The Beltways

Remember when Paul Westerberg rocked? Remember how cool The Stones were before they were secretly replaced with product-hawking robots? The forthcoming CD by Baltimore's The Beltways was made for those who got a little teary-eyed answering "yes" to those questions. For years these guys have been unassuming champions of Mobtown's growing pop-rock minority, bravely wearing the mantle of skinny-tie band in a white funk/hairspray metal town. They also had the good taste to let me play piano on the album's second to last track. Opening with "Kissing Time" pretty much tells the story here — wonderfully raucous guitars married to raw yet sugary vocal lines. "Transister" absolutely rips (in a nearly glam sorta way) and foreshadows a set that crams the blender with The Mats, The Kinks, The Knack, Jagger-Richards and T-Rex and then presses "puree." Bubblegum and garage all at once, The Beltways are a treat.
- You Sank My Battleship Fanzine

Following a strong love, I suspect, of The Ramones the band does not sound anything like them, but the energy and simple pump it out and up spirit shines all over the disc. They have a sound not unlike the late great The Raveups or a more pop influenced Georgia Satellites. While the vocals won't make too many knees weak, the happy new wavey elements of their brand of pop break are so likable and enjoyable that you'll find yourself humming along with ease.
- Not Lame by Bruce Brodeen

Everybody knows where the line between cool and uncool is traditionally drawn: the city limits. Downtown is hip and the suburbs are nowhere, or at least so the conventional wisdom runs. Well, Jay Filippone, John Spokus, and Pete Kuhn are onto that old saw, and have chosen a band name that beats any potential detractors to the punch: the Beltways. Listening to the Timonium-based band's fine new self-titled CD, the suburbs may deserve another look as a source for quality tunes.
The Beltways certainly aren't working the downtown hipster vibe. There isn't a twinge of punk rock 'tude or world-funk-folk jam-readiness to the band: they sound like the Flamin' Groovies, fer chrissakes. But there's something about the way the trio plays together, the classic lines of their no-frills power-pop rock, and the canny songwriting savvy of guitarist/lead vocalist Filippone (who wrote or co-wrote all but two of the 12 numbers) that compel in a way that consciously contemporary rock music rarely does.
Right from the git, it's obvious where these guys are coming from: The high-octane choogle of "West Virginia Bound" sounds (from the title on down) like it could have come off albums of any number of classicist, rockin', melody lovers stretching back to the late 60s — the post-hippie rockabillies such as Commander Cody, British pub rock, the Beserkley Records crew, late-70s/early-80s power pop, even the mighty Cheap Trick.
For the most part, the band sticks to the eternal verities. Churning blues-based riffs and solos do their work over rock-solid rhythm with plenty of over-excited flash, while Filippone's bawling (but deadly melodic) lead vocals get smoothed over by the occasional winning harmonies. The material sticks to the basics — aka gurls — too. Filippones's songs (and bassist/vocalist Spokus' forlorn "Would You Ever") take new looks at classic posses: the besotted loverboy ("Talk to You"), the sardonic, weary spouse ("Death Do Us Part [Tell Me]"), the eternal screwup ("Hour Too Late"). Not all the classic subjects work: "Man of the 90s" is the kind of satire that gets overdone in every decade, and Spokus' devout "Christine" wobbles on its gushy sentiment and tippytoe high harmonies. But for the most part it's jake head-shake and "ooh"-a-long music.
The most classic thing about The Beltways, however, is the hang-dog, regular-Joe vibe to Filippone's best songs — from the guy who's getting ready to get himself in hot water at a party with a "Nicotine Girl" to the schlemiel with the barely rolling lemon who's starting to figure out why that cute girl keeps wanting to catch a lift from him in "My Car." The Beltways may not sound much like anything currently on WHFS (or the Colt), but I'll bet you that these songs will sound just as good as they do now in another 10 years or so
- Baltimore City Paper

From the opening song 'Kissing Time' to the Stones cover of 'Tell Me' there isn't a wasted moment here. The band cover a lot of ground style wise and in their use of instrumentation — like the mandolin in 'Don't Remember Her Name' and 'My Fiddle', the piano in 'Falling Apart', The guitarist especially cooks on 'Off The Cuff' (my favorite) and he gets a lot of different tones , not a bad song in the lot — great arrangements and production — great hooks — hot !!!
- Online review

Although The Beltways are mainly considered a power pop band, they are stylistically more diverse than most artists in that genre. This CD, their second,is more in the the power pop vein than the debut which showcased their more rootsy side (Rolling Stones, Rory Gallagher, Chuck Berry)and garage/punk rock tendencies, amid the pop. "Kissing Time", "Rollercoaster Girl", "True Romance", and the cover of the Stones early hit "Tell Me, You're Coming Back" are The Beltways at their pop zenith. The rootsy side is still there; check out the alternative country flavorings of "My Fiddle" and the REM-ish "Don't Remember Her Name", both complete with mandolin and acoustic guitar. The fun country/punk shout-along "Mista Joe" also somewhat belongs in the same category. "Falling Apart" is another side of the group, a piano fueled ballad. "Transistor" is like surf/thrash in 7/8 time. "Off The Cuff" is a retro rocker in the league with Cheap Trick and Kiss. Another thing that sets The Beltways apart from most indie rockers is their playing chops,which feature actual guitar solos,that are tasteful and concise as well to fit modern times. They have two solid singer/ songwriters in the band as well. You won't be disappointed with Stella On Mars.
- Online review

