all photos: Shervin Lainez
It is amazing that only now Tereu Tereu gets their listening party feature on BYT. After all, the almost local (Fredericksburg does count? Doesn't it?) quartet have been playing shows on every stage in town with every act in town (Olivia & The Housemates, Jukebox the Ghost, Pree...) and every other out of town act we like ( Foals, Pomegranates...), spreading their jangly, catchy, mid-tempo pop gospel every step of the way.
But good things come to those who wait:
Tonight, Tereu Tereu is pre-releasing their first full length album All That Keeps Us Together @ DC9 (official release is on June 16th, though pre-order copies and vinyl will be available tonight) and so we sat down, keyboard to keyboard with Ryan Little to talk some more about what all these tracks are all about:
- Perpetual Motion
Do you remember when you were much younger, long before you were fashionably disaffected, and you drove to some field on the edge of town, and you blasted The Flaming Lips from your beat-up station wagon's lousy excuse for a stereo, and you danced around with your friends like idiots until 2:00 AM hoping the cops wouldn't find you, and you could feel every electron at the tips of your fingers somehow jumping and connecting to the uncut grass and fallen leaves and everything else around you in a too-short moment of ecstatic discovery? No? Well, this is about that.
We were fortunate enough to have Carol Bui stop by the studio to help with the hook. Thanks, Carol!
- Beyond the Coast
Sometimes writing music is an awful lot like an old Cuban fisherman who dreams about lions on the coast of Africa risking his life to chase after an enormous Marlin. Is it noble or desperate or both? Is it problematic that I've been known to fantasize about finding some bizarre form of salvation through obsessively revising song lyrics and pouring my guts into amateurish guitar solos? It's likely that I've been misreading Hemmingway.
In the studio, Devin Ocampo added some acoustic guitar on the bridge for this one, Matt plucked Faraquet's old banjo a bit, Ross added some sort of children's idiophone on the verse, our friend Ed added some violin, and you may notice Carol Bui singing on the outro. It was quite the event.
- All that Keeps Us Together
A few years back, someone important earnestly suggested America build a massive wall to keep out the Mexicans. Apparently, this idea was taken seriously.
- Cage Was Right
The cliche says absence makes the heart grow fonder. It also makes my tinnitus-afflicted ears ring terribly and my neglected stomach growl. Negative space is remarkably powerful, and it's interesting how it affects and even defines relationships. I sometimes find myself wondering which of my old friendships are comforting simply because they are so distant that by their nature they're uncomplicated.
Our pal Nate added some saxophone squalor before the key change. It gets all free and jumbled just before the change-up; I've always enjoyed a little bit of chaos in the mix.
Want more:
Socialize with them online at:
http://www.myspace.com/tereutereu
and come to the show tonight:
God loves a cheerful giver.
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