With that title, this post might result in accidental hits by those seeking ¦ well, something other than a music heads-up. But as Vince Vaughn aptly observed in Old School when responding to Luke Wilson’s character taking a glass half-empty view of the unwitting discovery of his girlfriend’s sexual enlightenment, “Columbus wasn’t looking for America my man but that seemed to work out for everybody, didn’t it? You’re here, you know what I mean.” Translation: some of the best discoveries are by accident.
Such was the case for me and The Beautiful Girls, a band I happened upon while investigating another band. Admittedly, like Columbus, my “discovery” wasn’t truly new. The Beautiful Girls have been around for a few years and have two worthy full-length releases available, Learn Yourself (2003) and We’re Already Gone (2005). They are far better known in their native Australia than here in the adopted home of Borat. I figured that if Prince can play the Super Bowl (as if the diminutive purple one and the NFL go hand-in-hand?) to a worldwide audience, years after being relevant, then I can blog this band even though I arrived a little late. Better late than never.
Despite an arguably unfortunate name, The Beautiful Girls had me intrigued from the first listen. Led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Mat McHugh, these Aussies admirably blend rock, blues, jazz, folk, reggae, without being contrived or needlessly derivative. Water (2006) is a cool compilation of some of their older recordings from Down Under, such as “Morning Sun,” “Goodtimes,” “Music” and “Freedom Pt. 2″ (featuring Mason Jennings), which can be heard at www.cornerstoneras.com/jukeboxes/tbg/water.
I’m really sold on their last album proper, We’re Already Gone. Reggae predominates over other styles on this one and a few clouds creep in to shadow the sunnier vibe of TBG’s prior work. “And We’ll Dance on the Ashes of What’s Left,” “The Biggest Lie I Ever Told” and “Shot Down” are among the notable tracks. You can stream here: www.cornerstoneras.com/jukeboxes/tbg/jukebox.swf.
The band’s myspace page reports that they are currently in LA mixing a new album with Mark Needham, who has worked with the Killers and many others. Last year, TBG had a US tour nixed at the border over visa issues, but hopefully their live show can be seen stateside again in the near future.
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