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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 2011)
HEIRLOOM ORGANIC B etty and the Boy are the type of extremely talented beautiful weirdos who can’t help but be as enveloping, genuine and eerie as their music is. The sound created by this four-piece tour-de- acoustic-maudlin-force could be compared to the music of Cat Power or Mirah, but stranger and with more instrumental viscosity. Possessing an unmistakable vibe and a truly haunting aesthetic, Betty and the Boy don’t make music for jovial festivities — they make music to fl icker alongside candles. “People think we are a bluegrass band ‘cause we have a stand-up bass and a mandolin and we mic all our instruments, then they get sore about it when they fi gure out we aren’t,” says Josh Harvey (banjo, mandolin, vocals). Harvey and Betty, the band’s namesake (whose real name is Bettreena Jaeger) form the founding nucleus of the band, which originated in Kalispell, Mont. Bassist Jon Conlon and Michelle Whitlock, a violinist trained in traditional Suzuki-method, came out of the woodwork to join Jaeger and Harvey when the two nascent members relocated to Eugene, a move that was very calculated. They preferred to be in a smaller town like Eugene, as opposed to the big blender of Portland. Jaeger, the daughter of an English professor, was groomed to be the captivating vocalist she has become. Her voice sounds like it could be a resonating comple- ment to the soundtrack for Requiem for a Dream. When her father wasn’t teaching creative writing, she recalls, he was dragging her to stoic poetry readings that Jaeger NBT ARTIST COMPILATION ALBUM thought were “really creepy” and booking small shows for their family band to perform. Jaeger says the family band (Big Daddy Toad and the Tadpoles), consisting of her, her father and her brother, pretty much played old Pearl Jam covers in small venues and talent shows. Harvey has a similar story. As a young boy, he danced at the shows his mother’s band put on. His own son, 10-year-old Gavin, continues in this family tradition, and even mans the merchandise table during Betty and the Boy gigs. Gavin is also starting to pick up his father’s banjo. To say that music is a way of life for this band would be a gross understatement. “There’s nothing synthetic about our sound,” says Jaeger. “It’s minimalist.” She pauses, staring up at one of her own paintings on the wall, depicting a garish looking, monstrous snail devouring plant life. “Most of our instruments are heirlooms passed down to us by dead people,” she says. Perhaps this explains the lingering lack of genre and the thick presence of emotional mass in their songs. “We’re basically some sort of hybrid between folk music, bluegrass and classical,” Harvey says. Live, Betty and the Boy are not a high-energy performance act that will get you moving like their award- winning peer and NBT co-winner Tyler Fortier. One listen to their song “Moth to a Light,” the single they submitted to the NBT contest, recorded in Conlon’s living room and mastered by Jim Rusby, immediately makes that clear. This isn’t a stomp-your-feet-raise-your-beer-glass type of tune. FEATURING THE TOP 16 FINALISTS FREE EVENT Sept. 20 • 5-7pm Cozmic Pizza 199 W. 8th Ave. thestonemason.com PURCHASED AT COUPON NOW 2 LOCATIONS! SY'S NEW YORK PIZZA 55 SILVER LN. 654-0603 11AM-MIDNIGHT SUN-THU 11AM-1AM FRI-SAT 11 AM -10PM DAILY SERVING DELICIOUS NEW YORK PIZZA BY THE SLICE AND BY THE WHOLE PIZZA PIE 2.00 OFF ANY 18” LARGE $ ® Finely Crafted Custom Stonework Canning, Freezing, Drying? &HOHEUDWHWKHERXQW\RIWKHVHDVRQZLWKORFDOIDUPHUV FKHIVSURGXFHUVEUHZHUVDQGUHVWDXUDWHXUV 6XQGD\2FWREHU QG z 1RRQSP We’ve got Heirloom & Slice Tomatoes, Sweet Peppers, Onions, Beans, Basil, & More! 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This market exists and Betty and the Boy has the talent to own it, though such a leap may not be what the band is looking to make. “We just want to be sustainable and happy with it,” Harvey says of the band’s music. “We all have full-time jobs, and I’m just as happy playing down by the water for a duck or a nutria.” “Money and art don’t go together unless you’re Lady Gaga,” Jaeger says, smirking unabashedly. “It would be nice to have a booking agent eventually though, if the agent knew what kind of venues we would fi t in,” Harvey adds. This slightly reluctant yet refreshingly honest perspective is to be expected of such unapologetically talented musicians. 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