THE LISA MARR EXPERIMENT FUNTOWN Sympathy For The Record Industry May 2002 Produced by Jeff McDonald and The Beards

PopMatters - 10 May 2002
The Beards are L.A.'s newest supergroup. Sort of. In an age where the major record companies vertically integrate their artists under the guise of artistic camaraderie (see the Lady Marmalade women, or any number of songs "featuring Gwen Stefani"), any gathering of musicians becomes an event. So why not this group of Los Angeles-based indie-rock women ? Sure, it's possible that the guy who produced their record with them (Jeff McDonald of the legendary Redd Kross) may have more recognizable indie cred. The label releasing the record (Sympathy for the Record Industry) has become notorious of late for spawning the media darlings The White Stripes. If all this matters that much, the three women that comprise The Beards have enough talent and cred of their own, and they back it up on their debut album, Funtown.

The Beards are comprised of vocalist/guitarist Kim Shattuck, of The Muffs, along with Lisa Marr (vocals/bass) and Sherri Solinger (drums/percussion), both ex of Buck and currently making up half of The Lisa Marr Experiment. Marr was also a member of Vancouver popsters' cub, another all-female three piece. The similarities between that group and this don't end there. Like much of cub's output, Funtown is full of catchy, melodic and fun pop music, though the more assured musicianship of The Beards is evident right off the top, starting with the opening tracks "This Girl" and "True Confessions". This is rollicking power-pop, sing-along type stuff that makes you want to drive around with it blasting out the windows. Same goes with "Make It in America", a huge sounding glam rocker rivaling producer Jeff McDonald's former bands' best. Shattuck's growl is still present on her "Big Dumb World" and "1000 Years", as are her guitar chops, never better than on this record.

There are some more delicate moments on Funtown as well. Marr's "Sidewalks" are full of southern-California '60s psychedelia and lush vocal harmonies, from the opening harpsichord to the conga beats as it ends. The sadness of "Her Flowers" is punctuated by harmonies by L.A. mainstay Anna Waronker (of That Dog fame). In fact, there is a lot of California throughout this disc, whether in tone, lyric, or personnel. Marr wrote a song not long after leaving Vancouver for Los Angeles called "In California", where she considered herself "Another fool playing songs/That don't matter/For people who chatter/Endlessly". She obviously is a lot more comfortable in her surroundings, not to mention her own skin. Her songs make up the majority of the record, and she seems to have a more confidence in her singing and writing.

In addition to eleven solid tracks, Funtown is also an enhanced CD. Most CDs that have this feature end up being no more than a little video footage, and maybe a link to a website. What The Beards offer surpasses anything that came before it, by including videos for every single song on the record. From linear "storyline" type videos to more arty, esoteric visuals, each were produced exclusively for this disc. Rarely do the majors offer such an extra on their releases; it is unheard of on an indie release. Even though this record was made as a side project, it's clear the band expended a lot of effort and had a lot of fun along the way in putting this together. It seems fitting that the last song on the record is a cover of Frank Black's "Thalassocracy" (from his Teenager of the Year album), which includes the lyrics "I want to sing for you/And make your head go pop". It's a sentiment that runs through the record and completes its' task. There's nothing heavy about it, it just wants you to sit back and enjoy. Funtown is a great place to visit.
- Robert Jamieson


www.earlash.com
The Beards is that rock n' roll phenomena known as the side-project, a group of musicians from other bands taking a break from their day jobs to work with other people and keep themselves on their toes. In this case, the Beards are Kim Shattuck of the Muffs on guitar, Lisa Marr of Buck (and Cub before that) on bass, and Sherri Solinger (also from Buck) on drums.

Usually, you can predict what you're going to get with an album like Funtown. Most of the time, the best songs are saved for the regular gig and the side-project gets the out-takes that almost made it to the last album. And indeed, Funtown consists of a few alleged leftovers that Lisa Marr and Kim Shattuck had lying around somewhere. Yet it's a testament to the songwriting talent of both Marr and Shattuck that Funtown is an excellent pop/punk album that transcends the "we-had-nothing-to-do-one-weekend" vibe of many side projects.

I use the term "pop/punk" very loosely. Shattuck and Marr's music is far from the hyper-active "skateboard rock" currently associated with that term. Kim Shattuck's regular band, the Muffs, have made four albums of some of the most infectious pop with guitars you'll ever want to hear. Her sharp, concise, hook-filled songs have a 60's influence to them, sort of like the Kinks meet the Ronettes, if you can imagine that. They're raucous, tight, and very tuneful.

I'm not familiar with Lisa Marr's former band, Buck (or Cub, either). I can only tell you that I've heard good things. Based on the evidence of Funtown, the style is similar. The album is evenly divided between Marr songs and Shattuck songs, and they fit together so well you'd almost swear they were all by the same writer. As someone already familiar with the Muffs, I knew what I expected from Kim Shattuck's songs, and was happy to discover that Lisa Marr's songs on the album were every bit their equal, making Funtown a succession of one garage-pop gem after another.

