New Music Indiana: Secrets Between Sailors

Listen to Secrets Between Sailors while you read!

Working-class rock-and-roll has always had a home in Indiana, but look out the window right now; what do you see while the last days of 2011 wind down? Our long-lasting icon, the Coug, has divorced a supermodel for a movie-star...that ain’t working class. Last time The Boss played Indianapolis tickets were triple digits, way beyond my blue-collar salary. Hell, even Henry Lee Summer (he of the teased hair and bleached jeans) was arrested for meth. Wait...maybe that is working class. Maybe we don’t need heroes anymore, just a neat shot of authenticity. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Secrets Between Sailors.

Birthed in Bloomington from a post-college haze and now spread across the state in Indianapolis and Lafayette, SBS came about via lead singer & guitarist Kyle Burkett’s wide collection of songs needing an escape valve. He picked up bassist Andrew Maxson and guitarist Andreas Butler from a recently defunct act, and after finding a drummer, a self-titled record soon followed. In the early days, the sound was all drum thrash and guitar squall; the dynamics ranged from “pretty loud” to “really damn loud.”

A band’s voice and a songwriter’s voice are two very different beasts; it was apparent early on that Burkett, his voice a lower-nasal bark reminiscent of a gentler Pere Ubu, his riffs uncoiling across lengthy song verses, had a developed sense of what made his songs work. It wasn’t until expanding the live line-up to include horns, keys, and a female vocalist, that the band’s voice took shape. Dynamics were no longer a blunt instrument to be thwacked over the head with, they started being woven into the songs. The rhythm section of Maxson and drummer Kyle Collins became equally at ease holding down extended solos and melodically underpinning a quiet verse. Butler’s noodly, blues-y high-fretwork, which was so often lost in a storm of distortion, now chimed through, clean and unassailed, Verlaine-esque in its restless movement.

Now Hear This! begins with “Get Together,” an apt summation of the band, musically and lyrically. A pulsating riff expands outward with a 4/4 beat before tamping down for the first verse: “When we were young / Oh man we had everything / We could spend the afternoons indoors / Bad intentions, yeah I’m gonna wander the streets at night / Light some shit on fire and watch it explode / We’re gonna get together,” firing off into the glorious first chorus, full of youth, vim, and vigor...and plenty of backing vocals.

After the muscular noodling balladry of “Lioness”, a prime example of the guitar interplay that largely defines the record, “Year of Plenty” turns out a memorable verse from a hard-driving beat. “We had a party / The house burned down / And from the wreckage / We built our sound” Burkett yells over syncopated beats & a blunt riff, while the chorus glides drunkenly over a pounding, ride-heavy drum line, the riffs accelerating through the song’s end.

Elsewhere, the winds change, and the Sailors slow down, not content to build an entire record out of youthful destruction and party detritus. The deceleration is most notable on Now Hear This!’s dual centerpiece, “Hard to Be a Man” and “Bald is Beautiful”. The former is a powerful dirge, an amped-up Neil Young-esque rocker with low-end brass bedding beneath the main riff. Burkett is in full trials-and-tribulations mode, and the song resolves with the band mining a final chord over a loping bass-line and frenetic beat. “Bald is Beautiful” is centered on a vacillating riff, backed by more droning horns. When the song opens up, it’s Built to Spill-esque arena rock, Burkett exclaiming over a compact solo, “You get me high / You get me higher / Just think it over...” After a quick break to breathe in, the song ends by hammering the riff back home with the low-end crashing through.

The band explores lighter territory with less success on “The Way You Are,” whose female lead vocals are a stark departure from Burkett’s. “Backbreaker” rushes over itself; a speedy, funk-lite fuzz-bass rhythm leads to a satisfying chunky riff and working-class tale. When it finally sheds its lusty pace, it’s a post-coital clean-toned rocker. Closer “Tiny Pieces” is a full-band remake of an acoustic number from the Sailors’ first LP. This is slow-jam territory done right, with a full, fat kick sound, ringing chords, and weightless female backing vocals. Burkett excels at belting out the lost-love story; if he’s a torch-singer, then this track is the damn torch.

Lyrically dark but not despondent, Now Hear This! won’t redeem your faith in humanity, but it will make you a believer in the almighty riff. Though long in the tooth in places, the record refuses to drag due to the relentless rhythm section of Maxson & Collins, whose work here shouldn’t go unnoticed even if the guitar interplay is the album’s focal point. A working-class band should be one that exudes honesty to a fault even when pushing ideas that don’t quite gel; and that’s what you get with Now Hear This!, a damn fine rock-and-roll record released in the year 2011. Wash your hands and be thankful.

Catch Secrets Between Sailors' LP Release Show this Friday, November 4th at the historic Melody Inn.