January 15, 2006

Bands I Love: The Sugarplastic

The Sugarplastic, 2000: (From left): Ben Eshbach, Kiara Geller, David Cunningham.

If you've been reading The Pulse, or have talked with me about music lately, you'll know that I have constantly been mentioning one band: The Sugarplastic. And while my impassioned hysteria concerning their work seems a recent revelation, it's really not.

In 1996, while I was managing a record store in Connecticut, a promo copy of their DGC (Geffen) Records release, Bang, The Earth Is Round landed on my desk. A "sort of American XTC" I thought to myself at the time, the album earned repeated listens that year -- and every year since, really. It is a sharp, funny, powerful, slick piece of work with nary a bum note played or sung throughout. Ben Eshbach's voice became an instant fave, as did his pop acrobat guitar work. Kiara Geller's bass playing is gorgeously metronomic and melodic at the same time, and Josh Laner's drumming is all-pocket, all the time and fun to play along to through my headphones. Gretchen Parlato -- now a full-fledged jazz diva -- appears on three tracks as a perfect harmonic counterpoint to the joyously cartoon-like proceedings.

While the whole album holds up, the leadoff track -- "Another Myself" -- still amazes me more than any other song by any other band. Ever. It's a simple tune, really, but after over (probably) 10,000 listens, its "Respectable Street"-stomps-The Beatles attack still sounds wonderfully fresh.

The Sugarplastic were signed to Geffen in the midst of a mid-'90s signing frenzy, and would eventually be dropped as the label did a wholesale housecleaning. But they had already released a few vinyl singles prior to DGC (including the playfully catchy "Ottawa Bonesaw") and another album, Radio Jejune, on Sugar Fix Records. The album is a bit more straightforward than Bang, as well as tad harder, and its title track is almost self-fulfilling prophecy, seemingly asking, "Why isn't the really good music (like ours) ever played on the radio?" Copies of this album reguarly appear on eBay.

The band's follow-up to Bang, Resin, takes the eccentricities both to another level AND down a notch at the same time, as Geller lends a hand with the songwriting on a rollicking collection that features the band's typical rock prowess coupled with the occasional odd nod to, yes, Disney. David Cunnigham replaced Josh Laner on drums for this album. The Japanese version available from GEMM.com includes two bonus tracks, including the shuffling "Motorola Rocketship," which features King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto.

The band also released a tidy B-Sides collection in Japan, Primitive Plastic, giving proper digital release to some of their hard-to-find vinyl singles. The band then started releasing a series of seven limited-edition vinyl singles on Tallboy Records, each containing a track written by Eshbach and a track written by Geller. The whole series was issued on CD -- called 7x7x7 -- late last year. (Click to download tracks: "Sins Can Swim Like This" and "Here Comes Mr. Right".)

Which brings me to Will. The album was released on Tallboy Records last year, and was my pick for Album of the Year. I reviewed it back in September, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars after just a couple of listens. I have since added the missing half star.

The album is all over the place, offering up a swirling assortment of sounds -- some thoughfully derivative, some I've yet to fully wrap my head around. It's almost the aggregate of all their previous work, hinting at the handful of styles that dominated each of their previous albums. While the album is best heard as a complete unit, one tune -- the rocking "The Runaround" -- is (almost alarmingly) infectious. No single song got to know my car stereo more this year. Other swell tunes like "What the Boy Said," 'Very Stereo," "Underwater" and "Jesus Is His Name" followed closely behind. The band even made a quirky little video for "Autumn All The Time."

Geller also released a tasty, self-titled solo debut this year, and the band was named "Best Pop/Rock Band" at the L.A. Weekly's 2005 Music Awards. Cunningham recently left the band, however, as he is again working on some material with his band, Catorce. A new drummer is currently working with The Sugarplastic on material for their next album. I know I'm missing a few things, like the band landing a song on the Powerpuff Girls soundtrack and being mentioned on an episode of The Gilmore Girls, but this overview should be enough to get you started on the road to Sugarplastic fandom.

If the music of The Sugarplastic sounds interesting to you, click here to hear an archived 88.1 BSR Radio show featuring a bunch of their tunes. Visit Ben's site here, too, and watch him order lunch.

Posted by colrus at 02:56 AM | TrackBack