Nathan Langston and Jonathan Andersen have been best
friends since they were two years old and there are
recordings of the violinist and guitarist singing
together in high pitched, six-year-old voices on a
Fisher Price tape recorder. In this way, it could be
said that an element of The Maybe Happening has
existed since the early 80’s. For their own secret joy
and with the same sense of ease and excitement they
had as children, the band has been contented to
unabitiously play the dive bars and show rooms of
their beloved City of Roses. Joined by Parker Dutro on
drums, who they have been friends with since high
school, the trio has crafted an exuberant and soulful
aesthetic of quirky pop that has long delighted their
unexpecting audiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
But now The Maybe Happening has taken the great leap
of releasing their first major work, Beyond the Bells.
This sprawling, dynamic concept album was composed
track by track, in order, from beginning to end and
describes a single, pivotal evening in the life of a
boy and a city. Loosely based upon the work of Herman
Hesse as well as upon an unfathomably old Tzutuhil
Mayan “long story,” the boy is drawn deeper and deeper
into the very heart of the city itself. Both familiar
and otherworldly, Beyond the Bells manages to tell a
tale that is at once tragic and hopeful. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Recorded at the Type Foundry, as well in countless
basements, bedrooms, galleries and alleyways, and
produced by local musician extraordinaire Nick Jaina,
The Maybe Happening adds to their songs, piano, double
bass, trumpet, trombone, xylophone, hobo choir, wine
glasses, birds, trains, chains, shattering plates and
ghosts in huge, magnificent arrangements. Suddenly,
this very unassuming local group leaps out of the
speakers in a joyous, every-colored vision of the
story they have always wanted to tell. Ranging from
little pop songs to 50’s doo-wap to bizarre, metallic
epics to rousing sing-alongs, the aesthetic of The
Maybe Happening appears in full for the very first
time.
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