Raleigh's The Rosebuds can be utterly precious.
There's the band name and the fact that the band is a husband-wife duo-married in May 2001-with the occasional guest drummer. On their debut, Ivan Howard-a Southern guitar-playing Morrissey-and Kelly Crisp-a more spirited version of Meg White on keyboards-spun adept strands of Beatlesque pop replete with lyrics like, "I got an itchy itching timebomb pulling my heart" and a proliferation of "whoas," "yeahs" and "bomp bomp bahs." And yes, their latest album Birds Make Good Neighbors is more serious in tone yet there's still that album title-an allusion to a cardinals' nest by the couple's front door.
It's all part of the ineluctable charm of this undeniably Paris Hilton-hot pop-rock outfit.
Flashback to the year 1990: Before Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the grunge rock anthem du jour was Superchunk's "Slack Motherf-er:" a cutting tirade against a lazy Kinko's worker. Along with seminal groups like Polvo and Archers of Loaf now lost in the indie rock vernacular, Superchunk led the local independent music scene as it went national as the "next Seattle."
Today, as other far-flung places like Omaha and Detroit have lost their musical luster, the national spotlight might once again shift to the Triangle.
"Everybody's saying we're going to be the next Montreal," Crisp said, referencing the fertile breeding grounds of bands like the Dears and the Arcade Fire. Major label A & R scouts have been discovered at area concerts and have already signed a few locals (see the Comas and Tift Merritt.)
"I can't think of a worse fate," Crisp quickly added.
Which is ironic considering that the Rosebuds could be this scene's tipping point all over again.
They have precedent as the first local band in years to be signed to Durham-based record label Merge Records. They have the peer group, which includes labelmates/critical smashes like Spoon and the Arcade Fire. They have the pedigree: Brian Paulson, the producer for both of their LPs, has also worked with Wilco and Beck, and Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, band members of Superchunk, also own Merge. They have the buzz: their debut Rosebuds Make Out! docked on many critics' 2003 top ten lists.
But those clouds of gathering buzz sometimes seem like menacing thunderheads Crisp said. "I think we wouldn't be able to operate on the idea that we're not our own little secret anymore."
And yet the Rosebuds in refined form on Birds Make Good Neighbors-in stores last Tuesday-might do just that.
"It's a more matured presentation this time around," said Crisp. "It's a darker, more nuanced sound."
And while on their debut, the Rosebuds came off as the Smiths meets the Beatles, this time they've also embraced a full-range of influences from CCR to Nancy Sinatra's Lee Hazlewood and Old MoTown.
They've also taken a different approach to music-making.
"We tried to get the lyrics to work with the music this time," Crisp said. "We sort of came to the conclusion that there's no real reason for a song if a lyric's imagery isn't reflected in its structure." On their debut, the tracks resonated sunny but the LP's stuff manifested as melancholy: tales of leaving home and youth's dissolution.
This time they built songs over even stronger narrative.
"The music is more story-oriented," said Ivan Howard.
And while it's not exactly a concept album, there are several recurrent themes on Birds, including that of making choices and the interpretation of a specific historical event.
"The new album is more about the Lost Colony than anything else," said Howard, referring to the first colony in the United States settled in 1587 and mysteriously vanished shortly thereafter. "That idea just surfaced when we put the album together. We didn't mean to embed that theme in there."
On the album, in betwixt stories of shorn/ torn love and Nature personified, there are these remnants of a begone civilization that creep into the album's subtext.
Situated on North Carolina's Outer Banks, the story of the Lost Colony rang true to both Howard and Crisp, longtime denizens of Eastern North Carolina.
In fact, Crisp grew up in the then-isolated Cedar Island alongside fishermen who would tell stories about being descended from the Lost Colonists themselves.
Miles away, Howard followed a parallel adolescence full of music from Merle Haggard to MoTown and the country songs his mother a professional singer would croon.
Years later, Howard and his wife are poised (if not looking) for the "big time" as musicians in their own right. The new album is a sort of coming-to-terms with their past and perhaps, their future.
Right now though, Crisp said, nothing much has changed. They've done two national tours already and played ginormous music fest South by Southwest in Austin, Texas twice yet they still retain their old modes of transportation ("We drive our own van. We're not on a bus.") This weekend will be their inaugural visit to New York's College Music Journalism Festival.
They've worked alongside many talented musicians but have yet to nominate a permanent drummer into the band's brethren. At recent shows, Howard banged on the drums while he sang.
And finally, they've diversified their sound, brought in new influences and themes but they still remain true to a certain declaration on Make Out! track "My Downtown Friends" emoted with cheery aplomb by Howard: "But I believe in rock 'n' roll."
Crisp clarified further. "We're not celebrities singing songs. That's not who we are. In the end, we're just doing what we do: making music."
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