The crux of the indie pop movement centers on what side the band comes down on. Choose your weapon: Rubber Soul/Revolver-era Beatles, or Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys. The Elephant 6 music collective (of which Beulah is a card carrying member) is united on giving props to these classic bands. The formula is simple: catchy melodies, strong hooks, and a heavy dose of fun. The problem: bands tend to tread dangerously close to the precipice of mimicry. Thus, approaching each new E6 release is accompanied by trepidation (“Is this stuff just novelty?”)

Beulah’s 1997 debut, Handsome Western States, found the band loving the Beatles, although they mixed up the formula with a healthy injection of post-Pavement indie rock. Robert Schneider (The Apples in Stereo and E6 guru) gushed over the record, dropping it into every interview and heavy rotation playlist he could. While that is all and good, the record showed promise, but didn’t really deliver.

The band returns in 1999 with When Your Heartstrings Break and kick the notion of a sophomore slump in the butt. Where Handsome Western States was fairly decent, this record lives up to Schneider’s hype (the man is a visionary right?!?). Beulah builds on the minimalist guitar wanking and fuzz bass of the debut by adding a bunch of horns (not just brass but clarinet), keyboards/electronic blippery, all sorts of percussion (from tambourine to sleigh bells to handclaps), even accordion and harp. There are eighteen guest musicians on the record.

What makes WYHB so compelling and glorious is the ability of the band to run the gamut of the Beatles/Beach Boys classic pop while kicking out the jams ala pre-millennial Pavement-esque indie rock. “Score from Augusta” begins with horns, but the chorus quickly rocks driven by all out fuzz bass. “Calm Go to the Wild Seas” is a baroque pop number with Pet Sounds bass/organ breakdowns. “Ballad of the Lonely Argonaut” finds Beulah riding into town on the fresh, new indie rock sound being espoused by bands such as Creeper Lagoon. The melodies rise and fall like Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, but more smoothly. Beulah’s strength is its ability to easily transition from classic pop (especially the Beach Boys) into catchy indie rock. Songs revolve, turn, twist, and meld into an utterly 21^st century sound.

Fellow E6ers, Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control, have made a name for themselves with out there trippiness and left field musical antics. Beulah finds themselves more conservative and straight ahead. There is a definite geeky quirkiness to the record, but it doesn’t bog the record down. The balance is struck, and achieved effortlessly. The use of a variety of instruments, layered incredibly, is tempered by the California cool vocals of Miles Kurosky.

This record is 100% California. The production is crisp (especially for a so-called “lo-fi” recording), the feel is summer time fun. Obviously, this is due to Beulah’s use of Beach Boys trickery, but, more accurately, due to the warm melodies and good time lyrics, which are utterly clever and intelligently humorous without being goofy novlety. The band finds itself namedropping writers Harte and Twain, fashionable when mentioning chinos, and poking fun at themselves. The lyrics to “If We Can Land a Man on the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart” are equally as humorous as the title. Beulah lets the listener know that the “customer is always right” (check this out: “All you need is a pretty song… If you wanna sing, tell me what you wanna sing and I will play… If you want we’ll change the sound… Anything you that you want, all we want from you is a word or two… If we sell out, oh, oh well”).

Eleven songs, at just over thirty-four minutes is perfect. Never a tiring listen, actually it begs to played again and again. The band pratically begs anyway (on “If We Can Land…” again): “So sing our songs, and for applause we’ll get up, get up!” There is no need to beg boys! With tunes as infectious, hooky, and solid as these, we are singing along!

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