Wednesday, December 29, 2010

BELL ENGINE

"Bell Engine" is the band my older son, Miles, plays in up in "The 'Shire" (The Berkshires).

I've written about hearing them live and how exciting and satisfying that experience can be. But I just found out they're on My Sapce, so you can check out their music yourself.

I suggest you sample several of their songs, because their range musically is wide. There's tunes that feature  the lovely Lisa Anderson's lead vocals that are sheer beauty, and others that feature John Clarke's lead vocals and acoustic guitar work (and most of their songs are his creations) that is so uniquely his, the first time I heard them it felt like discovering buried treasure.

And their duets take the sound in yet an entirely different direction to my ear. The sound quality isn't the same as hearing them live, obviously, but you can get a taste of all of the above, as well as my son's funky bass lines and riffs, the electric guitarist Dan Karp's often subtly flaming solos, and all backed by the solid drumming of Sam Earnshaw

Check them out, and if you're anywhere near Hudson New York on January 10th, go see them live at Club Helsinki and I guarantee you'll enjoy yourself, maybe even as much as they always seem to (though the photo below obviously doesn't capture that creative joy entirely!).


4 comments:

AlamedaTom said...

Lal. Thanks for pulling my coat, and tell Miles I dig their stuff a lot. Regarding "Love in This," I was trying to figure out what it reminded me of. First I was thinking it was an REM tune, but then I remembered: "Blood and Roses" by the Smithereens (1986). Check it out and see if you agree:

http://bit.ly/ttlPI

(Sorry about the Reese's ad that you have to suffer through.)

Lally said...

Tom, you're totally right. I didn't think of it but definitely reminiscent of that. Love them both. Lal

Miles said...

Dad,

Thanks a lot for the plug! I wrote a short description about the recording process which can be found on the blog section of the myspace page. The sound quality is the outcome of recording "live" without too much fiddling. A friend threw up some mics, and we played the songs. No guitar overdubs, no real separation of instruments. Pretty different from the usual studio approach.

Tom, I like the comparison to the Smithereens, good call. And thanks for the kind words.

Mocha Maya's said...

Just wanted to step in and announce that Bell Engine will be performing at Mocha Maya's in Shelburne Falls, MA on Friday, Feb. 18th at 8pm. We're very excited about having them in. We've had a long running relationship with John Clarke, he used to host our open mic series, and look forward to having him and the full band in. If you haven't been to our venue yet we have been told we are one of the top 5 listening rooms in the country. So it's a great way to check out Bell Engine if you haven't seen them live yet. Hope you don't mind the plug! Can't wait for their show!! Cheers!!