Whether the Beards are putting down a narcissistic wanna-be in "True Confessions" or singing about late night anxieties in the semi-ballad "My Pillow," each song draws you in almost immediately with a clever melody line or hook-filled riff. One of the album's best tracks might be its least characteristic. "Sidewalks of My Mind" boasts an engaging 60's style melody, much like the rest of the album, but the song's main instrument is a harpsichord rather than a distorted guitar, making it sound like a lost track by the Left Banke. The band pulls off the slight change in mood without a hitch.

What sets this energetic, tasty pop apart from much of the pop/punk out there is that it doesn't try to be cute. Bouncy? Sometimes. Fun? Very much. Most of the songs on Funtown are suited to dancing, singing, and jumping up and down. But the music doesn't flutter its eyelids at you and sing in a self-conscious girly voice. It jumps out at you, with imperfect (i.e. "real") vocals and rough production that make the sweet hooks more palatable.

Actually, since I brought up the production, I had a small issue with it: it's under-done in parts. Usually, I'm complaining about too much production, but while it's generally good for bands like the Beards to sound like they're playing in a garage, it's not good to actually sound like you're playing in a garage, if you know what I'm saying. On some tracks the drums don't crack like they should. They sound a little dull and hollow. Maybe I'm being too picky, but considering Jeff McDonald of Redd Kross was behind the boards, I guess I expected something a little fuller and richer.

But that's small indeed. The Beards Funtown is one of the few side-projects I've encountered that works as more than just a curio for fans, an album that's not going to be tucked away on the shelf forever when the next release by Lisa Marr or the Muffs arrives. In fact, the Beards aren't even a side-project in the real sense, which can mean a bunch of friends got together on their day off and want you to plunk down $13.99 for it. The quality of the songs and the performances make the Beards' Funtown a real album by a real band, and definitely worth hearing.
- Benton Summers

gravitygirl.com - 07/02     
An on-the-side outfit fronted by the songwriting-pairing of pink-punk pin-up Lisa Marr, late of Buck, later of Cub, and irrepresible Muffs mouthpiece Kim Shattuck, The Beards make with the kind of record you'd expect from such rocking/rolling sisters, the album wandering through a mix of snot-nosed punk, stomp/clap anthems, harmony-laden pop, and nervous ballads that are reminiscent of both of the girl's songwritten histories. Produced with suitable studio-sunshine from Redd Kross brother Jeff McDonald, the debut disc from The Beards, Funtown, sounds like the trio (fleshed out by Marr's favoured drummer Sherri Solinger) are having plenty of fun; things almost getting joyous as they get almost-ironically anthemic on Make It In America, go all milkshake-sipping sweetiepie-like on T.S. Eliot, then trip with the help of a harpsichord through some kind of ersatz girl-group turn on Sidewalks; things only getting rough when they stop (stoop?) to cover, in brutal fashion, Frank Black's Thalassocracy, one of the belligerent odes on from his much maligned angry-second-solo-record Teenager Of The Year. As it comes, here, it's like a sign-off at the end of the set, an exclamation mark at the end of an album in which Marr and Shattuck show that their love of pop extends beyond the two-minute three-chord affair, and that they've got enough songs on-the-side to sufficiently satisfy an extra-curricular outing.
- Anthony Carew


www.sortedmagazine.com
Anyone like The Muffs? If you do then you will do wise to check out The Beards, a trio featuring my babe Kim Shattuck of the aforementioned cult punks. Also featuring Sherri Solinger on drums and Lisa Marr on vocals and bass, The Beards come across as a combo of The Breeders meets Juliana Hatfield, and damn good it is too.
The quirky, mid-tempo opener 'This Girl' kicks off the album, about a girl declaring her love for you (aww!) which leads into the nasty, sing-a-long anthem of 'True confessions', especially for anyone who's ever been fucked over by a bitch, male or female. And you just know when Marr sings 'What makes you think that I care?' that she's thinking about the new series of Big Brother...
Shattuck's voice on the sleepy 'My pillow' is truly gorgeous here, dreamy, soothing. 'Make it in America' rocks your socks off, a homage, one could say, to 'Kids of America' (also covered by The Muffs, trivia fans). But it's track #4, 'T.S. Elliot', which is the album's highlight. Moody, mellow, this is a hidden gem that slowly seeps into you after repeated listens, Marr's voice, the pain of the memory of an ex-lover haunting, mesmerising.
Loved this album, I really did. I bought it thinking I was getting a Muffs part 2, but was pleasantly surprised. Oh, and if you play it on your PC, each track is a homemade video - how cool is that?
- Ken Blackmore