Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
“We’re Already Gone is imbued with the spirit of Jack Kerouac”. Rolling Stone
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“The Beautiful Girls’ sound sandwich of roots, hip-hop, reggae, dub and blues is tastier than ever in this compilation”.
Tracks Magazine
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“The band infuses each song with a jazzy element that further elongates the already slow rhythm…just tune into the groove”
- Campus Circle
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“Building on a laid-back, beach vibe underscored by club and reggae beats…a mellow collection of electric roots music”
- Glide Magazine.com
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“Just as John Butler Trio already, these Australians are poised to take the US by storm on the heels of this awesome album.”
- This Is Modern.net
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“Fusing reggae/club grooves with a raw electric blues sound that stems from some of the band members former musical collectives, We’re Already Gone will surprise punters that wrote them off as music for surfer girls to go ga-ga over.”
- Ear Medicine.com
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“Nicely down-tempo, with smoothly delivered vocals and thoughtful lyrics make it hard to believe this is a young band…it led to a mature sound for a new generation”
- The Daily Sentinel, Grand Junction, CO
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“With their influences coming from reggae, rap, blues and jazz, their sound cannot be defined as one genre…a band with rhythm, soul and a true awareness of the power of music.”
- Question, Whistler, B.C.
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“The four Aussies beautifully blend rock, reggae, club, club and blues for a Ben Harper meets The Walters kind of sound….an organic mix of all things chill”
- Aspen Daily News, Aspen, CO
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“Following in the vein of Sublime and G. Love & Special Sauce, the album has the laid-back, trippy vibe fans of this style of music have come to love and expect…the 12-track disc also has influences of blues, funk and club, as well as poetic song titles and lyricism.”
- Colorado Daily, Denver, CO
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“Perhaps one of the best electric acts to come along since Beck”
- BlogCritics.org
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“When a band can reinvent itself, not only from album to album but also from show to show, it says something about the creative capabilities of the musicians. Such creativity can be found in the Australian band The Beautiful Girls.”
The Badger Herald--Madison, Wisconsin
- different ...
“….this disc sees the band broaden their scope through wider instrumentation and deeper forays into genres such as reggae, dub and hiphop….The Beautiful Girls are going places.”
the Drum Media – Sydney, Australia
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“There’s something so masculine about a man in a pom pom beanie playing harmonica…..with Felipe silhouetted against a keyboard note that’s twisting and throbbing like a didgeridoo, but the band swings onto stage and roll into the surfer/rock reggae that we’re waiting for.”
brag – Australia
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“We’re Already Gone opens with the beautiful sounds of a trumpet that would make Miles Davis smile. The simple chord progression with its booming and warped style is sizzling. * * * * *
ELEVEN Magazine – Australia
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“Its got a groove the Cat Empire would be proud to call their own but its darker and doesn’t shed the distinctive roots style that the band is known for.”
HOT Press -- Australia
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“And talk about moving and shaking!! It only took me three songs to realize that I am just not hardcore enough for the front row… and quite surprisingly, my nostrils indicated that it was for the most part, the music ALONE that this crowd was getting so high on!”
inpress, Australia
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- varied >>
Sessie: The Beautiful Girls in de VPRO villa
Het is een misleidende naam, die van The Beautiful Girls uit Australië. Want wie denkt dat het hier om vrouwelijk schoon gaat zit er flink naast. Het blijken vier bomen van gasten, formaatje rugby-speler, die 'blues rock met een randje' over de hele wereld brengen. Zelf zeggen ze dat die naam de enige mogelijkheid was om niet al te macho over te komen. Zanger Mat McHugh en harmonicaman Felipe kwamen bij 3VOOR12 langs voor een liftsessie.
