Chet

Chet keeps the love of music

close to home

If you see the name Chet on a gig poster and your curiosity is piqued, don’t expect a tribute to the asshole brother from Weird Science. With a wheezing Acetone organ, sparse drumming and a crisp, chiming guitar backing up a truly unique vocal delivery, Chet will make even the most jaded of listeners swoon.

You need look no further than “The Cave,” a track from Chet’s The Tiger Is In The Window, to understand what Victoria’s best new band is all about. “He is your brother and kin,” tells listeners that Chet is a family affair (brothers Ryan and Patrick Beattie share organ, guitar and vocal duties, while friend and roommate Alison Therriault keeps time on the traps), while the line “we played all night” exemplifies how their music is best heard in that yawny period between the chill of night and the pre-dawn hush.

“[The Cave] is about friends who enjoy creating beauty together and the camraderie in that,” explains Ryan, and the beauty this trio has created seems even more stunning considering Chet’s timeline: together a mere five months, they’ve accomplished more in that time than most bands do in years. “Ryan and I were in the basement playing,” Patrick recalls, “and Alison came down and just started playing drums with it and the sound was born.” Within a month, Chet played a bunch of shows, one of which instantly won over this scribe’s heart—based mainly on the simplistic grace of the song “Fellow Rides Home.” Never before has a tale of damnation sounded so sweet.

The plan is to shop Tiger around in hopes of finding distribution, but for now the album is available at local record emporiums and upcoming shows. Brotherhood, it seems, isn’t just about oneupmanship and atomic wedgies; it’s also about starting bands. It worked for the Beach Boys, and it’s working for Chet.

—Bill Stuart - Monday Magazine