It’s a Tuesday night, you know what that means – time for tacos and surf music. At least this was the case, when the stars aligned, allowing for dollar taco night at Holy Frijoles to coincide with live music, including the Baltimore-bred three-piece Beachmover. We journied across perilous streets of Hampden – slick with a layer of ice – to the sanctuary that is Holy Frijoles. Promptly finding a seat at the bar, we order our first round of dollar tacos and some Mexican imported Sol beer for good measure.
When Beachmover takes the stage they dive straight in to their set, laying down a thick, groovy surf beat on drums, fuzzy bass lines and swinging guitar licks. As the crowd gets out of their seats and begins to move their feet, Beachmover transports them to another place. Holy Frijoles turns into a sandy beach looking out on a vast ocean. The rapid guitar picking sounds like rushing water, dripping wet with heavy reverb. The bass and drums combine to wash over your ears and rock you back and forth as the tide rises and falls. The waves grow as the cymbals crash, and the bass rumbles in your gut like nearby thunder. Melodic guitar lines make way for blistering solos that strike like lightning above, illuminating the sky and the increasingly chaotic sea. The band rides the wave into a noisy tsunami, a sonic natural disaster, sweeping away the audience, the tacos, the beach, and everything in its path.
Photo by Brendan Foster Fieldhouse
Beachmover is an instrumental, scuzzy, surf-rock three-piece band based out of Baltimore. They are continuing the 50-year-old tradition of surf music – an energetic rock & roll offshoot that originated in Southern California in the early 1960s. The band formed in early 2011, and consists of Jeff Rettberg on bass, Apostolos “Paul” Alexandratos on drums and Jake Honaker on guitar. The group – united by an affinity for surf rock, a collective obsession with the Dead Kennedys and a genuine love for all music – combines the familiar surf music sound with punk rock attitudes, dissonantly vivid sound-scapes typical to noise music, and, occasionally, the crushing heaviness of doom metal. Beachmover has played all over Baltimore in addition to New York, Philadelphia and Virginia. They recently put out recordings of their first official release independently.
The inspiration for Beachmover came in the most mundane of places – sitting on the couch. At the time, Jeff says, “I didn’t really live anywhere, and I was spending my nights at Jake’s.” He has known Jake for about 11 years; Jeff met him through Lysa, a friend he met in elementary school, who is now Jake’s wife. They sat there listening to music, as they had many times before, enjoying groups such as Takeshi Terauchi, the legendary old-school surf rock guitarist from Japan, and the Underground Railroad to Candyland, an alternative rock band with surf influences.
Suddenly, there was a moment of realization. They turned to each other and said “let’s start a fucking surf band!” Jake then said “I know a drummer, hold on.” He called Paul, a friend he has known since the 6th grade, who took him up on the offer. And, just like that, Beachmover came into the world.
“Surf was the starting point for us to make music,” Jeff says, “it got us together, it’s not the model.” Jeff says that they do not consider themselves a straight-up surf band. Paul might lay down a surf beat to get things started, but from there, “we naturally have ideas and let loose,” Paul says. Surf music provides a solid base for Beachmover’s music, allowing them to create something unique; “surf music is easy to build on” according to Jeff, and it lends itself well to improvisation. When Beachmover sits down to make music, the result is exciting, adventurous sonic creations with surprising dynamic changes. Paul says that their music is different than the music he played growing up – in contrast to metal and punk rock, Paul says “my parents can hear [Beachmover] and say ‘this actually sounds cool’.”
Photo by Brendan Foster Fieldhouse
Beachmover dropped their first official EP on Halloween 2014. It was recorded by Kevin Bernsten at Developing Nations Recording Studio through the fall of 2013 to spring 2014. Jake describes recording as “the final test – documentation of the past year of my life.” It is a process both nerve-wracking and rewarding, a strenuous and enjoyable experience wrapped into one.
“You’re never going to be 100% satisfied, but you come to the point when you say ‘it’s done’,” Paul explains. “You are always going to criticize your own work, but people are going to listen to it and like it,” he adds. Although Beachmover sees recording as a welcome challenge, the live shows are where the magic happens.
Photo by Brendan Foster Fieldhouse
“The best feeling is seeing people really enjoy your music,” Paul says. “It is fundamentally sharing our music with other people, people you don’t know at all” he explains, “there is this euphoric high from seeing people really into your stuff.” As an instrumental band – with no lyrics and, therefore, no message – people aren’t into the music because they like what they are saying – “people just like it.”
“Dance hard, party hard.” That’s all that Beachmover asks of their audiences. And they have the groove to make the crowd move. In fact, sometimes things get a little out of hand. Jeff recalls a basement show they played where “everyone went nuts” – the room was alive, people bouncing all around the room like heated atoms. The frenzied crowd repeatedly piled forward into the band. The drum set toppled over on two occasions – “which was great” Jeff says.
“The reason it happened was because everyone was having a good time,” he says. “Whenever people have that much fun it is very satisfying.”
Although the band agrees that these enthusiastic shows are incredibly rewarding, Paul explains that even “if no one liked the music, it would be totally fine with me.” Money and fame are irrelevant to a man who is making music with his best friends. Paul has played with plenty of other groups, but “it’s never been like this, there is always some odd man out,” someone who either isn’t feeling the music or doesn’t fit in with the band. With Beachmover, Paul says, “we are friends first and foremost.”
Beachmover is currently working on material for a new album, which they say will be a lot different, “more dynamic and noisier,” according to Jeff. They are planning on recording for a Girl Problem 7” this April. Their music is available on their BandCamp site in digital and tape form, along with stylish Beachmover t-shirts. Catch them on April 9th at the Sidebar with The Wayward, Yeesh and Two Inch Astronaut. And keep an eye out for an exclusive Beachmover tour of Mexican restaurants.
