Learn To Love: Beulah

Welcome to the first installment of Learn To Love — a new column where we introduce you to a band, year, genre, whatever. Up first: Beulah, a horn-assisted power-pop band with shades of Pavement, the Beach Boys and Big Star. While associated with Elephant Six, Beulah’s songs were more straightforward animals; the band peaked on 2001’s The Coast is Never Clear and broke up shortly after the darker, noisier Yoko. (Trivia: Michael Cera is a big fan, having used a tune in his Web series, Clark and Michael.) The film A Good Band Is Easy To Kill documents their final tour in 2003, and in the wake of BitTorrent, MySpace, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and the surge of hipster culture, it also captures perhaps the last year when being an indie band meant doing things the old-fashioned way.

Beulah – “I Love John, She Loves Paul” (from Handsome Western States, 1997): mp3
Beulah – “If We Can Land A Man On The Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart” (from When Your Heartstrings Break, 1999): mp3
Beulah – “What Will You Do When Your Suntan Fades?” (from The Coast Is Never Clear, 2001): mp3
Beulah – “My Side Of The City” (from Yoko, 2003): mp3
Beulah – “A Man Like Me” (from Yoko Demos, 2003): mp3

(Hear more Beulah on their official site)

Previously: Bootleg: Beulah – Live at KCRW 9.25.01

Please send your suggestions for future Learn To Love columns to rawkblog at gmail dot com. Happy Halloween!

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Learn To Love: An introduction to awesome. Every Friday.