Between the brothers

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We do a little bit of everything here, and we’ve been doing it 3 times a week for nearly 2 years now. I can’t do it without your support.

Cost? The price of a pint.

They seem to tap into something around here. “Nostalgia” can be a dirty word for musicians. The “best” song will be the next song. The “best” record will be the one we’re working on now. Carrying the old ones around can feel like dragging a suitcase without wheels through the airport. But part of what makes a band special are the memories they both create AND awaken. The second part is every bit as important as the first. A collection of the memories these guys can conjure up could fill a law library. Simpler times. Better times maybe. More resplendent in dignity.

Sunday will only add to this collection. That’s pretty good business.

There’s is a sprawling songbook, and it should be celebrated. I hope the band, as one, feels that way.

(That being said, I wouldn’t quibble if they decided to ADD to that songbook….but first things first, eh?)

— September 16, 2021

Above is what I wrote last year on the eve of their first full reunion show. Interesting, no?

And now?

The Badlees have new music coming. The record will be self-titled. Ten new tracks. Nobody saw this coming.

Well, maybe some of us saw this coming.

When the band re-convened last summer for their Central Pennsylvania Hall of Fame induction, their devoted fanbase re-convened with them. The band played a 3 song set at the ceremony, mainly relying on muscle memory, their one "rehearsal" consisting of a soundcheck an hour earlier. They sounded better than they had any right to sound, and social media immediately lit up with what might come next.

The band may have assumed this was a one-off. They may have assumed that, all these years later, whatever musical bond they once shared would have, if not disappeared completely, at least dissipated.

Full disclosure here. Two of these guys are friends of mine. One especially so. I've made three full albums with Bret Alexander as my co-pilot. I'm far from an impartial observer here. But before we became friends, I waited in line like everybody else for my copies of "Diamonds in the Coal" and "Riversongs" at the Gallery of Sound. I was a fan first. And I still am.

So on with the show….

These are proud guys. The nostalgia aspect of all this that I touched upon last year made them nervous. I didn't say it out loud, but if they sounded flat that first night, or bored, or worst of all, old, I think that would have been it. Thank you and good night. It had been a helluva run.

But they didn't. They kicked ass. They practically levitated. And 20 minutes later it was over. And I thought....."this ain’t over".

The offers for more shows came in almost immediately. Full shows this time. All sold out and each one better than the one before it. The band may have levitated during that first set, but now they had their stage legs. There's a difference. It was always their live shows that propelled them forward. The records, as good as they were, came fully alive onstage. And I think it was always this propulsion that drove subsequent records. So I got the sense that they would not be content with only playing songs written 30 years ago. If they were gonna prove it all night again, it was gonna be with new material by their side.

Which is always the tricky part, right? New music used to be an event. You didn't sit around and wait for it to "drop". You got off your ass and went to the record store. You tore the package apart and devoured the liner notes the same way you'd devoured the writing on the cereal box at breakfast. It was tangible. Something you could hold in your hand. New music now, coming from just about anybody not named Taylor, is like trees falling in a proverbial forest. You gotta use your thumbs to find it. What's the point of offering it if nobody is there to hear it? And sure as shit nobody is being paid for it. That notion is almost quaint these days.

This could take us down all sorts of rabbit holes, none of which are relevant because great bands like the Badlees exist to make music. They are not their own cover band. They are only going to be comfortable celebrating their own history by looking ahead at the same time. And so when I tell you that new tracks like "Leaving Here" and "Ten Ton Heart" can fit snugly inside your Christmas stocking alongside "Fear of Falling" and "Diamonds in the Coal", don't just take my word for it. Go get them and listen for yourself.

The band doesn't try to re-invent itself on these new songs. None of these tracks would sound out of place if found on their earlier records. Nothing sounds dated. The jangle is still there. The supreme gift of melody. The great harmonies. Their music remains accessible and what used to be called "radio-friendly". That is, before guitars on the radio became illegal, but whatever. The Badlees still sound like the Badlees. That's why we're all still here.

I'm not sure what the plan is. Or what it was. This may be it. There may be more. That they could conceive, write, and record an album this good in a few months is kinda crazy. It's what young punks usually do....crammed in the back of a van.....unattached, their only worry the next gig and their ever-escalating bar tab. Guys who have convinced themselves they have absolutely nothing to lose…..

These guys are my age. Husbands and fathers with grown kids, spread out across multiple states. They are rarely in the same room at the same time. There's no time to build cohesiveness. It had to have been there all along. It had to have come from those long ago days. As Pacino said in the Godfather II, "it was between the brothers.....it was between the brothers..."

They say that in the end / it comes down to your friends
and how many you have left / when the day is done
here today and gone tomorrow / but not another minute can you borrow
so rage on rage on rage on my friends

Here was are at closing time
My dearest friends
Soon you’ll go your way
and I’ll go mine
Until we meet again

—Bret Alexander / My Friends

I said to Bret when I first heard this track (which closes the record)….”it sounds like a goodbye…”

“No”, he answered. “More like a goodnight”.

To me that means the door is still ajar….

In a bit...

--tf

Your next chance to see the band is at their CD release show at the Kirby Center. December 23rd. All the info is here. (Try not to be startled by them young dudes pensively staring into your soul you when you pull up that link….)