Is it safe yet to compare bands to the Beatles without implying their sound is simply derivative? Maybe not, because the Philadelphia-based foursome Drink Up Buttercup shrugs off the comparison every time it’s made. Truth be told, though, Born and Thrown on a Hook smacks strongly of the lovely lads from Liverpool. Remember the intro to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? "It’s wonderful to be here / It’s certainly a thrill / You’re such a lovely audience / We’d like to take you home with us / We’d love to take you home". Drink Up Buttercup are natural live entertainers and have figured out how to translate that ebullience onto a record. Songs are short, catchy, with hum-able pop melodies; vocals exalt in marvelous harmonies; literate lyrics paint surreal pictures of everyday life; and the instrumentation could have been lifted from any middle-era Beatles album: guitars, organs, accordions, tambourines, keys and falsettos. These songs that are made to be enjoyed around the campfire, as much as in the club. If those are the reasons you’re getting mentioned in the same sentence as the greatest band of all time, maybe it’s not such a bad thing.
Click here for photos of Drink Up Buttercup at CMJ 2009 in New York, NY in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
Click here for photos of Drink Up Buttercup at Fontana’s in New York, NY on January 14th, 2009
One exception to the Beatles comparison is "Vietnam Waltz", a brief Beach Boys study. Otherwise you can practically name the song and singer being targeted in each track. "Young Ladies", "Pink Sunshine" and "Gods and Gentlemen" are refined Paul McCartney-style ballads with plenty of "la la las". "Heavy Hand" and "Mr. Pie Eyes" are grittier, revved-up John Lennon rock-outs. One of the most beautiful songs on the album, "Lovers Play Dead", reminds you of the elegant contributions of George Harrison: less pop, more art, always heartfelt. Ringo gets a turn with the childish buffoonery of "Sosey and Dosey". Even the occasional instrumentals feel like outtakes from The White Album (see "Animate the Hangtime"). These are the sorts of reductive statements that drive musicians insane, but the combined evidence of Born and Thrown on a Hook makes the comparison incontrovertible. If the shoe fits, you gotta wear it; but what lovely shoe it is!
One association that can be dropped, however, is the Dr. Dog (QRO live review) comparison. As fellow Philadelphians who both got tagged rather lazily with the psych-rock/psych-jam label, the newer Drink Up Buttercup was often relegated to the status of a ‘Dr. Dog Jr.’ The precise (without being precious) Born and Thrown on a Hook is a great opportunity to put that idea to rest and the band clearly knows it. The promotional campaign for the album has been beating the bushes for months with various mp3 streams and ‘making of’ videos in advance of the release date. If you hadn’t heard the full record by the time Born and Thrown on a Hook hit stores, you just weren’t paying attention. The protracted marketing campaign inevitably sucked some of the energy out of a bloggerati operating on a 24-hour news-cycle. But for the average fan it was a content bonanza; and Drink Up Buttercup has always been a fan-first band. It would be a surprise if this 38-minute romp made critics’ Top Ten lists because the album doesn’t pretend to swing for the fences. But will it earn them legions more fans to fill the clubs for their carnival-esque live shows? Absolutely. Born and Thrown on a Hook is a fun, well-crafted love letter to past, present, and future fans – isn’t that what it’s all about?
