Doctor’s Orders: Being Dead prescribe their nine favourite albums

Posted On September 5, 2024September 5, 2024

If you gaze across the diverse landscape of modern indie rock and DIY music, there aren’t many artists operating on the same wavelength as Being Dead. Hailing from the proudly ‘weird’ city of Austin, Texas, the trio have been treating audiences to their unique blend of indie garage rock, psychedelia, and theatrical ethos since the release of their debut album When Horses Would Run last year. Now gearing up for the sophomore effort, EELS, the core duo of Falcon Bitch and Smoofy, kindly sat down with me to shed light on their expectedly diverse range of influences.

I found it difficult to know what to expect from Being Dead. Often, when talking to bands who appear to be spontaneous and unpredictable onstage, the musicians are incredibly serious and meticulous when actually discussing their music. However, when two grinning faces appeared on my screen, one of whom boldly introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Falcon”, I could sense that the chaos and comedy of their musical material certainly translated into their real-life personalities.

Before delving into the records that Being Dead picked out, it is important to set the scene for this interview. Both Falcon and Smoofy preceded the interview by claiming that they did not know how to talk about music, and Smoofy – for reasons that were never explained – had a slide whistle, which he would use intermittently throughout the chat. The pair would also sometimes trail off, giggling, in the middle of sentences and begin to tell unrelated stories that never finished. I am, of course, not willing to cast aspersions on the musicians, but it is worth noting that marijuana is legal in California, where the band recorded EELS.

On the topic of their sophomore record, EELS represents a vital progression for the group, offering a distinctly more polished sound while retaining the sense of spontaneity and DIY ethos that made their debut so endearing. One of the most impressive things about the album is that it manages to capture the spirit of the band’s often chaotic live performances. According to Falcon, that atmosphere was entirely deliberate and largely down to their producer, John Congleton, who has worked with everybody from Lana Del Rey to Brian Wilson.

“We were trying to make it a little more close to the live set,” Falcon confirmed, “How difficult is that to do in the studio? That’s a good question. I guess when you have a pro like old J.C. – Jesus Christ, John Congleton, swine dick daddy – he makes it very easy because he’s an old pro, and we were recording it pretty fast, so that allowed us to have to be rougher.” According to the pair, the upcoming album was completed a lot quicker than their debut, thanks largely to the lack of Covid-19-related delays. However, I never managed to get to the bottom of their strange nickname for John Congleton.

The nine albums that Being Dead highlighted as their favourites act as a fitting insight into the inherent manifesto of the group. Within their list, everything from the mainstream metal of System of a Down to the obscure satanic bluegrass of The Louvin Brothers is treated with an equal level of respect. A lot of their choices seemed to be rooted in nostalgia, which might explain why Being Dead sound like so few other bands currently in operation.

So, without further ado, join us on this bizarre and often chaotic journey through the musical minds of Being Dead’s Falcon Bitch and Smoofy as we endeavour to discover more secrets about the sound of this mysterious Austin outfit. These nine incredible albums should certainly give you enough material to quell your need for a musical escape until September 27th, when Being Dead are due to unleash EELS onto the world via Bayonet Records.

Being Dead prescribe their nine favourite albums:

Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam (2007)

Kicking off with a stunning example of late 2000s experimental pop, Being Dead’s first pick is Animal Collective’s 2007 record Strawberry Jam. “It’s the first one that I heard of theirs,” Smoofy shared, “And I was kind of late to the game. I heard it when I was, like, 22 or something like that.”

However, the conditions in which Smoofy first heard the album were less than harmonious. “I was having one of the worst [LSD] trips of my entire life,” he said, “And I felt like I was being chased in a jungle. And then I woke up the next day and I said, ‘Well, that was kind of a cool sound.’ Listening to it again, I was like, ‘Oh, this album fucking rocks.’ Then I just got obsessed with Animal Collective in general. But Strawberry Jam, that one’s always the best one.”

He added, “In my opinion. It’s really hardcore. It’s kind of scary.”

Deerhoof – The Runners Four (2005)

Sticking in the 2000s, the pair picked out Deerhoof’s 20-track epic The Runners Four as a particular favourite, though they noted that it cannot be listened to all in one go. “Sometimes, when I listen to it, I start in the middle. I just don’t always start at the top, because this one has so many bangers and, disclaimer, my focus is better at the beginning,” Falcon shared.

The root of her appreciation for Deerhoof seems to be in their distinctive guitar tones. “They’re tone hounds, and they know how to rip you apart with a crazy guitar tone. They’re just masters of the craft, straight up,” she said. “There are just moments where they explode; there are moments where they’re just like chugging along and their own path in this own world that they built for you. You can’t help but just smile and look around and go for the ride”.

Grass Widow – Past Time (2010)

“I really love Grass Widow,” Smoofy said of their next pick, exposing the relatively obscure lo-fi indie rock outfit from San Francisco. “I think they’re awesome, and I don’t understand how they’re not, like, super famous. I don’t get it. They feel like they’re pretty underground, and it’s like, they’re so fucking good. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

He continued, “Best Coast is really famous. It’s like, this is like Best Coast, but a little more mature. Not to say Best Coast isn’t cool, but this is such good music. I just don’t understand how it didn’t ever catch on in a really big way.”

