MP3: Doing As I Do
Let’s talk about the Beets. The story of the Beets begins in scenic Queens, New York, where Uruguayan transplant Juan Wauters met Jose Garcia in art classes at LaGuardia Community college. The two started playing guitar together, and eventually found the first in a series of many drummers so that they could play shows under the name of… The Beets. Soon enough, Wauters and Garcia found another like-minded soul in Queens-based artist Matthew Volz. Volz quickly took over the visual needs of the band, creating flyers, album covers, videos, and light shows, in effect turning him into the secret fourth member of the band. Volz also plays recorder for the band from time to time.
Over the course of four years, the Beets have become one of the best bands, if not the best band, in New York. With two full-length LPs and three singles on NY label Captured Tracks under their belt, and an amazing live show to boot, it is no wonder why they have been personally asked to share the stage by the likes of Pavement, and to tour with bands from the Vivian Girls to the Mountain Goats. The Beets are the musician’s band, the artist’s band, the band of bands. The Beets are smart and colorful individuals who treat life as a sing-along and a comic book all at once. The Beets are more than a band: they are a way of life, a gang, a gang from Jackson Heights, a gang that you want to be a part of.
Hardly Art is proud to present to the world Let the Poison Out, the third masterpiece from the Beets. It was recorded in two days, with a few overdubs here and there, at Marlborough Farms by Gary Olsen of Ladybug Transistor. It’s the album the Beets have been working up to. Let the Poison Out also marks the addition of Chie Mori, an important component as the latest and last drummer for the Beets. It’s true that the Beets have had many drummers. “If this doesn’t work out, then no more Beets,” asserts Garcia.
While the title references the band’s idol and unofficial mascot, Howard Stern, Let the Poison Out is really an album about getting everything out of your system. All of the Beets elements are here: jangly acoustic guitar; simply captured, sing-along lyrics about being yourself, being free, not fitting in; and an undercurrent of restless energy. The Beets love the Ramones. The Beets love MAD magazine. The Beets love Queens and Keds. Now is the time for you to love the Beets.
The Beets are and always will be: Juan Wauters (guitar, vocals, songs), Jose Garcia (bass, vocals), Chie Mori (drums and more), and Matthew Volz (artist plus).
Tour Dates
09/17 Brooklyn, NY – Knitting Factory * ^
09/19 New York, NY – Skylight West Rooftop
10/14 Brooklyn, NY – Bell House &
10/21 Brooklyn, NY – 285 Kent (Hardly Art / WUSB CMJ party)
* = w/ Hunx & His Punx
^ = w/ Natural Child
& = w/ Those Darlins
The Beets
Let The Poison Out
(Hardly Art)
Street date: Oct. 24, 2011
Pre-order – http://www.hardlyart.com/shop/thebeets.html
1. You Don’t Want Kids To Be Dead
2. Now I Live
3. Preso Voy
4. Let Clock Work
5. Doing as I Do
6. Wipe it Off
7. Eat No Dick 3
8. Without You
9. As The World
10. I Don’t Know
11. I Think I Might Have Built a Horse
12. Friends of Friends
13. Walking To My House
Links: Press Materials//Myspace