Watching Big
Deal perform on stage tells you a lot about the relationship
between Alice Costelloe and KC Underwood.
Costelloe, a shy-loking pretty young thing occasionally looks across
at Underwood, the lanky, floppy-haired indie kid, almost seeking
approval, the barest trace of a smile at the corners of her mouth
as she sees Underwood smiling back. The romantic in me wants to
believe that Big Deal is more than just a musical partnership for
Costelloe and Underwood, but perhaps that's too obvious. Nevertheless,
there's something sweet about the pair, something almost symbiotic
and fluid, which is reflected in the delicate harmonies and vocal
interplay evident on their debut album, Lights Out.
The single 'Talk' and its B-side 'Locked Up', released
on Moshi Moshi earlier in 2011, provides the formula for the other
ten songs on Lights Out - overlapping guitars, no other
instruments and the fragile vocals of Underwood and Costelloe floating
above. Generally they sing exactly the same thing at the same time,
naturally harmonising with one another and creating an intimate
vocal soundworld that almost feels intrusive on the part of the
listener to participate in. In my review of 'Talk' below I fretted
that perhaps this formula wouldn't work across a whole album, but
if what you're looking for is fuzzed-up, beautifully distorted balladry
(which I personally am) then Lights Out is probably for
you. And actually, there is enough variation and enough high quality,
poised songwriting to make Lights Out a beautifully interesting
and engaging album; closing track 'Pi', for example, is one of the
most brittle songs I've ever heard, like a song crafted out of eggshells
and frozen air, containing Robert Fripp-esque shimmering synth-esque
textures, floating voices and gently intoxicating guitar notes.
Comparisons have been made between Big Deal and
the likes of Sonic Youth, and I can see the logic
in that. At times the guitars do sound very like Thurston
Moore while Costelloe does occasionally sound like Kim
Gordon, but as far as I can recall Moore and Gordon never
ever sang vocal harmonies together, while the duelling guitars of
Moore and Lee Ranaldo always threatened to descend
into complete guitar-wrecking anarchy, something which seems remote
with Costelloe and Underwood; their guitar work is, in its own way,
more intimate, evincing a passionate but inoffensive use of fuzzy
effects. Sometimes finely wrought plucked notes emerge from the
bed of strummed noise, such as on the PJ Harvey-esque 'Seraphine',
where their combined vocals seem to be searching for answers and
never completely finding them.
For me, the reference points are less from grunge
and more historic than that. While there's a garage rock edge (think
a garage band before they'd auditioned the drummer and bassist),
there's also a classic Fifties rock 'n roll or rockabilly dimensions
to the guitars on second single, 'Chair', and for some reason elsewhere
I'm also reminded of The Carpenters, but that may just be because
Alice Costelloe's vocal has a fey, Karen Carpenter innocence to
it. When they go for joyousness, such as on the opener 'Distant
Neighborhood', the duo could be a Sixties Haight-Ashbury folk band,
just without the tambourines.
It's too early to speculate on what a second album
from Big Deal might sound like; one would hope they find enough
inspiration in their restrained duo formation to avoid thinking
it necessary to augment their sound with other instrumentation;
as Lights Out proves, there's more than enough creativity
and endurance in this sweet little pairing. I sense I might find
myself returning to this affirming album a lot over the next few
years.
lp/cd/i:
1. Distant Neighborhood
2. Chair
3. Cool Like Kurt
4. Swoon
5. Homework
6. Talk
7. With The World At My Feet
8. Locked Up
9. Summer Cold
10. Visions
11. Seraphine
12. Pi
records records records records | 7"
no catalogue reference | 15/10/2010 | track
listing
'Homework' was Big Deal's first
release, put out on the Records Records Records Records label in
2010 as a limited 7", each packaged in a hand-made sleeve designed
(appropriately enough) to look like a school exercise book. 'Homework
is a weirdly affecting track; hearing the duo of Alice Costelloe
and KC Underwood sing about staying up too late,
messing up grades and getting distracted by falling in and out of
love takes me back nearly twenty years to when I was doing exactly
that, destroying years of academic endeavour over a girl. I just
didn't think to sing about it. I'm also trying not to think about
how old it makes me feel to hear musicians singing about their homework.
Sonically beautiful, the overlapping acoustic guitars have a wistful
poignancy that belies the economy of the source instruments, taking
on an almost Latin atmosphere at times.
'Thirteen' is a cover of a Big Star track which
has become a staple of Big Deal live sets. Whilst lyrically locked
into its original era (lines about going to a school dance, rock
'n roll being here to stay and The Rolling Stones' 'Paint It Black'
ensure that), Big Deal recast the track as something you can imagine
Emma Stone musing to in a teen-angst movie, all gentle guitars,
trademark harmonies and a general air of youthful timelessness.
Both tracks here were re-recorded by the band, 'Homework'
for the Lights Out album and 'Thirteen' for the US Big
Deal EP. The original versions here sound tentative, just above
demo quality, both deploying heavy reverb on the duetting vocalists
to create a shimmering, Spector-esque wall of retro sound. 'Thirteen'
sounds a whole lot more fragile than the later version, while 'Homework's
innocence comes across as more bitter than the wistful version that
appears on the album, Costelloe sounding more fraught and frustrated
than on the album version.
Big Deal are KC Underwood
and Alice Costelloe, 'an American boy and an English
girl' according to the Moshi Moshi website, both of whom play guitar
and both of whom sing. Despite the fact that Mute
had already announced that Big Deal had signed to the newly-independent
label, this single was released on Brighton's Moshi Moshi imprint.
