they play pretty much every instrument under the sun – half the time they seem to have taught each other – so expect it to be pretty varied.
Focusing on Ty’s work for the moment, then: I was really impressed. He certainly has good taste – cited influences include John Frusciante, The Kinks, Radiohead, Beck, Neil Young … the collective quality of whom could probably be summed up as “stellar” without ruffling too many feathers. What really counts, of course, is that you can hear the influences. The opening of “Beneath The Paisley Sky” is more than a little similar to Paul McCartney’s “Every Night”; the rest of the track features classic “White Album”-era riffing. “A Vessel Of Cells Without An Ego, Hardly One” has the same droning feel as “Morning Mr Magpie” (Yes, that’s a “King Of Limbs” reference; no, I don’t apologise.); while the EP as a whole has the same mash of blues and modern oddities as “Odelay”.
So far, so good. Like I say, I’m looking forward to hearing the different approaches taken by the other members, but Ty has certainly kicked things off with a bang – and he’s only 24, damn him. The EP’s opening track “Elephant” has maxed out its downloads over on Soundcloud (you’ll know why when you hear it), but you can download it below, along with the rest of the EP. Trust me when I say it’s totally worth your time" (Vía: listenbeforeyoubuy.net)
Anyway, if the name didn’t make it obvious, Vliet’s front-man Ty Bohrnstedt is a bit of a Beefheart fan – in fact, the Captain is his “favourite artist, second to The Beatles, of course”. Of course. It’s a great travesty that, to this day, people still have to specify how much they love The Beatles: why doesn’t it just go without saying? Since this is analogous to saying that the religious figure you most admire is Jesus himself, it shouldn’t be too surprising that The Vliets make some pretty damn fine music.
In theory, they’re a five-piece, but they take a slightly unusual approach to how they do things: each band-member writes and records their own songs in their entirety, and the other members only get involved for live gigs. I’m entirely behind this: so many bands are dominated and often destroyed by one or two members holding complete creative sway, whereas this seems to give every member a chance to shine. Debut EP “The Vliets” is all Ty’s work, so we’ll just have to wait and see what sort of direction Dan Gonzalez, Luke Ferrell, Jonathon Merla and Adham El-Effendi take things. Between them they play pretty much every instrument under the sun – half the time they seem to have taught each other – so expect it to be pretty varied.
Focusing on Ty’s work for the moment, then: I was really impressed. He certainly has good taste – cited influences include John Frusciante, The Kinks, Radiohead, Beck, Neil Young … the collective quality of whom could probably be summed up as “stellar” without ruffling too many feathers. What really counts, of course, is that you can hear the influences. The opening of “Beneath The Paisley Sky” is more than a little similar to Paul McCartney’s “Every Night”; the rest of the track features classic “White Album”-era riffing. “A Vessel Of Cells Without An Ego, Hardly One” has the same droning feel as “Morning Mr Magpie” (Yes, that’s a “King Of Limbs” reference; no, I don’t apologise.); while the EP as a whole has the same mash of blues and modern oddities as “Odelay”.
So far, so good. Like I say, I’m looking forward to hearing the different approaches taken by the other members, but Ty has certainly kicked things off with a bang – and he’s only 24, damn him. The EP’s opening track “Elephant” has maxed out its downloads over on Soundcloud (you’ll know why when you hear it), but you can download it below, along with the rest of the EP. Trust me when I say it’s totally worth your time" (Vía: listenbeforeyoubuy.net)
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