http://3VOOR12.vpro.nl/26980492 - 3 voor 12
THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS
Learn Yourself
CD
Genre Pop
Label MGM
Net als de Canadese lelijkerds die samen de popgroep Barenaked Ladies vormen, bestaat The Beaufiful Girls niet uit een aantal appetijtelijke vrouwspersonen, maar uit morsige mannetjes. Je reinste verlakkerij! De muziek van het kwartet uit Australië is dat echter niet: eerlijke, vooral akoestische liedjes met roots-, hip-hop, soul-, reggae- en bluesinvloeden. Niet spectaculair, maar wel erg genietbaar. Af en toe zijn de belerende teksten wel wat irritant. Een voorbeeldje: ‘And we’ve all got to learn ourselves/ Before we can judge someone else’ neuzelt zanger Mat McHugh in het titelnummer. Of wat te denken van ‘The path is beset by ego and greed / And if we don’t see, we won’t be free’. Het lijkt de EO-jongerendag wel. Een beetje jammer, want verder is Learn Yourself best een aangename plaat. Overigens verschijnt de opvolger van dit album al zeer binnenkort; benieuwd of onze Aussies daarop iets origineler uit de hoek komen.
Martin Cuppens
- revolver
Als de wintervoeten beginnen te tintelen en het kampvuur ingeruild dient te worden voor een conservatief knetterend haardvuur overvalt ons wel eens een zeker gevoel van weemoed. Een door bikini's geregeerd exotisch strand blakend in het zomerzonnetje heeft immers heel wat meer aantrekkingskracht dan wanhopig terug gevoel in je vingertoppen trachten te krijgen ten gevolge van enkele onsympathieke koudefronten.
Gelukkig liggen het minuscule Speedo-zwembroekje en de zonnebrandcrème factor 60 steeds binnen handbereik als het signaal wordt gegeven voor een studiereisje richting Australië. Een imaginaire verkenningstocht van het momenteel erg zonnige oord weliswaar. Het is het uit 2004 daterende debuut van The Beautiful Girls dat zorgt voor een half uurtje escapisme in klimatologisch bijzonder gure tijden. Het door de zon verbrande en bebaarde gezelschap kleedt popsongs tot op de wetsuit uit, om ze in minimale bezetting zo'n warme klankkleur te geven dat ze nog lang aangenaam blijven resoneren in menige vastgevroren oorschelp.
Een dikke "merci" voor het zonnetje in je platenspeler mag altijd gericht worden aan frontman Mat McHugh, die handig gebruik maakte van zijn verblijf in New York om zich een veelvoud aan muzikale stijlen eigen te maken. De zowel op pop als folk gefundeerde mengelmoes wordt regelmatig doorspekt met iets obscuurders, zoals het in Mats keuken opgenomen, op Leadbelly geïnspireerde bluesnummer "On Judgement Day" of de slome aan reggea refererende ritmesectie op "Learn Yourself".
Enig speurwerk deed ons de namen G.Love, Donovan Frankenreiter en Jack Johnson in het cd'tje terugvinden en gemakshalve voegen we daar Ben Harper nog maar aan toe. Toch nog even nageven dat het viertal mooie meisjes (lelijke venten, ja) handig omtrent het karakteristieke surfgeluid van ene Jack Johnson weet te laveren om net dat tikkeltje spitsvondiger te zijn.
Zo bewijst het breekbare "Black Bird" een lichtelijk fantastisch nummer te zijn dat, geheel gespeend van ieder franje, toch het mythische van uitheemse tropische locaties weet op te roepen. Een handig verpakte droom in plaatformaat. Het is dan ook goed te horen dat dit niveau een constante is op de slechts tien tracks tellende plaat die qua sfeerzetting ongetwijfeld moeite heeft zijn gelijke te vinden. Het ingetogen swingende "Cash Money" stelt dat liefde niet te koop is, een mooie quote voor een band die eigengereid haar ding doet.
Single "Music" typeert de band naar eigen zeggen het best en mag wederom ingedeeld worden bij de relaxte poprock die het hele album domineert. Met de nodige hiphopverschijnselen wordt het geheel, voor zover nodig, nog een beetje opgefleurd.
