LATE SEASON KIDS by THE BEATINGS
— Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained —
— Bury You —
— Youth Crimes —
— The Sleeper is No Fool —
— All the Things You’ve Been Missing —
— Parts-Per Notation —
— Worth the Wait —
— The Scapegoats —
— Ways and Means —
— Can Not Complete —
— Don’t Feel it No More —
— Dreams of the Waking —
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MDRF017 | SEPT 2009 | 41:30 | FULL LENGTH CD
I suppose to compare The Beatings to The Boss is to say that on Late Season Kids The Beatings are more confident, and have edited their songs more thoroughly, than before. The playing and performances are fully thought out, and all the big gestures hit the target. The middle of the album doesn’t sag, and no song sticks around long enough to wear out its welcome. And even if that last bit is very unBoss-like, it’s definitely indicative of a tight and professional group of musicians.
Musical proof of the band’s new self-assurance is right there in the “sha-la-las” that underpin the chorus on the album-opening “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained”, and in the throat-tearing Black Francis scream and trainwreck ending that ends the same tune – The Beatings follow this up with two more rock-solid songs, the Bob-Mould bittersweet of “Bury You” and the world weary “Youth Crimes,” before slowing down with the measured gait of “The Sleeper is No Fool.”
Even the songs in the soft middle of the album, where most bands stick their filler, are consistently surprising – suddenly you realize that the kids in “All The Things Your Missing” are dangerously bored, needles are washing up on shore, and menace looms, and lonely-man rant of “Parts Per Notation” builds and builds into an arresting exultation: “I think she’s taking me home… please God, make her take me home.”
All in all, Late Season Kids is a better album than The Beatings’ last one, which was really good. In a just world, it would outsell the latest mediocrities from any dozen Pitchfork-approved artists you could name, and hopefully it will. The Beatings are a band just beginning to hit their stride, and the fact that their latest album is better than their last one in measurable, identifiable ways, suggests that their next record will be their Let it Be… the Beatles or Replacements, take your pick. — John Owen, Blog Critics
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“Whoa! where did these guys and one gal come from? let me answer my own question for ya. the beatings are from boston and late season kids is there sixth record, and third full length. im about half way through the 12 song lp and like the evening rig’s is doin stuff, this, at this juncture, is definitely one of the best rock records i have heard this year. where is doin stuff is heavy on the mats influence, late season kids heavily steeped in a lot of what was going on in mid-90′s indie rock and the likes of superchunk, sebadoh, polvo, new radiant storm kings, etc. reading this and knowing what you may already know about me, it should then come as no surprise that i dig these guys”. — Captains’s Dead
“The Beatings have been beating out records for nearly a decade. That they haven’t achieved more notoriety is confounding considering the quality evidenced throughout their catalog. Late Season Kids displays all the hallmarks for indie-pop success: short, hook-filled mid-tempo rockers, sturdy lead vocals with ethereal female backups, and just the right amount of noisy guitars to keep it all interesting.
Their raucous moments recall vintage Superchunk, while much of the album evokes Pleased To Meet Me-era Replacements. One of the vocalists is a dead ringer for Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, as heard on “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained” and “Youth Crimes.” On song after song, the band members display their collective strength as consummate songwriters. Each tune balances ingenuity with raw pop hooks. Their chemistry is as much responsible for the band’s success as the musicians’ individual contributions. The sum of their various parts is an engaging album, surely as likable as anything from indie rock’s marquee names.” — Verbicide Magazine
“I was a bit late to discover The Beatings unfortunately, as my first exposure to the band was their excellent release Holding on to Hand Grenades in ’06. By that point the band was already on their 5th release. However, their noisier post-punk leanings were certainly pleasing to the ear and pretty much every song hit the ground running that easily got my blood pumping. And now, after dispersing and working on various other projects for the last couple years, The Beatings are back with their next record Late Season Kids which is set to be released through Midriff Records on September 15th.The album starts off in the typical Beatings barnburner fashion with “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained”, but Late Season Kids as it progresses turns out to be a much more scaled back release for the band displaying a refined sound that taps into the members’ pop influences more so than relying on heaping amounts of distortion and their taste for playing at a no holds barred pace. While I do sort of miss the anthem like qualities that their previous album possessed, Late Season Kids succeeds fully on songwriting rather than just reaching back and turning the knob up on the amp to get that sort of energy going. Where in the past you could probably pinpoint The Beatings influences (Mission of Burma, Sugar, etc.) to a handful of bands, Late Season Kids takes a big step forward in breaking out of those chains and being able to maintain their own identity as a band. In the end Late Season Kids may not be the sort of rocking affair that you’ve come to expect from the band, however this is certainly their strongest and most well written album to date and burying these songs in a pile of fuzz would have been a disservice to the work they put into them I feel. Good stuff as always from these Bostonians.” — Built on a Weak Spot
The title to Boston-slash-New York rockers The Beatings’ sixth full-length evokes the surging success of a pro sports franchise making all the right moves perhaps when least expected. Nearly a decade into the band’s career (and well into certain members’ thirties, marriages and parenthood) is an unlikely time to have created its best, most confident record — and yet here it is. Late Season Kids is a triumph crafted by a quintet whose tenure is longer than many — if not most — big-leaguers and rock acts alike.
Although The Beatings continue to calculate the musical mean of noisy indie rock a la Superchunk and Mission of Burma, the band hasn’t been coasting. It recently added the latest in a series of fifth members: Greg Lyon, who fronts and plays guitar for Beatings label mates Pending Disappointment, has been officially dubbed (drubbed?) a Beating. As far as the music is concerned, the band purports to have embraced a more pop direction on this latest collection. This we can confirm, but don’t expect Barry Manilow here. Instead, The Beatings furnish a ready supply of its familiar fist-pumping anthems, such as the four-on-the-floor “Youth Crimes,” with the fivesome’s typical noise quotient dialed back somewhat in certain places. The subdued and downright spooky “Ways And Means,” sung by bassist Erin Dalbec, is a taut, but calming deep breath later in the album. The Tony Skalicky-sung closer “Dreams Of The Waking” both recalls Versus’/The Godrays’ “Crazy” and sounds like the cover closing on a book.
But not everything is toned down. The redemptive caterwaul of co-fronter E.R. drives the album highlight “All The Things You’ve Been Missing” repeatedly into a chorus built on a scalding baptism of blaring, reverbed guitars. At the break-down he spits lines that recall Lloyd Dobbler dialogue, before spinning the song on its side like a bottle cap into a jabbing, acerbic coda. The following track, the thriller “Parts-Per Notation,” leads with the almost comically understated line “I think I’m going to explode” (reinforcing the earlier sentiment “it takes all of my patience not to lose control” from “Youth Crimes”).
On Late Season Kids the band swings for the fences and connects like batters in their prime. The propulsive energy captured within the set — but to a lesser extent in the respective side projects fronted by E.R. and Mr. Skalicky — suggests that The Beatings’ secret weapon is the all-business but unflagging rhythm section comprised of Dennis Grabowski and Ms. Dalbec. — Clicky Clicky Music