The Beautiful Few

Down in these southern depths, a little band like us can’t deny that MYSPACE seems to be making the individual band website an antiquated, almost redundant entity. With this in mind, this is possibly the last posting on the site here and all news will move over to www.myspace.com/thebeautifulfew In the future, on MySpace, we hope to have a little compilation from all our albums up for download and to make those CD’s available as well. We begin recording a new album on August 4 and will probably add some new tastes as well. So for the future it’s looking like myspace but the photos and record label contacts remain here with these other notes of posterity. For all other matters Few-ish, contact Kieran at kierancarroll@hotmail.com

After conquering in the smallest possible way, St.Kilda, or more specifically The Esplanade Hotel, we find ourselves playing the game every little band and for that matter many big bands know all too well - waiting. Due now in October or possibly November, our fifth album DIY Heartbreak (Girlfriends 88-05) will be released both digitally through BigRig Records and in a limited edition bright yellow postcard sleeve run of one hundred copies which will be available at the gigs. On the gig front, we go to the Brunswick hotel on October 6 and play indie nightclub Weekender at Ding Dong on Sat December 16 with that British pop authority Steve Wide DJing. Somewhere between that there will be a launch, most probably our favourite old stamping ground, The Public Bar in North Melbourne. Then Sydney, then Adelaide, sometime soon. The Few do not want to lose sight of the road. stay tuned.

With only the heartiest, beefiest old timers dipping their wide paunches into the chilly waters of Port Phillip, The Beautiful Few have taken to walking along the highly maintained sands of Edithvale finalizing the artwork for DIY HEARTACHE (Girlfriends 88 -05) and looking down to the soon to be palm tree covered drag of Frankston; rumoured to be the new California or back towards Beaumaris where wife swapping was rife in the 70s. Up in Shepparton, Troy J Parker works hard (after delectable meals) on new tunes for future releases and we begin to wonder how we got to this: the joy of a crumpet as a magpie pecks at the driveway or walking an old suit home from the dry cleaners while waving to the old men patiently waiting for the once a week community bus. For so many as they get older, life speeds up and up but for The Beautiful Few on the eve of their fifth full lengther, life has wound down to so many small and simple pleasures; a world that will hopefully bring fresh ideas into flower and with dreams of deep, unhurried serenity.

Down here in southern suburban Melbourne, close to the bay, The Beautiful Few have never been technologically savvy. Still coming to terms with faxes and answering machines, they have been known to dream in analogue and corsets. Their new album out in August bridges the gaps between computers and the old Sunday roast, between city and country. DIY Heartbreak (Girlfriends ‘88-’05) will be their fifth since ‘99 and while it’s never gonna match the speed of the manic, recently departed, one man rock’n'roll cottage industry machine Nikki Sudden, it’s not too bad either. For an overview on the life of Nikki Sudden, founder of the often name-dropped Swell Maps (Pavement, Sonic Youth and Evan Dando were all big fans) go to www.nikkisudden.com - The Few drink a toast to the prolific; a place where The Fall always shine.

Like many former members of The Beautiful Few who were   either playing in at the time or left to pursue other projects, some recent members are doing well ‘on the scene’. A certain bass player is currently touring the country with a highly charting album and is no doubt having a lot of crowded hours while in Melbourne, Actor/Slash Model are carving it up all over town with a twin keyboard, drums and guitar attack.

Of the past Beautiful few members have been in or are still with: The Huxton Creepers, Foil, This Happy Greed, Dust, Gaslight Radio, Silver Ray, The Dead Salesman, The Late Mail, Gigantaur, Registered Nurse and Black Cab and possibly a few others that will eventually come to mind. Ah yes, The Beautiful Few since 1993 - wearing the weight of sticky Melbourne carpets everywhere!  People who can sniff a bad band rider from one hundred kilometres away! 

The Beautiful Few’s 1999 debut album The October Lovers which was voted in the Top Ten albums for that year in both Beat and Inpress was thought for the last couple of years as being being ungettable. Miraculously, a couple of dozen copies were found in a house in Thornbury last month.

If you’d like to catch up with what The Few were doing back then, cheques or money orders for $20 can be sent to Kieran Carroll, 2/34 Keith Ave Edithvale 3196 Melbourne or bought from the Big Rig Records website at www.bigrigrecords.net

Also, the last three Beautiful Few albums: Something To Do, Someone To Love, Something To Look Forward To (2001), Metal For Melbourne & other stories (2003) and If You Change Your City…You’re Sure To Change Your Style (2004) are now all available on iTunes.

With a new band line-up rehearsing the album which is due out in August and a couple of gigs planned for winter, The Beautiful Few are up and running again. Our first gigs back in Melbourne are Friday June 16 at The Public Bar North Melbourne with Plastic Palace Alice and Lamplight and Fri July 21st at The Empress North Fitzroy with Tugboat and Blessington. From there, with the album release ready, a couple of interstate trips will be on the agenda.

What to call the new album? Songs For Departed Girlfriends, Girlfriends 88-05, or just Girlfriends?

To be mastered at Christmas, the new album should be out soon with a few gigs to follow. It’s a raw, sometimes sweet, often confessional, nostalgic, disappointed, elated and ghost purging effort; The Beautiful Few’s fifth long-player since late ‘99. More details soon…

We’ve just recorded fifteen new songs in central Victoria, a thematic record tentatively titled Songs For Departed Girlfriends. Embracing synth pop, ambient instrumentals, spoken word and minimalist guitar rock, the album is in the mixing stage and will hopefully be finished by the end of November. To warm up, we play some of these new songs at The Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills, Sydney on Sunday the 23rd October with Pete Stone from Perth and stylish popsters Miss V.