Being Dead by Niamh Fleming
Though formed way back in 2017, Austin, Texas’ Being Dead have just two full-length albums to their name. But these LPs have arrived in quick succession within the last two years, giving everyone just enough time to obsess over the recent output of core duo-mates Falcon Bitch and Schmoofy before they — and this is pure speculation — drop another album soon that will send fans down a Reddit hole of headphone-aided track dissection and discourse on song meanings.
After a batch of singles and EPs in their early going, Being Dead sound poised to go on one of those multi-album tears that, in hindsight, represents a band at the peak of its powers. Their newest, Eels, came out in September 2024 and feels timeless already. It would fit on a shelf along the likes of Oracular Spectacular by MGMT, Floral Canyon by *repeat repeat, I Got Heaven by Mannequin Pussy, and Pacer by The Amps. But it totally stands apart from all of the surf rock, proto-punk, harmonically rich and creatively dense music that anyone may try to compare it to.
The sixteen short tracks of Eels register like steps in a new and improved hero’s journey. The opener, “Godzilla Rises,” is a jangly, infatuated bop whose cinema’s great Tokyo terror, it spiny awesomeness piercing our hearts with help from Being Dead’s girl-group hand claps and weirdo his ’n’ her vocal harmonies. The playfulness between Falcon Bitch and Schmoofy makes their music flexible enough to rival Phil Spector and Pet Sounds for sonic ambition while romanticizing a movie monster.
Being Dead somehow embed every beat of every song with a warm crackle of utopian nostalgia and a mischievous grin. They want you to chase them through the mirror maze at a carnival, or follow them through the pathway of a single — “Firefighters” — about a fire rescue Dalmatian yearning for a life by the ocean. Over a bass line that’s impossible to stay still to, Schmoofy and Falcon Bitch trade harmonies and chants, only to spring a major mood shift in a middle, and an end section that takes “Firefighters” to a very thoughtful place.
This album is like that, all the way through. Musical slapstick moments are matched with lines like the “Goodnight” couplet, “Come with me till the sunrise bleeds, no more constellations,” until the song breaks away from its stargazing Americana sound into a beach flamenco solo, as if they wanted to keep you tossing and turning through your dreams “Rock n’ Roll Hurts,” a two-minute doo wop-induced jaunt, is broken up by recordings of laughter, audience applause tracks, and a brief screeching feedback and distorted guitar section that only lasts 10 seconds and arrives like a serving of dessert.
Eels represents a proper maturation from Being Dead’s debut 2023 album, When Horses Would Run. Among the first album’s highlights: a spacey synth on the title track that suggests a psychedelics-powered search for alien life; and a lounge-y jazz break in “Muriel’s Big Day Off” in between marching surf rock riffs and precariously stacked harmonies.
Recording the follow-up album with Grammy-winning, Steve Albini-trained John Congleton, Being Dead have taken their songwriting to the next level. They had help as well from a third musician, Ricky Motto, who also joins them on tour to fill out the live ensemble. When Horses Would Run is a collection of songs and disparate locales; Eels is a single, 39-minute sonic landscape, complete in every form the idea could possibly take.
Getting the mundane biographical details on Being Dead can be a challenge, and their determination to live their own reality produces an origin story that changes over time. (Schmoofy previously went by Gumball.) This commitment to the bit, though possibly vexing to music journalists, encourages connection with fans. Being Dead might not share their innermost thoughts with interviewers, but they’re the only band that ever painted the sun, moon and earth on their stomachs to simulate the solar eclipse that was happening overhead while they performed live on Seattle’s KEXP.
Being Dead open for Shannon and the Clams w. Las Nubes, 8pm Friday, April 11 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. beingdead.bandcamp.com ~ Erik Kvarnberg
