The film Dig! chronicles the scene created by friends and rivals the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. It spends ample time reliving what it was like to discover the Brian Jonestown Massacre. It includes reactions by executives and fans that describe Anton Newcome’s band as retro, postmodern, and revivalists but clearly geared toward the future. They have always been hard to pin down, leaving admirers scratching their heads. Who are these guys? What period are they from? How have I never heard of them?
The Austin, Texas duo Being Dead can be ascribed those same qualities, and I would argue that they are equally mystifying in the most flattering way. Unlike a band like the Brian Jonestown Massacre, made up of an uncommon arrangement of musicians delivering a recognizable sound, Being Dead are Gen Z in terms of their collective identity. Simply paying homage to bands in long form is a thing of the past; life is fluid and messy, and its soundtrack should follow suit.
The group’s multi-instrumentalists have been known to offer fantastical origin stories aligning with their ambiguously defined personae. They are comprised of Falcon Bitch and Shmoofy (or Gumball, aka Cody Dosier), and are joined live by bassist Ricky Motto (Nicole Roman-Johnston), who also appears on some recordings. At their most basic, Being Dead are best friends mining garage rock, punk, surf, and neo-psychedelia but doing so dynamically, far from the meat-and-potatoes approach of those turn-of-the-millennium duos.
EELS follows their 2023 effort When Horses Would Run, which, in retrospect, the band believed to be too polished. For this effort, they enlisted Grammy Award-winning producer John Congleton, who assisted during the songwriting process and undoubtedly helped the two-channel the innumerable ideas that surface over the 16 tracks. The result is an achievement of the highest caliber, a phantasmagoria of styles that transition with ease while proving music can be as delightful as it is demanding.
Whereas some bands never want to do the same thing from album to album, Being Dead never want to repeat themselves on any song. “Firefighters” shoots out of a cannon with a fuzzed-out guitar like Ty Segall. “Dragon II” is a gentle acoustic number that would fit on Guided By Voices‘ Bee Thousand. “Gazing at Footwear” explores the eerie reaches of shoegaze. “Big Bovine” begins with nervy krautrock energy until the skies open up into a cowpunk refrain (“Dancing under the Lonestar stars, which resurfaces two tracks later). This is just a tiny sampling of the frantic journey listeners are asked to embark upon when the needle drops.
The source material on EELS creates a 1960s feel, but the exact references are somewhat vague. Sure, they pay homage to garage rock and girl groups, and the boy and girl vocals are a tried-and-true device that dates even farther back. What’s most apparent is that Being Dead clearly prize some vintage artifacts. The opener, “Godzilla Rises”, speaks about making love but does so with a swoon (“Ahhh”), like a scene from a TV Land sitcom. The rub is that despite all the feelings, the lover has been deceived all along. The song’s refrain echoes the Who, yet somehow, the stylistic shifts work. “Nightvision” brandishes Liz Phair or early Cat Power attitude but includes sound effects last manufactured by the Olivia Tremor Control. This is not to mention “Goodnight”, which similarly inserts Elephant 6 Recording Company vibes.
Based upon the array of influences and cool-ass style, Being Dead’s closest kin is probably Parquet Courts. For every nod to the Sonics or Aftermath-era Rolling Stones, they are clearly indebted to the B-52s, the Feelies, and countless other acts that were trendy, campy, or both. It becomes clear that despite the influences sprinkled throughout, Being Dead refuse to be boxed in as they burst with ideas.
Despite the quick-hitting shifts within songs, many of the best tracks paint a picture. “Van Goes” begins with the singers lamenting their work at dead-end jobs. The lyrics include the notations “Falcon Rant” and “Cody Rant” for their overlapping parts. Wouldn’t it be nice to get a plot of land and devote time and energy to one’s passion? It so follows, “If I didn’t have to toil away / I’d have time… to paint” (hence, “Van Gogh!”).
“Problems” asks listeners to visualize a scene, one that includes an individual having a real tough go of it: “Never seem to catch a break / Just when I need for heaven’s sake / I ran my car into another / Lost my cool in time for summer days.” Instead, the singer imagines “the perfect hang”, which includes planning a party, singing at the party, and cleaning up after the revelry. It turns out that even after everybody has left, the issue remains, suggesting the problem is internal: “This problem is my problem / And there’s always a problem.” Even if the lyrics are wry and the delivery is witty, the music still contains depth.
With Congleton at the helm, the track sequencing and production are near perfect. For an album brimming with ideas, EELS only contains one minor misstep, which is a matter of taste. For all its simplicity, the tongue-in-cheek send-up of “Rock n’ Roll Hurts”, could have been a sincere offering but devolves into giggles (yes, we get the over-the-top sentiment). “Goodnight” is the opposite, an album-ender that challenges a traditional lullaby but remains heartfelt.
Being Dead’s EELS has received some early praise but with decidedly less fanfare than more established acts, hinting that the record could be an underground classic. In all likelihood, some lucky listeners will discover it in a few years, believing it to be nothing less than an underappreciated gem from a bygone era.