Funky songs and upbeat lyrics mark the style of the Beta Band

  www.betaband.com The men of the Beta Band, who have been
touring the past year in support of their acclaimed 2001 release
"Hot Shots II", will perform this weekend at the Coachella
festival.

By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

It’s a well known fact that the Beta Band sells at least
five albums every time one of its songs is played. Or, at least
that’s the contention made by John Cusack’s “High
Fidelity” record store owner when he famously puts on the
Beta Band’s tune “Dry the Rain.”

So, the band’s appearance at the Coachella festival this
weekend stands to be a profitable one.

“That’s the main objective. It’s really hard
to get people to hear our music. In Britain, national radio’s
not really picking up on our music. We’ve got a fan base, but
it’s really difficult to break. We know when folks hear it,
they’ll like it. It’s kind of the same over here, it
was great doing the Radiohead thing cause it just turned loads of
folk on to our music. So, hopefully Coachella will make a few folk
new fans,” said John Maclean, the Beta Band’s decks and
samples man, referring to the band’s opening slot on
Radiohead’s last U.S. tour.

The Beta Band, includes Maclean, its vocalist and guitarist
Steve Mason, Robin Jones on drums, and Richard Greentree playing
bass, with all members contributing on percussion. Known for their
layered percussion and quirky samples over groove-based tunes with
upbeat lyrics, the Beta Band has been touring in support of its
acclaimed 2001 release “Hot Shots II” for over a year
now.

The festival atmosphere of Coachella will not allow fans to get
the whole Beta Band experience, which usually includes video
footage and a club vibe that are meant to enhance the music. Some
of the things that restrict the band at a festival are also things
that make a festival exciting.

“Being outdoors. I mean I don’t know what it’s
like over there (in the United States), but we’ve done
festivals in Britain when the sun’s coming down and stuff and
it’s kind of heightened,” Maclean said. “And I
think the kind of music we play suits festivals as well.”

Since the release of its “Three E.P.’s,” the
men of the Beta Band have been busy lads. They have released two
full length albums and maintained a heavy touring schedule. The
current tour marks the final American push that the band’s
managers felt it needed to make to supplement the success of
“Hot Shots II.”

To achieve a similar sound to its “Hot Shots” studio
recordings, the Beta Band tours with two drum kits onstage and uses
various samples.

“Generally, the songs are better live than they are on
“˜Hot Shots.’ Normally, they take a step up,”
Maclean said. “We just sort of make it slightly more upbeat
and we add bits. I mean, they’re not that different but
everyone says they somehow come across more live.”

The setlist for the shows does not vary extensively from date to
date, as the band feels it has found the optimum order for the
songs. Working with the current setlist results in having fun on
stage and getting a good audience reaction, but it has become
slightly frustrating for the band. It hasn’t had enough time
to rehearse old songs to work them into the shows, let alone debut
any new material.

Not that the tour has been totally boring or lacking surprises.
At one recent show, the whole block the venue was on had a power
outage. To compensate, the band took the stage and played an five
song acoustic set.

“It worked when everyone was really quiet,” Maclean
said.

The band was also surprised to find some of the songs emerge
from the setlist as more epic than others. According to Maclean,
“Al Sharp” was a small song when the band first started
playing it, but has since become a consistent crowd enthralling
opener for the first encore.

After it finishes this tour, the Beta Band is finally going to
get a chance to go into the studio to start working out new
material. While the members don’t have a specific vision yet
for what they want the new album to sound like, some inspiration
has been found from their time on the road.

“I think we want to capture some of the vibe we get when
we play live. We haven’t really done that yet,” Maclean
said. “We’ve never really got the energy and the
liveness on records. We’ve mainly concentrated on studio
sounds on the past. That might be an angle, trying to record some
of the energy we get on stage.”

The Beta Band has been plagued in Britain by constantly being
compared back to its first major release, “The Three
E.P.’s.” Their follow up, an eponymous full-length
album, was not as well received, and was a difficult album to
record. According to Maclean, the recording process was soured by
an ill-chosen producer, the band’s own ill-preparedness to
make a full album and pressure to make one of the all-time great
albums. Then came “Hot Shots II,” which Maclean cited
as a fun album to record after the darker “Beta Band”
sessions.

The reception for the Beta Band’s “Hot Shots
II” has been more positive in the United States than in
Britain. Maclean attributes this to Britain’s current retro
fetish, and the Beta Band’s desire to push its music
forward.

“We’ve got the idea of trying to look to the future
with music, and try to experiment and try to keep it groovy and
funky,” Maclean said. “We’re not trying to
capture something the Beach Boys did or the Velvet Underground did,
like a lot of bands seem to be doing in the rock world in Britain
at the moment.”