finetune artist: Beulah

This San Francisco, California, USA-based alt-pop outfit was formed in 1996 by guitarist/singer-songwriter Miles Kurosky and his former work colleague Bill Swan (guitar/vocals). The pair had not gelled as workmates but when Kurosky was looking to record some of his own songs, he remembered that Swan had a home taping device. A phone call was made and all hard feelings smoothed out. As a result, the duo began to collaborate as Beulah, and for the next year and a half averaged one completed song per month. The EP, A Small Cattle Drive In A Snow Storm, and the album, Handsome Western States, were issued in 1996/7, with the mastering of the latter overseen by Robert Schneider of Apples In Stereo. The duo realized that in order to take their show on the road they would need to assemble a worthy backing band, which resulted in the enlistment of Pat Noel (guitar/keyboards), Steve LaFolette (bass/vocals), and Steve St. Cin (drums). The new line-up's first recording together, When Your Heartstrings Break, followed in 1999, an album that was supposedly mostly recorded on a Tascam reel-to-reel tape recorder, and in a practice space that was inhabited by several other bands in the same building. Shortly afterwards, Bill Evans (keyboards) was added to the line-up and St. Cin was replaced by Danny Sullivan. With Beulah gaining heaps of critical praise by this point, Kurosky's songwriting reached an early peak with 2001's sparkling The Coast Is Never Clear. Pat Abernathy and Eli Crews replaced Evans and LaFolette on the moody, cathartic follow-up, Yoko.

Listen to Beulah at Finetune.

(1999) When Your Heartstrings Bread
(1999) When Your Heartstrings Break

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