Chiming in on this 2010 record, Falcon added that a large part of Past Time’s appeal lies within its stunning vocal harmonies. “The three-part harmony is, like, unbeatable.” Having three musicians all sharing vocal duties is something of a rarity, particularly in the indie rock scene, but it certainly went down well with Falcon. “It’s so fucking hot,” she said, “Like, that just gets me ripe and ready to go. Just wet as hell.” I swiftly moved on.

Chronophage – Prolog For Tomorrow (2018)

Another somewhat obscure artist, this time hailing from Being Dead’s native Austin, Texas. ”Chronophage used to live here in town,” Falcon remembered, “And they’re just absolute legends. This album is perfect. It’s perfect. Again, another band that should be massively famous. They’re just total freaks and tape heads making music that absolutely rips you a new bunghole.”

Smoofy was also keen to espouse the joys of this album, saying, “It’s a really good artistic punk album. they’re not saying, ‘Hey, we’re a punk band.’ They just got a lot of attitude, and it’s awesome.” The very same could be said for Being Dead, which tends to operate with a punk ethos without being an overtly punk-sounding band. “Trying to be punk without being a punk band is important to me,” the percussionist confirmed.

Cindy Lee – Act of Tenderness (2015)

Being Dead did not have a great deal to say about Cindy Lee’s sophomore solo album Act of Tenderness, though they did highlight the frustration of it not currently being available on Spotify. Falcon simply shared that the album is “just heartbreaking,” before adding: “I mean, you will sit there and just cry. You will just – tears will be elicited, will be provoked out of you, will be demanded from you.”

In many ways, perhaps it is more fitting that Falcon’s summation of this album was so succinct. After all, Lee’s work tends to speak for itself. Rooted in a kind of psychedelic nostalgia trip, the Canadian drag queen is capable of stirring up profound and hard-hitting emotions through her incredibly underrated body of work.

System of a Down – Mesmerize (2005)

In need of a change of pace, Being Dead moved from the deep emotions of Cindy Lee right on to the fun nu-metal world of System of a Down. While most fans would pick out the album Toxicity as a favourite, Smoofy and Falcon Bitch went for a slightly different flavour in 2005’s Mesmerize. “It was between this one and Toxicity. This one is personally my favourite, and I’ll explain why,” Smoofy shared, “Toxicity rocks and System of Down rocks, but I think this one feels so much more playful than the other one, comparing it to Toxicity.”

“Mesmerize takes itself even less seriously,” he continued, “Which is really important in music for me, and us as a band, to not take anything that seriously, and it can still rock.” Confirming this love of silliness and rock, Falcon added, “It’s produced so huge and professionally, and that’s such a hilarious ‘fuck you’ in so many ways, and they’re just having so much fun on such a grand scale.”

The Louvin Brothers – Satan Is Real (1959)

Perhaps the strangest of Being Dead’s picks, Satan Is Real is a bizarre 1959 bluegrass record by the country-gospel duo The Louvin Brothers. “Absolutely stunning album,” Falcon states. According to the band, they first discovered this record while working on When Horses Would Run. “We were introduced to it because we recorded the first album at Radio Milk, which is her friend James [Petralli]’s studio, from White Denim, and he had the vinyl set up somewhere in the studio.”

“We just thought it was, like, the funniest album cover.” The album artwork depicts the Louvin Brothers seemingly welcoming the listener to hell, standing in front of a depiction of the devil that makes knock-off Halloween costumes seem realistic. “We would talk about it for a long time before we actually listened to it,” she said, “And then we listened to it so many months later, and we’re like, ‘whoa.’ Like, absolutely mind blown.”

Take Six – Take Six (1988)

While this record, by the famed 1980s acapella gospel group Take Six, might be a favourite of the duo, it also might be the cause of some inter-band tension in the future. “We listened to this album a lot on tour,” Smoofy recalled, “And our bass player, Ricky Moto – Nicole – she hates it. I feel like we’re in the front, we get this 45 minutes to ourselves.”

At this point, Falcon Bitch chimed in to defend this divisive practice, admitting, “We’re so toxic,” before clarifying, “It’s just that it’s like truly such a different vibe than everything else we’re listening to in the van on tour.” Admittedly, if the band were listening exclusively to acapella gospel songs throughout the entirety of a tour, Ricky Moto’s concerns would be more than justified.

X-cetra – Stardust (2000)

“Last, but certainly not least, and probably the album I’ve listened to the most out of all of them in the past couple of months, just because it has had an incredible impact since my friend introduced it to me,” Falcon said, introducing Stardust by the strange project X-cetra. Explaining the lore of the record, she revealed, “It’s just a group of pre-teens – three 11-year-olds and a nine-year-old, and their mom is like a producer who decided to put their songs to their German friend’s beats in the 2000s. They’re just fucking incredible pop songs with real fucking heart and real spirit and real emotion of a kid.”

Concurring, Smoofy said of the album, “You can’t not have fun, especially when it’s like low-quality beats behind it. So funny, but the songwriting is so good.” That last sentence could equally be applied to the material of Being Dead; the songwriting is excellent, but it does not lose its sense of childlike wonder and comedy.

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