Vergezeld van een cocktail op een exotisch strand of verscholen in een ijskoude zolderkamer, geflankeerd door een warme chocomelk, de capaciteit de luisteraar in een zomerse stemming te krijgen is de voornaamste verdienste van The Beautiful Girls. Een uitermate charmant plaatje; zo breekbaar dat het met de nodige voorzichtigheid behandeld dient te worden. Eveneens zo oppervlakkig dat de breekbaarheid niet Ellioth Smithgewijs een bron van zorg is, maar hersenloos een kernbegrip blijft. Heel veel peace en love maar de mierenneuker in ons mist de death metal wel een beetje.
Stijn Cools
ma 14 november 2005 - godeau.com
CD Review
The Beautiful Girls
Water
By Jamie Lee
November 14, 2006
Australia's The Beautiful Girls introduced themselves to the United
States with 2005's We're Already Gone, an album of easy rockers dusted
with sea breezes and salt spray. Despite the sudden emergence in the
states, this wasn't the band's first foray into the studio. In their
home country, the trio had already released five albums – a mix of EPs
and LPs – prior to its international breakthrough.
To follow the success of We're Already Gone, The Beautiful Girls
decided to move ahead by looking behind, filling in their new American
audience with Water, a compilation of tracks pulled from those earlier
releases between 2002 and 2004. Structured in chronological order
beginning with the oldest compositions, the 11 tracks champion the
evolution of the band's summer-song approach; a brand of flowing,
stripped down, mostly-acoustic compositions comfortably worn for
after-surf relaxing and coastal daydreams. While The Beautiful Girls
are much more raw on the early tracks, Water truly tells the story of a band on the rise in its own country, leading to its delivery into the international arena. - glide
WE’LL HOLD.
Yeah, anyway, I was lying bed and there was a bunch of drunk Australian surfers guys singing along to the words of this song I’d written that, to me, was kinda of this really personal, sad song. I kinda wigged out a bit, cause I don’t think they were actually…well, what they got from it wasn’t what I’d put into it. But I just came to realize that people get out of music whatever they want to get out of it, and that’s equally valid to anything I think about it. I remember lying there in my bed thinking, man what am I doing. Music was so personal to me and I felt like I was kinda selling out ’cause people were listening to it…as strange as that sounds. It was a strange time to get my head around.
WHAT ABOUT A MOMENT WHEN IT FELT LIKE EVERYTHING WAS GOING GREAT?
Well, there’s a million little moments like that. Like, turning up at some little festival expecting nothing and all of a sudden there’s ten thousand people there all singing along to the words of this song you wrote in your bedroom on an acoustic guitar. We’ve had a couple of those where people are singing so loud you can’t even hear yourself singing. That’s a trip, ’cause music means so much to me and I’ve been in that same position, singing other people’s songs at the top of my lungs. It’s just a huge release and it’s a huge deal to me, so to be able to do that for someone else, how lucky I am is not lost on me. And other times, if you just catch one person in the crowd, just singing and having their eyes closed and it really means something to them. I always used to say, if there’s just one person out there that this means something to, then that’s enough.
YOU GUYS HAVE DONE A LOT OF TRAVEL SINCE STARTING, RIGHT?
[LAUGHS] It’s been constant travel for the last, what, I don’t even know. Five years or something. I traveled for a couple years before that, and then the band just traveled. We wanted to be old school about it, like an old blues band or folk show and get on the road and just play. And hopefully play good enough that the next time you come into town people have told their friends and there’s even more people into it. I didn’t want us to have to rely on MTV and any traditional music industry methods of getting our name out there cause I just thought most of it was just bullshit anyway. I thought I’d be more settled with myself to do it on a small scale and do it honestly and not have it be watered down or marketed. Music is a big deal for me and I don’t wanna have to dilute it just to sell extra records. I just wanted to do it in a way that I could sleep at night. And one of those ways is just getting out on the road and just traveling. And we’ve been doing that non-stop for years. I love touring and I love being in different places, so it’s all good.
DO YOU GET A BETTER RESPONSE IN BEACH TOWNS?
Beach towns are the same all over the world, which is such a cool thing. I realized today when I was surfing here in Holland of all places, that surfers everywhere are just the same. Everyone was just kicking back and the waves were small, but there was a good vibe and water and people were having fun. I just think that beach towns everywhere are so similar to the town I grew up in that it’s crazy. Also, it’s weird, you’ll be in the mid-west or somewhere where you’d think people might not be feeling it at all and it’ll be…the same. People are just people, I guess. I think surfers are just luckier people because, well, they get to surf.
