Wax Poetics Records' new Minneapolis-based duo Bones & Beeker is a band that combines hip-hop-production sensibilities with classic, harmony-focused singer-songwriter musicianship, creating catchy yet complex tunes.
Anthony Newes (vocals, guitar, keys, and other sounds) and Brendan Kelly (production, drum programming, keys, glockenspiel, kalimba)-known in hip-hop circles as BK-One-were introduced through their work with the developmentally disabled. Their first meeting was a five-minute conversation about Tom Waits. Their second was at a client's deathbed.
BK-One is probably best known for his decade of work with rapper Brother Ali, yet early in his life he toured the country in a jazz band while studying piano and vibraphone alongside musical giants like Sonny Rollins, Milt Jackson, Yusef Lateef, and Wynton Marsalis.
Anthony Newes-who studied audio engineering in Arizona and improvisation and music theory in Northern California, and worked at a homeless shelter in Seattle-formed a critically celebrated rock band while in Eureka, California, and earned a reputation playing folk music in the old Minneapolis haunts of Dylan and Guthrie.
When the two artists decided to work together, they faced many challenges, often arguing about how to properly balance two radically different musical sensibilities. Both were way out of their element, and each song was a strange new compromise.
Flanked by bassist Chris Bierden (Poliça and Pony Trash) and guitarist Nate Collis (Atmosphere and Attracted to Gods), Bones & Beeker delivers an album full of surprises.A1 Intro A2 Samana A3 Oh Lord A4 Heartbroken In Love A5 A Song For Al's Dead Mother A6 Wind-Up Dolls A7 Each Time I Die B1 All That We Are (So Far To Go) B2 Tiny Little Pieces B3 Elfman In Nine B4 A Song For Liam Joe B5 Lupine B6 World Behind B7 In Search Of Signs
