B.E.A.R.D
By Chris Brook
Photo by Patrick Piasecki

Like any astute record shop employee, B.E.A.R.D.'s Morgan Ross can rattle off a list of LPs that got him interested in music in the first place: obscure '60s and '70s psych records, Indian sitar music and the first Black Sabbath record, among others.
While this selection doesn't necessarily dictate B.E.A.R.D.'s sound, it certainly hints at the band's range, which can be sandwiched between kraut rock, psych and prog, with a tinge of World flair.
Ross, who plays bass in the band, is rounded out by guitarist and organist A.J. Adams, drummer Matt Schlaikjer and vocalist Jo Coelho, who recently transplanted to Brooklyn.
"It's like a long distance relationship," Schlaikjer says of Coelho, who left Boston over the summer to pursue his doctorate and teach at NYU.
B.E.A.R.D. has found a comfortable niche, though. While Coelho misses Boston, the two parties still manage to get music written, play shows and press on like any other band.
"Well, I miss a lot of practices and I still miss Boston," says Coelho about the distance, "but New York is stirring with so many things, it's very motivating."
In between tangential conversations about Def Leppard and greasy spoon diners, it takes a few moments for B.E.A.R.D.'s Boston contingent to collectively decide how long they've been a band.
Eventually it's pinned down to three and a half years, or as Ross puts it, "since The Faux stopped playing." Coelho and Adams played in the art rock band until a bicycle accident cut keyboardist Kirsten Malone's life short in 2004. Before the accident, Ross wound up recording the A-side to The Faux's last record. A year after the band's dissolution, Ross, Coelho and Adams began playing music together. Schlaikjer, who Ross had played with in the short-lived band Gold, joined the fold several months later.
It wasn't until WMBR's Pipeline engineer Ramsey Tantawi stumbled upon the band that the idea of putting B.E.A.R.D.'s music to tape came to fruition. So for the cost of tape and with the help of an old two-inch 16-track that was kicking around, the legacy of B.E.A.R.D. was finally cemented.
The band laid down seven tracks in seven hours in the cozy Somerville practice space of friends Major Stars. While recorded and mixed through the fall, the record is slated to see the light of day, ideally on vinyl with a bonus CD-R, in mid-Spring 2008.
While the band as a whole is excited to have a record to their name, Ross, a vinyl enthusiast who admits to not owning a CD player is excited about the possibilities of wax.
"I'm an audiophile, but a low fidelity audiophile," says Ross, "I like the way things sound when they're recorded on cassette."
The songs on the record tow the line between newer organ-based songs and lengthy, intricate dirges that have been in the band's repertoire since their inception.
Ross insists that while the songs may sound sprawling and unpredictable, they're not completely without their boundaries.
"Compared to other bands I've been in, the songs are actually pretty structured," Ross admits. "Well except for "Mountain Fortress."
The first song the band ever wrote, the nearly 10-minute long "Mountain Fortress," essentially acted as a springboard for B.E.A.R.D. The song was born on a three-stringed, painfully out of tune guitar. The piece is expected to surface on the full-length alongside another cut, "Whaleman," which, as the title suggests, weaves a tale about a half-whale, half-man beast.
"It's a fictional creature," Coelho laughs, "He comes out of the ocean to warn people about disasters. A lot of my lyrics are nonsense about politics and dead gods, really ridiculous things."
"Rigid Magic," a shorter, three-minute number built around a loop machine and an improvised bassline will likely make the cut as well.
While other bands would be hindered by distance, B.E.A.R.D. are content still being a band after almost four years and to be finally putting out a long player.
"We just want to get this record out there as quickly and available as we can," Schlaikjer says.

www.myspace.com/beardofboston