Miles Kurosky

The tale of my love affair with Miles Kurosky's former band, Beulah, had a heartbreaking and tragic climax in the year 2004. My sister and I, both fans of their music, were preparing to catch their NYC date on their tour for their new album, Yoko. We were all set to go when our plans were interrupted by a late breaking development - we were broke. So instead, we stayed home under the misguided notion that we would catch them "next time they're around."

This show turned out to be the band's last.

It isn't even that I missed seeing the band. It's that Beulah is based in CALIFORNIA. They're a San Francisco band. So not only did I miss seeing the band before they broke up; I missed the rarest of shows; A final show not for the home town fans of a band from across the country - nay, I missed a final show that inexplicably and wrongly fell right into my fucking lap. I had been given a gift from above, and spit it on the floor, biting and chomping at the hand that spoon fed it to me.

Let this be a lesson: Tell your family you love them. Appreciate your dear friends. And if a band comes out with an album named after the woman who broke up the Beatles, then go see them quick because they're dropping hints.

All bitterness aside, I still love Beulah to death. Their laid back, beach friendly sound, their contrasting, dark lyrics, their love of the Beatles and the Beach Boys; all elements combine into one of my favorite indie bands of all time, and by far my favorite Elephant 6 act. So of course, I've been hungry for more. In the immediate wake of their passing, people begun whispering rather loudly about the prospect of a Miles Kurosky solo act. Now, usually, I don't get excited over solo stuff. It just ends up being a whole lot of smugness and not a lot of substance. But Miles' reputation as something of a control freak is well known, and from what I understand, Beulah was basically all his baby. So I was definitely waiting for this. That wait ended up taking four years.

So, obviously, the project has been revealed (seeing as how the previous sentence would make no sense if it hadn't been). And after four long years, what do we get? Well, not a whole hell of a lot. Two of the tracks on Miles' Myspace are different versions of the same song. Even weirder, they're by Beulah. Even weirder than that, they're sung by Yoko Ono. Beyond those, we get one completely original track; An Apple for an Apple, which I could swear was named something else a month ago. So how is it? Good! Dreamier and less dark than Yoko, and less produced than either of the last two Beulah records. It's just the catchy pop song you'd expect from Miles, and if it's any indication of what's to come, then Beulah's tragic death might finally be redeemed.

The only thing that worries me is how questionable this future remains. This seems to me more like a pet project of Miles' rather than a serious act, and I have a bad feeling in my gut that we may never see more than one or two tracks manifest from this; a proper album almost feels out of the question, and the proposition of a serious tour schedule sounds downright fictional.

I hope, however, that I'm extremely wrong.

PS: He's looking quite the hipster lately, isn't he? And check out that pic on his Myspace with some hot SuicideGirl-type-hunny. Ouch!