| You're Pretty loops intrigue, battle cries (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) by Gemma Tarlach August 25 2000 You're pretty. So's the band. With a clever, think-about-it name and a sound that's equal parts intrigue and catharsis, the Milwaukee-area quartet You're Pretty is one of the most innovative acts on the local circuit. Not that the band is really local anymore. You're Pretty - singer Beth Musolff, guitarist Steven Kern, bassist Chris Stenger and drummer Dave Keckeisen - has had successful shows on both coasts and is planning a two-week tour in the fall through the Southwest and Los Angeles. They will showcase for several major labels that have expressed interest. You're Pretty has also sold more than 1,000 copies of it's 1998 eponymous full-length CD and more recent six-song disc "The 161 EP", released in April, via it's Web site and CDBaby.com - including several to fans as far away as Russia and Bulgaria, one of whom claimed via e-mail that he had to resort to the black market to get his copy. What's the appeal? You're Pretty fills a void in the heavy scene. Without turntables or other gimmicks du jour, the band has created a dynamically dense stew still accessible enough to grab your interest on first listen. "Worst Of Me" opens with a twisted blues shuffle that quickly submerges beneath Musolff's "You Oughta Know"-on-acid confessional. The slow-building sense of outrage on "What You Do To Me" would sound at home on the radio between the Deftones and A Perfect Circle. Musolff's formidable voice has been compared to that of Tori Amos, an admitted influence. But if Amos is an ethereal wood sprite flitting through the forest, Musolff is more of an elvish warrior princess, as capable of a gentle hush as a heavy metal battle cry that would make Bruce Dickinson run to the hills. Stenger and Keckeisen's propulsive rhythm section provide the songs' structure and direction, leaving Kern free to come in and out of the mix with sounds ranging from an industrial growl to the chirp of birds. Stenger, the main songwriter in a collaborative effort since the current lineup solidified in 1998, likens his approach to that of a visual artist. "I believe music should be seen as much as heard," said the bassist, who added that he often starts with just a sketch of an idea and leaves his bandmates to fill in the colors. "Chris came to practice one day and told us he'd seen a swing set on the way in, and thought about how kids don't do something as simple as swinging on a swing set anymore," said Kern. "We started playing and wound up writing a song just off what he'd said." Musolff is responsible for the brooding lyrics. "It has to be personal - how could I feel it otherwise?" Musolff said. "Some of the songs I'll mask and say it's fictional but...no, it's not. It's me." In live shows, the band's energy and intensity has left members sore, bruised, and bleeding afterward. "Dave (Keckeisen) winds up playing the final two songs with his bare hands because he goes through that many drum sticks," said Stenger. "It's easy math. We do what we do because we love to do it, so we pour everything we have into it." |