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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Bettie Serveert
Wednesday 02 April @ 12:12:51 |
 by Rob van Alstyne
I thought I had completely figured out Dutch rock act Bettie Serveert’s sonic battle plan by the time of their third album, 1997’s Dust Bunnies. Like their previous two Matador Records albums, Dust Bunnies presented a no-frills college rock guitar assault, marrying expert ax-man Peter Visser’s highly-charged riffs to the awkward yet soothing croon of front woman Carol Van Dijk (a dead ringer for Liz Phair in the understated vocal execution department). Bettie Serveert belonged in that tenuous realm of good-but-not-great bands, an undeniably talented group, but one who stuck too closely to the indie-rock playbook to leave a lasting impression.
All of that changed with the arrival of album number four, 2000’s masterful Private Suit, recorded with the aid of ace producer John Parish. On that release the Betties finally blew their sound wide open, incorporating compelling low-key folk ditties (“Auf Wiedersehen”) and sweeping orchestral pop (“Private Suit”) into their repertoire. The inspired mélange of sounds bumped the band into an altogether higher realm; it’s a place they still occupy on their follow-up effort, the even more adventurous Log 22.
Comprised of 13 songs and clocking in at over an hour in length, the Betties let it all hang out on Log 22, bringing the hard stuff back into their rock ‘n’ roll mix on a few numbers (“Smack,” “Not Coming Down”) while further exploring their more relaxed acoustic sound at other points (“Captain of Maybe,” “Cut and Dried”). Although every bit as impeccable a sonic production as Private Suit, Log 22’s wide-lens rock was actually primarily conceived and produced by the band themselves in guitarist Peter Visser’s living room (which, judging by the lush, horn-and-strings-drenched sound of songs like the stellar “Have a Heart,” must be a pretty damn big room).
“Deciding to produce the album ourselves started off really as a money thing,” admits Visser via telephone. “A producer is just so expensive. Once we started doing the producing we got excited about it though, because it was something we had never done before. It was kind of a dangerous idea, because if it came out like crap there wasn’t going to be anyone around to fix it.”
Left to their own devices, the band shaped the album over the course of half a year in Visser’s home, spending only seven days in an outside recording studio to tack on the finishing touches. A freewheeling vibe results, and not everything works (the disco-inflected album closer “The Love-In” is just a flat-out bad idea). On the whole, however, the sound of the band continuing to explore and re-invent themselves, now well into the second decade of their career, is frequently stunning and never short of intriguing.
“Above all, you don’t want to repeat yourself,” claims Visser. “I think that every album is a reaction to the one you made before. This new one may be a bit over the top and freaky in comparison to Private Suit for some people, but that’s fine because we were trying to do something new.” Over the top and freaky is certainly the right set of words to describe tunes like the mind-bending “White Dogs,” an eight-minute epic that morphs from a violin-abetted ballad into a mid-tempo electric rocker, then shifts yet again into an extended electric guitar workout.
The track is one of a number in which the Betties stretch out. All told, Log 22 rides the groove of a song past the six-minute mark on four occasions. Although a bit cumbersome listening for some, Visser defends the thinking behind the group’s newfound expansiveness. “There were really no restrictions when it came to making this record. A lot of the stuff we were recording live, so if we were really into the groove we just went with it. I don’t get why people have a problem with longer songs. I think if a song is great you can listen to it for an hour.”
Working only with their own set of rules in mind (standard song running times be damned!) Bettie Serveert have managed to outlast most of their fellow early ’90s college rock contemporaries by a good five years, a fact Visser credits to careful planning. “Having a year off every so often is the trick,” says Visser. “It’s a really healthy thing to do after being together for so long. In the beginning, you started a band as friends and for the love of music, it’s important to remember that. Being in the van too long with the same people out on the road all the time can fuck that up really badly, and it’s not worth it. I still like being in the band and making music. It’s great.”
Bettie Serveert plays Sat., Apr. 5 at the 7th St. Entry with special guests. 8 p.m. $8. 21+. 701 1st Ave. N., Mpls. 612-338-8388.
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