WHAT SEEMS UNIQUE ABOUT YOUR MUSIC IS THE RELAXED, SPARSE-NESS TO THE SOUND.
That’s so important to me. I think so much music just gets filled up ’cause people think it has to. It’s an industry where you have to have this shiny product and you have to make it sound a certain way and fill every little hole. And I just don’t understand why you have to. A lot of my favorite records are really sparse. Stripped back records just put me in a different place than one that has all the bells and whistles and sleek production. I like that in music and I hope people notice it.
- surfing magazine - u.s.a.
Discography
‘02 Morning Sun, their mini-album. Periscopes was added to radio. This and most of the other songs from Morning Sun, were added to a host of surf vids and dvd’s by surf filmmakers in Australia.
’03 good times, was released as a five track limited edition cd. Sold out in weeks and the art work and some of the songs appear on TBG’s Brazilian (The Beautiful Girls), and Japanese (Water), releases.
’04 >> Learn Yourself, (released U.S., Japan, brazil Aust and benelux), is a neat combination of roots, hip-hop, reggae, soul and blues. A mash up of influences that formed celebration of life. That album (Learn Yourself), was the Beautiful Girls North American debut.
‘05 We’re Already Gone (released U.S., Japan, Aust and benelux), This album has a strong band emphasis and includes a stack of extra coloring.
'06 (in the US and Japan only) water, - a compilation of the bands first eps.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
(‘06) ::
In ’06 the beautiful girls have once again circled the globe, taking their music to as many people as possible, selling out shows in the Netherlands, the U.K Canada and the U.S.
Their mid year trip across Europe (in july and august of this year) served to promote and support the release of We’re Already Gone in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. The band also toured thru Canada and the U.S (their seventh tour of the U.S. touring partners have included; Mason Jennings, Pepper –twice- Slightly Stoopid and Fishbone).
In the U.S. both We’re Already Gone and Water – a compilation featuring tracks from Morning Sun, good times (now no longer in production) and learn yourself – were released on cornerstone ras (home to sublime and slightly stoopid releases).
(‘07) ::
the band will be releasing its new album in may of ‘07.
the album will be released in Australia and Japan simultaneously and soon after in the U.K., the US, South Africa and Europe.
The release of We're Already Gone and Water (a compilation), in the U.S. saw the beautiful girls morph and trim their touring party slightly. In a "back to their roots" move the band, who have worked with a series of different instrumentalists (including harmonica players, a brass section and keyboardists), toured the U.S. as a three piece. They added a keyboard player for their home tours.
The ‘We're Already Gone album has enjoyed international success and raised the profile of the band considerably in the U.S. – and the response to this album there, both by the crowds and the press has been fantastic. Because of it the band have featured in ex games dvd’s (through Canada and the U.S.), full page articles and the albums (both WAG and Water), continue to sell well.
On their second attempt to get into the U.S. this year the band though, the band were stopped at the border and not allowed in. The subsequent ban will see them out of the US for a year – the band anticipate being able to re-enter the country in the summer of ‘07. The band accepted the ban though, and made the most of the time without touring commitments by coming back to aust and recording the next album.
The new album, and to be released in early to mid ‘07, will further add to the beautiful girls reputation as musical shape shifters.
It is, perhaps fuelled by the border crossing controversy, a tighter and punchier sound album.
Taking the some of the elements of reggae that the band flirted with on We’re Already Gone and combining them with an energy rush that moves away from roots and into a post punk style, nodding to influences from the clash and dexy’s midnight runners thru to the police.
The band emphasis evident on the last album is also prevalent in the new songs, although the rhythm section is sharper again than on that recording. And once again there are a series of collaborations. This time featuring keys, a brass section, a some stunning melodica.
Even though it has a mix of songs and styles (including a South African cover from the eighties), the new album is likely to be considered the bands first straight ahead album - the intensity of the performances giving it the bands strongest sense of purpose yet.
Links