The third release from the
Charm City (that's Baltimore, hon) trio finds the band forgoing the hard 'n' fast pop that permeated their earlier releases in favor of a more rootsy, sometimes even swampy, down-home-style pop — and it works just fine! "Phone Talkin' Woman" could be a Dave Edmunds or Rockpile outtake! "They skillfully combine catchy pop tunes with hard-driving rhythms and a slightly rootsy sound with great results" [Rock Beat International]. While they've maintained their knack for writing catchy, pop-leaning songs, it's now all delivered with janglier and twanglier guitars! This is garage-roots-pop at its best! They would fit quite comfortably at Fletcher's on a triple-bill with The Yayhoos and Terry Anderson!
- Ray Gianchetti, Kool Kat Musik

Wow! Last we heard from The Beltways it was another decade and we're heading into the second half of this one, but they are back with a strong, eclectic mix of just downright wickedly cool music. Leading off this 12 track is "Ellen I Was Only..." which, if you heard it blind, you'd swear it was Paul Collins' Beat. Next up is the honky-tonkin' "Phone Talking Woman" followed by the sing-a-along Stones-cum-rootsy-alt-country-bar-pop of "Living Room." What follows is a splendourous mix of varying music styles that all are woven and matched up into one neat, literally and figuratively, album. "The Beltways skillfully combines catchy pop tunes with hard-driving rhythms and a slightly rootsy sound for great results" [Rock Beat International]. Mixing power pop, blues-rock, honky-tonkin' alt-country rock and roots rock, The Beltways pull off 'the hard to imagine' with aplomb, confidence and style.
- Bruce Brodeen, Not Lame Recording Company

"When Jay Filippone plucks the right lyric and the right melody out of the air and John Spokus and Pete Kuhn put the right beat under it, they do more than just ape the classic guitar-pop canon; they add to it."
Jay Filippone is the kind of guy who can sing "Little pop dreams/Sweet pop dreams" without a breath of irony. As lead singer/main songwriter/guitarist for Timonium-based trio the Beltways, he has proven himself a diehard partisan of radio-ready three-minute rock 'n' roll thrills-Beatles, Stones, Creedence, NRBQ, the Knack, and so on. Thus when Filippone, bassist John Spokus, and drummer Pete Kuhn bring out a new CD — in this case, Stella on Mars (Sawng Mfg. Records) — you can rest assured they haven't added a DJ or booked the Cockeysville Philharmonic for a session.
Produced by Filippone and engineer Dave Nachodsky, Stella on Mars reaches for a bigger, fuller sound than the band's self-titled 1996 debut. Filippone's arrangements are a little more ambitious, from the "ooh-la-la-la" coda tacked onto "Breakup" to the driving, piano-stoked epic "Falling Apart." But the band's stock-in-trade is still whomping, hum-along power pop — "Trans Sister" and "Off the Cuff" could be outtakes from Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight. If anything mars Stella on Mars, it's the fact that Filippone and Co. pitch a few too many fastballs straight across the plate. A whole raft of songs flash by mid-album without much of an impression before Spokus perks thing up with the countrified "Don't Remember Her Name."
But when Filippone plucks the right lyric and the right melody out of the air and Spokus and Kuhn put the right beat under it, they do more than just ape the classic guitar-pop canon; they add to it in their own small way. Despite some lackluster moments, Stella on Mars announces that the Beltways are likely to keep on adding on.
- Baltimore City Paper

As the name indicates, the members of this scrappy trio are no downtown hipsters. Their three-minute AM-radio aesthetic and their we're-a-band-so-we-dress-alike look puts them squarely on the Beatles/Knack pop continuum. Their music shows they have good taste in great, smart outsider bands — Creedence, NRBQ, Kiss, and Cheap Trick. Ordinarily all this might add up to little more than a decent cover band, but vocalist/guitarist Jay Filippone just might be the most under-rated classic-pop songwriter in Greater Baltimore. And that makes just about any trip with the Beltways worth taking.
- Baltimore City Paper

...Fletcher's hosted a three-bill pop extravaganza with Mobtown's very own The Beltways headlining...
The Beltways are probably the second-best known pop band currently playing their trade in Charm City (the omnivorous Splitsville's got'em beat there), and much of their success, just like Splits, is due to seamless vocal harmonies. Simply put, the guys can sing. The music ain't bad either. Promoting their new self-release, Stella On Mars, The Beltways played mid-tempo power-pop that didn't remind me too much of drummer Pete's listing of the Beatles and The Rolling Stones as major influences — in fact, I couldn't think of exactly who they sounded like but maybe that's a good thing. Sporting kitschy lounge suits and generally bad hair, the band employed varied arrangements and harmonies to weave crafted, if at times rote, pop styling. Not to say that they didn't hit some high notes: the niftily lazy Blondie beat, the much-aforementioned Replacements and Cheap Trick sound-alikes, ….. and, help me God yes, even the occasional Beatles and Stones purveyings. And it must be credited to them that the longer they played, the better they got....
- Liner Notes