The Record Crate

So I went up to North Pomfret, Vermont a couple weekends back to check out a barn party (the 2nd Annual to be exact). At the “1st Annual,” I had found this killer place to pass out after a night of socializing with people I had never met. At some ungodly hour, I was awoken by a man in a kilt, who told me that my sleeping place was unacceptable. Thinking this man was William Wallace-and being half asleep and half twisted at the time-I didn’t put up a fight and found another place to lay my head. Fast forward a year and I meet the kilted man once again-this time unkilted-and he seems like a pretty cool dude. Not only that, but he plays bass guitar in a band called The Downbeat Keys.

I’ll be honest with all of you. I’ve been an advocate of independent music for as long as I’ve been able to form my own opinions (that’s about 15 years). However, whenever I get tossed a MySpace address from a dude in a local band, I usually immediately write them off. It’s not that I dislike a particular band’s sound, but then again it is. I dig just about any band-local or otherwise-that has something original to say. It’s too bad for those original local bands that they usually translate poorly to tape, or MySpace, or whatever medium is trendy these days. Things changed for me this past weekend though.

Picture this: A cheese farm in Vermont. Me and one of my best friends drive up to meet another one of my best friends. I encounter this William Wallace look-alike and he’s not William Wallace. Not at all. He plays bass. Beyond that, he plays bass in a local band. So one thing leads to another and we get to talking and he’s telling me about his band called “The Downbeat Keys.” While we’re talking, I flashback to the previous summer, where I remember a bunch of people-myself included-standing in a circle talking about how this dude’s band’s newest CD is “eclectic.” I immediately decide that he has found a way to attract people to his band that otherwise sucks. I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong. Write this one down, because I rarely admit anything. I was wrong.

One thing leads to another, and here I am: The passenger seat of this bass player’s car about to hear this “eclectic” band. Not expecting much, the first track I hear is “I Don’t Remember.” The song title is fitting. One, because I don’t remember the songs he played after this one and two because I don’t remember listening to a local band with a sound as fresh as his band. Feel free to correct me, but I found this band to be a comfortable mix between 311, Gym Class Heores and Dispatch. When he described his band a year ago as eclectic, I thought he was co vering up his band’s lack of originality or his way of saying that people wouldn’t like his band. Again, I was wrong.

After the first second of “I Don’t Remember” I heard something from this band that many local bands lack-the quality of their recordings. There are tons of local bands with styles that reach far beyond that of many “famous” bands. However, the quality of their demos or whatever they put on their MySpace pages makes it almost impossible to listen to. The Downbeat Keys seem to have taken this into consideration and conquered the dilemma. Although the recording quality of bands is another topic for another time (expect a post later on about this), DBK has offered their listeners a comfortable audio quality. Their production qualities have far transcended that of their other unsigned counterparts.

I find their music refreshing. Find their influences where you will, but to me they find the difference between Gym Class Heroes and 311. On top of their front man rapping and their jam-band esque backing, they offer a sound that doesn’t sound like many other bands around. Decide for yourself here. These guys deserve an honest shot. They offer a decent mix between a hip-hop act and a funk act that seems to be something that other bands performing in this style do not offer. It’s new and interesting. Give these guys a year or so and I’ll bet my bottom dollar that they’ll explode beyond the local scene. Check them out. I did and they’ve found their place in a playlist on my iPod. Take two and call me in the morning.

PEACE