800 Beloved
By Jeff Milosevich
Oct 11, 2006, 23:42
It gave me something to think about,” Sean Lynch declared of the early days of his job as a funeral home cosmetologist. “Things are very momentary."
“I’ve always been into taking an object and having it explain an offshoot of whole other arrangements, and funerals are very much like that," Lynch said. "I’ve always been drawn more to music that was kind of overcast with a certain amount of gloom. I never got into gothic culture and I always found that kinda laughable. I did like music where you could hear a history in it, that seemed substantial and realistic and I’ve always been a fan of songwriters that experienced it.”
Lynch grew up in Milford, a quaint yet dreary setting with few exciting outlets for adventure, which led him to rock ‘n’ roll and playing in punk rock bands as a teenager with a Fender Mustang he eventually banged against the wall thanks to Sonic Youth. “I think that’s what’s missing from a lot of hipster culture. People lose that, that sense of being impressionable.”
The band is Nicole Kosiba (synths), Deleano Acevido, (drums) and newest member Nick Bataran (bass), with Lynch on baritone guitar. 800beloved (a collision of lifeless toll free infomercial numbers and one’s sacred soul mate) is a flat out eureka-moment for the mistily regarded shoegaze genre, forming a purposeful danceable percussion and heavy synthetic, electronic experimentation. Heavy, distorted, layered sound mixed and recorded by Lynch combined with quasi-campy, bittersweet electronics and a contagious drum beat form the bulk of 800beloved’s early recordings, to be released in the coming months. (Dial their name and you actually reach a funeral service conglomerate.)
This is Lynch's second major Detroit-based band outing and the approach, the songwriting, the back-story and his current philosophy (as possibly influenced by his day-job) are nothing short of captivating. “The main feature to sum it up: functional uses for distortion in a pop music sense.”
“I never wanted it to be so singular in the view from the songwriter’s standpoint that people couldn’t feel like dancing to it," he said. "I wanted to stay in one familiar kind of quaint area and explain all that I could about that, and the area I was most comfortable speaking about was this kind of ‘anti-romantic,’... I’ll spell out a very romantic sequence but I won’t be a player in it. I think if songwriters use different narratives — they don’t have to own what the narrative is saying, they don’t have to be the person in the song.”
This Friday the 13th will bring forth an imaginative showcase. Firstly, Lynch will offer cosmetics to 13 willing dancers to show “What they’ll look like at their funerals.” Second, he plans to dress the stage as a Victorian-style arcade with an archway that makes the stage appear to be outside.
“A lot of 800beloved’s themes, ultimately, if you hit rewind on them, you’d realize they’re using words that are intentionally kind of juvenile," Lynch said. "I’ve always liked that visual image of a 9th grade Halloween dance.”
Their daring is not only admirable, it’s refreshing — amplifying what a band’s capable of doing with one night. “We wanted to play into the idea of barring the idea of a typical rock ‘n’ roll show," Lynch said. "Saying you’re in a band isn’t what it was like 20 years ago. Who isn’t in a band?” | RDW
800beloved • October 13 • Lager House with very special guests DETHLAB . STAR . RENTAL Doors 10pm • 21+
flyer by Mike Doyle
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