Seven Color Sky

Pittsburgh four-piece Seven Color Sky are one of the American underground's best kept secrets. While the likes of The Killers and The Bravery go on to sell out arena-sized venues and collect platinum stained discs, SCS continue to make arguably better records.

'The Better Looking EP' follows on from last year's 'Secrets About The Stars' album, except while the obvious reference points such as The Cure, The Cars and the Psychedelic Furs - due in no small part to Furs' guitarist John Ashton's production job on all four tracks - remain, the two things that set Seven Color Sky apart from the others are the almost picturesque propensity of their lyrics and the unassuming vocal deities of Scott Bedillion.

The title track 'Better Looking' and second track 'Next Day' fit side-by-side almost like parts 1 & 2 of a low-budget kitchen sink drama, while the equally perplexing 'A Selfless Life' could almost have been lifted from The Cure's 'Disintegration', such are the uneasy pendulum dynamics that switch from elation to agitation in little under three minutes.

The pick of the bunch though is 'Fade', a slow burning crusade that builds around a simplistic keyboard riff in a similar way to Martha And The Muffins' 'Echo Beach', only whereas the former could be considered happy-go-lucky pop, 'Fade' is more about feeling lucky that happiness has gone - or something along those lines.

With a slight nod to the likes of Morrissey and Marc Almond also, Seven Color Sky are clearly sited at the less panoramic view of the square-shaped window of the 80s Play School to Mr Brightside, and all the better for it too.

Available from www.cdbaby.com and uk.towerrecords.com
- Drowned In Sound

Music Preview: Seven Color Sky gets a lift from the Furs
Friday, April 15, 2005

By Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Scott Bedillion of Seven Color Sky is on the cell phone, headed home from Cincinnati, where the night before he had opened yet another dream gig for The Psychedelic Furs on the stage of the Madison Theater.


Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette
Seven Color Sky vocalist/guitarist Scott Bedillion of Shadyside, bassist Marc Turina of South Hills, and keyboardist Terry Divelbliss of South Hills practice at Soundscape Studios in McKeesport in October.
Click photo for larger image.


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Seven Color Sky


When: 10 p.m. Saturday

Where: Club Cafe

With: The Pleasure Technicians, The Rise.

"Actually it was kind of bad-ass," Bedillion recalls. "In Pittsburgh, when we opened for them, everyone was like, 'Well, you're a Pittsburgh band. Big deal.' In Cincinnati, they actually thought we might be something substantial. It was kind of cool. They were treating us like little rock stars."

Furs guitarist John Ashton, who produced "The Better Looking EP" for the band last fall at Soundscape Studios, McKeesport, had them added to the bill in Cincinnati and another show last night in Cleveland.

And those shows are just one of the perks, the main one being how the record sounds.

"I'm very happy with it," says Bedillion. "It just sounds so much bigger than the old one. It's a little more professional without maybe sounding too polished. Especially the last song on there, 'Fade.' That's the one I keep listening to that I really like the way it turned out."

There had been talk of bailing on a song called "A Selfless Life" when it seemed like it just wasn't coming together in the studio. But then Ashton went to work.

"That's one where he was kind of cutting and pasting a lot and getting us to try different things," Bedillion recalls. "And when we just had all the tracks sitting there, it sounded like a car wreck. Then we took a nap, and he took all the garbage out and called us in. And it was like, 'Oh, all right, now I see what you're going for there.' "

Roughly half the ideas Ashton had Bedillion try out on guitar were eventually scrapped.

"There was a lot of experimenting," Bedillion says. "I guess that's how they did it in the Furs, especially those later albums, where they had a ton of layers going on. He said he'd take a couple hours on each song and noodle with a ton of different guitar parts. Then, they'd take some time and try out different combinations of those parts and end up whacking most of it."

For the release show Saturday at Club Cafe, they're bringing in the reinforcements to help duplicate the extra texture Ashton brought to the recording. Tony Matz of Tangerine is sitting in with his Les Paul for the songs from "The Better Looking EP."

The show will also find them working with a different drummer than you hear on the Ashton recordings. Frank Postava, formerly a Top Ten Idol, joined in time to open for The Fixx when Carmen Bruno quit. The new lineup now features Bedillion on guitar and lead vocals, Marc Turina on bass and backing vocals and Terry Divelbliss on keyboards.

There are other perks, of course, to working with a guy like Ashton.

Take the show in Cincinnati, for example, where they just happened to mention on stage that Ashton had produced their record.

"And all of a sudden," Bedillion reports, "we sold a bazillion of them. To Furs fans, especially, I think it just legitimizes us a little bit. I mean, I guess we just sort of figure that we have a slender little niche that we'd appeal to, since we're not all uber-mainstream-sounding. Now, we get a lot of emails from just random people who say they noticed that we were affiliated with the Furs or they were talking to John and he mentioned us. So if we're gonna have a band on our side, that's certainly an appropriate and cool one to have."

There's talk of doing more with Ashton in the future.

"I'm pretty sure," Bedillion says, "that when we record again, he'll be involved again. I mean, he's brought it up. Like Terry says, he's like a buddy now."

- Pittsburgh Post Gazette

A look back at the bands and stories that rocked Pittsburgh in 2004
Friday, January 07, 2005

By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

We don't exactly live in Pittsburgh because we hate it or anything, but, still, there were a lot of people scratching their heads around here this spring when Esquire magazine released its list of "Cities That Rock."

New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Detroit -- all the ones you'd expect were cast aside because the Esquire writer was "tired of hearing" about all those cities.

Coming in at No. 1 under these new criteria was little ol' Pittsburgh, so honored for attractions like Rusted Root, the Modey Lemon, The Clarks, Dave's Music Mine and Mr. Small's Theatre.

A few pop music writers from other cities reacted with derision, questioning the picks and even wondering if their place on the list --behind Pittsburgh -- was a dubious distinction.

We just shrugged and decided to try to live up to it. It wasn't always easy. Here are the ups and downs from 2004:

Seven Color Sky started the year having to change its name, from the Ordinary Boys, because of a discrepancy with a UK band with same name.

Later in the year, though, the band's fortune changed with an opening slot for the Psychedelic Furs at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. It led to Furs guitarist John Ashton producing four songs for Seven Color Sky at Soundscape Studios in McKeesport in September.

Asked how much of a Furs stamp he put on the band, guitarist Scott Bedellion said, "Well, I think we sound enough like the Furs in the first place, so it isn't that much of an issue."





- Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Secrets About The Stars - by Seven Color Sky. Strummy, jangly tracks abound on this disc by a Pittsburgh area pop/rock quartet. The opening track has a heavy, alt-rock feel to it, but most of the band's original tunes favor a mainstream jangly pop quality - as evidenced by ""Gone," "The Earnest Teen" and "Anywhere You Fall." This is another debut disc that is solid throughout its ten tracks. - Fufkin.com

With their lush textures combined with good songwriting sensibility, they offer a solid release with the Better Looking EP. With good production comes a crisp and clean recording that allows the band to have an open and welcoming sound. Some of the guitar licks might remind some of bands like U2, but vocally it's more interesting than the 'Vertigo'-bound success of recent U2 material. There are plenty of spacious guitars fluttering about, wrapped in cocoons of delay and reverb without being completely overshadowed. This EP is an extremely solid release. - The Pitt News