With Underwood and Costelloe playing both the guitars
and delivering the vocals, you half expect sweet harmonies and melodies
to be the output, particularly as they both sing exactly the same
lyrics - almost all of them - together. Except that the output is
often opposite - disonant guitars and odd tunings work against one
another to create a simmering tension and fragility which threatens
complete freak-out but which is ultimately way too controlled to
allow that to happen (something of a shame, actually). With that
type of approach to how sounds can be forced to conflict, it naturally
brings to mind the guitar interplay between Thurston Moore
and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth.
Their sound may not (yet) have the same aural adventurousness of
a Sonic Youth ballad circa 'Shadow Of A Doubt', but listening repeatedly
definitely gives you the impression that this approach could be
around the corner.
'Talk' seems to recount the tale of a young person
in love with someone (s)he knows (s)he can't have (your interpretation
of the sex of the subject depends very much much on whether your
ear picks out Underwood's or Costelloe's voice as the dominant one
on the record.) There's a sense of anguish here, particularly on
the line 'All I wanna do is talk / But seeing you fucks me up.'
It's not an especially complex track, but it has a vivid imagery
attached and the overlapping guitars create a simple tension as
they play against one another.
If 'Talk' describes someone who just wants to talk,
B-side 'Locked Up' describes someone who can't articulate their
feelings at all. 'Locked Up' has a greater sense of drama, especially
in the textural dynamics of the twin guitars, and seems to detail
the uneven nature of a relationship. 'Locked Up' was featured on
Mute's 2011 Vorwärts compilation, and also released
as a free mp3 from the Mute Soundcloud page.
With this single, Big Deal have set out their stall
pretty well for their upcoming album. Whether an album's worth of
fragile, poignant songs like these two can be sustained without
something as retro as drums will be interesting to hear.
The sleeve to Big Deal's 'Chair',
which was bizarrely released on the same day as the album Lights
Out, features a portrait of a cat wearing a dunce's hat. To
me this looks distinctly like a sleeve that belongs in the Buttholes
/ Blast First camp, but the hat at least serves
as a decent reference point for the lyrics of this song - the bit
about being put on a chair in the corner anyway. I can't explain
the cat. Unless where the lyrics refer to not
being able to sit on the other person's bed, KC Underwood
and Alice Costelloe are actually singing about
a cat. Who knows?
'Chair' sounds like a possible mid-point between
thrashy punk and the classic rhythm guitar-driven rock 'n roll of
Buddy Holly. It's quirky, confused, angsty teen-rock / pop, generally
delivered in a cheerful style, although the torrents of over-amped
guitar distortion threaten to destroy that mood. The generally polite
way that the two voices overlap suggest a breeziness and lightness,
but the lyrics seem to convey a sense of hurt, disappointment and
distrust. It's curt, intense, but rather beautiful.
Beautiful is also how I would describe the languid,
pastoral blues guitars of B-side 'Buzz Money'. 'Does your mom
still pack your lunch?' runs the enquiring lyric, anchoring
this to hazy school days and problem-free innocence. 'Someday
I'm gonna pack your lunch for you,' is the retort, an odd but
quintessentially youthful way of expressing love for a fellow kid.
It feels like a fragment of a conversation turned into lyrics. I
again feel like I'm too old to listen to this, but I get where this
lovely little song is coming from. I think.
Big Deal EP - US-only digital release
Heralding Big Deal's debut release in the States,
Mute USA put out a four-track EP at more or less the same time as
'Chair' was released in the UK. The EP packages up 'Chair' and 'Locked
Up', plus two exclusive recordings that have thus far not been released
officially in the UK. The first of these, 'Mai Joy', is a blissful
composition for slowed-down guitar, beautiful synth strings and
sparse overlapping vocals with Underwood sounding anguished while
Costelloe's delivery is worn-out, deflated even. It's just one of
those naggingly delicate pieces that gets under your skin and makes
you all introspective. 'Thirteen' is a cover of a Big Star track
which first surfaced in the UK as the B-side to 'Homework', here
presented in a re-recorded version.
Thanks to Chris for letting me hear the Big
Deal EP.
mute records | 7"/i mute462 | 05/12/2011
| track listing
'Distant Neigborhood' is the opening track on Big
Deal's debut album, Lights Out. An infectious
duet between KC Underwood and Alice Costelloe
over buzzing guitars that straddle the joyous with the melancholy,
'Distant Neighborhood' set the tone for what I think is one of New
Mute's most engaging releases in 2011. The lyrics
evoke run-down places, battered cars and sepia memories of bedrooms
with the posters of childhood heroes on the walls; this is all used
as the backdrop to the main theme which seems to be one of separation
and a sense of resigned acceptance that something has run its course.
Hence that feeling of wistfulness tinged with sadness that those
poignant guitars bring with them. Apparently this is a single version,
but apart from some more pronounced guitar harmonics it doesn't
sound that different to the album version.
Lights Out consists of little more than
two guitars and two perfectly-matched vocals, all harmonising perfectly
with one another. So the idea of giving one of the album tracks
new life as a garagey dance track seems a strange one, especially
when the track concerned is 'Seraphine', one of the tracks on the
LP that is the sparsest example of the Underwood / Costelloe approach
to songwriting, a track which shimmers with hazy guitars and a muted,
haunting quality. But that's exactly what Wild Fucking Copper do
with the remix on the B-side of 'Distant Neighborhood'. I wanted
to be cynical, I really did, but this remix actually works really
well, creating something vaguely rapturous out of the angsty introspection
of the original.
This 7" was released on delicious heavy vinyl
and was cut by Stefan Betke, also known as Pole.
It's also cut at a very warm 33bpm, which would have foxed the late,
great John Peel since the label fails to state that.
