Wednesday Wadio: The Beta Band’s ‘Dry The Rain’.

“Repeatedly described as shambolic stoners in the press, as if their music was the result of some serendipitous sensimilia incident rather than hardwork and talent, their importance was consistently exaggerated while their talent was dismissed. You think the trumpet at the end of “Dry The Rain” was an accident?” – Stylus

I’m cycling this diddy back through the lineup. It’s been live on Radio Pye for a while now, but I’ve never written anything up on it. Is this a cop out? Nah – It’s a lot harder to write about something than it is to simply fire it up on a server. Besides, it’s long overdue and practically buried now with over 50 songs and 6 months worth of tuneage jammed into my little corner of the ether.

Most of you probably know Dry The Rain as ‘the song from High Fidelity‘. You remember – John Cusack makes a claim to his record store co-workers that he can sell multiple copies of a song immediately, just by placing it on the store’s sound system. “I am now going to sell five copies of The Three EPs by The Beta Band.” All of the patrons start bobbing their heads to the music like Romero zombies before lining up at the cash register to start their unhealthy obsessions with The Betas.

I met a girl recently who told me a story about spending a night drinking with the Betas here in Boston at Bukowskis. The band hasn’t recorded together in a couple of years, and I never got to see them live, but her description of the silly fat little Scottish troupe had me laughing – she thought they were completely winding her up until finally someone else recognized them too. They were like the Wizard of Oz and Phil Spector, rolled into one anonymous lump behind a lush wall of sound – so complex that it takes 100 listens to catch all the nuances. Dry the Rain reminds me of There Goes the Fear in that respect. I would have therefore bought them around 657 rounds. Another song I just cannot get tired of.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsbR2dEmHGc[/youtube]

“The Beta Band’s “Dry the Rain” achieves a level of pop euphoria rarely reached since, well, “Oh! Sweet Nuthin” by the Velvet Underground.” Audio-Ideas

If you can catch the cowbell, washboard and rain stick by your first listen, you’ve probably also noticed that it’s about 3 separate songs jammed into one. First the drums pick up intensity about 2 minutes in, turning it from groovy to downright danceable. Then, for the last 3 minutes, it completely changes pitch and a new sing-song chorus assures you “I will be your light” and rounds the masterpiece out. If you’ve never listened to me before, listen to me today – listen to this fucking song.