Band of the Month - Accordions

Ben Bernthal of the band Accordions always greets me with a firm handshake and a smile, either at a show or at the Broad Ripple Bagel Deli where I run into him with some frequency. Usually Paul Cobb (who sometimes moonlights with the band) is there, too. Bernthal, who looks a bit like a younger Ben Folds or Ryan Adams, handed me a copy of the Accordions new album, Hope for the Best and a bit sheepishly said, “Hope you like it.”


Bernthal is currently a recording major at Butler University (BU), and this album was his first big undertaking. In December of 2008, the group, which includes Joseph Kilbourn, Ben Leslie, Kipp Normand, Adam Gross and Steve Trowbridge (of Amo Joy), began recording tracks utilizing borrowed BU equipment. Everyone made personal sacrifices during the process. It was not unusual for Kilbourn and Bernthal to be in the studio or in session for 12 hour stretches at a time, often from 8pm to 8am, with classes starting at 9am. Leslie would come record his trumpet tracks in between jazz band rehearsals and other shows he was playing with various groups around town. Alisha Garrison would enter the studio to record her angelic vocal harmonies to Bernthal’s melody lines, often times “Enduring the sometimes sordid interactions that college-age males have in the studio,” Bernthal said. This included random impromptu jams that are often derived from and driven by sleepless nights and too much caffeine. (Un)fortunately, these jams, such as “Ass Massage” and “Eat that Shit for Breakfast” never made it to the album to complement songs that did like “History Books” and “We Took to the Skies.”


Throughout the duration of the recording process, Accordions became more of a family than a band. At a rehearsal session, the group was the first to see the engagement ring Kilbourn had picked out, and it was at another rehearsal that they wrote a song that he used to propose to his wife. Each member helped mix the album, and they worked in shifts. They had papers to write, tests to cram for, and naps to take. The group rose and fell with each other, and fought through many difficult setbacks, including the loss of several recorded mixed files that got lost on the recording software.


Accordions also recently finished their fourth tour, their third alongside “brother band” Amo Joy. The group has played in basements, art galleries, venues both small and large, to acoustic shows on rooftops and sidewalks. The one thing Bernthal loves the most is being on the road, meeting and spending time with fellow musicians, absorbing the experiences and conversations that come and go with each mile marker and every stage. “There’s something very humbling about having strangers take you in and feed you. It makes the whole world seem smaller and the art community seem like one, big intertwined family.”


The band is riding on the shoulders of the album name, as they used its recording process as a learning experience. Accordions agreed that Hope for the Best would not incorporate aides such as metronomes, click tracks, and they also decided to avoid pitch correction and digital equalizers. The result was a very genuine sound, with a simple, ethereal sound that makes the listener feel as though they are warming up by a fire in the snow-covered mountains in Vermont, or walking along a wharf late at night, with a soft rain and an epiphany.


The lyrics on Hope for the Best are both haunting and enchanting. It’s difficult to place musical influences, although I joked with Ben that at times with the keyboard, I could hear some Ben Folds stylizations. The thing that impresses me the most on the album was Bernthal’s breath control and the vocal phrasing, and that’s one of the biggest reasons as to why the lyrics work so well with the music. The repetition in the music is countered with undulations in volume, ebbing and flowing, which helps give it a mellow, earthy, aural sensation. It is one of the few albums that I’ve heard that makes me utilize other senses because I imagine the smell of pine cones and the salty ocean air.


Accordions will be playing the Big Car/MOKB Haiti Benefit concert at the Murphy Building on the 13th of this month and their CD release show will be hosted at the Earth House on the 27th with Arrah & the Ferns and Arlo & the Otter from Columbus, OH. In conjunction with the release, Accordions will be giving a free copy of Hope for the Best to everyone attending. Keep up with the band on www.myspace.com/accordionsband because a limited edition release of the album will be pressed on vinyl with digital download options and unique packaging.

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE ALBUM ON MFT HERE - http://www.musicalfamilytree.com/band/_accordions

By Andrews Feigenbaum

Hope for the Best Tracklist:
cape neddick
earthworms
history books
robert l. sinclaire
rose’s theme
paper horses
for emily
junkyard
we took to the skies
i sailed with magellan