Beheaded

The second full length CD by Texas shoegazers Bedhead wafts in with a gentle guitar line and whispered vocals. A precursor to bands such as Mogwai, Low, and American Analogue Set, this quintet is inspired by folk songs, classic rock and Britpop.
On BEHEADED, Bedhead takes lessons from the epic experimentalism of WHAT FUN LIFE WAS, using bells and overdriven guitars to layer the sound. The vocals take a front seat more often and carry the melody more than on the muted FOUR SONG EP and the subdued WHAT FUN LIFE WAS, riding the more strident guitar parts on cuts such as "What's Missing". As the album progresses, similarities to Yo La Tengo become apparent, with the vocals taking a faint, intimate, conversational tone. But "Felo De Se" picks up the tempo, the drums rolling along and the guitars intertwining and skating in an exultant melody, in a style foreshadowing the band's next CD, TRANSACTION DE NOVO.|

It's not the style of music Bedhead makes that's unique, it's the band's approach to that music. The five members are masters of making an emotional connection through an approach that is careful and deliberate. At the heart of the band is an indie rock sound that can be traced back to the most pleasant material of the Velvet Underground. A trio of guitars lays down unexceptional, strummed accompaniments; vocalists employ a reserved sing-speak; the drummer maintains a lazy pulse. However, with Bedhead these elements are so perfectly executed that the music seems to play itself. Carefully plucked melodies rise up and soar out of guitar chords; drummer Trini Martinez quietly maintains a tight grip on the music's dynamics, opening up as the sound takes flight; each of the three guitarists (Matt and Bubba Kadane and Tench Coxe) exercises more restraint than would be expected from the average, individual axeman in a trio of guitars. Beheaded opens with the deceivingly dark title track. One of the group's most awkward melodies frames the soft-speaking vocalist who hides among the guitar tones. After crawling through this territory, "Beheaded" opens up into a typically angelic melody. "Roman Candle" and "Withdraw" (both adding shades of slide guitar) recall the stripped-down sound of the group's 4-songEP19:10 (1994). On Beheaded, however, any inconsistencies and small shortcomings have been removed in the studio. Thankfully, Bedhead has always sounded like a group of five musicians in a room together, and Beheaded engineer Adam Wiltzie maintains that atmosphere throughout. Bedhead's sophomore full-length represents another stop on the road to slow-burning, soaring, indie rock/pop perfection. ~ Nathan Bush