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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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The Alpha Centauri: Gleaming progressives
Friday 27 February @ 12:14:48 |
 by Patrick Johnson
Outside: Physicists currently explore a new, revolutionary philosophy that everything in the world, in the universe, is made of cosmic strings, vibrating with a unique resonance and in turn creating the matter this string will become. There is a distinct possibility that the microscopic speck we know as Earth merely clings to a universe that is only a cross-section of a vast loaf-shaped membrane containing multiple dimensions that our feeble minds cannot yet understand.
Spending time with the weighty Minneapolis-based band The Alpha Centauri, one indeed feels like a vibrating string, or a molecule in an atom-smasher, being shot through space, bounced off gravitons, for the sole purpose of experimentation. “It was about six years ago, maybe six, that we started conceptualizing the band,” lead singer and guitarist Lance Conrad explains. “We randomly picked instruments and wanted to prove to the world that we were somebody, like little punks do.”
The Alpha Centauri
Inside: Soundcheck takes place in a room like a prison. Everything is concrete and painted in glossy light gray. The overhead fluorescent lights are red and there’s that feeling that somebody is breaking out. But when I see that there is a concession stand I realize everything is going to be okay.
I’m standing with the newest members of The Alpha Centauri, bassist Justin Blair and drummer Luke Anderson, formerly of The Channels and Catnapping. I ask them why they want to be musicians. Blair tells me, “At this point I don’t know what else there would be to do. It’s been ten years of constant ‘this.’ I think that if I had to do anything else, I’d walk somewhere until I couldn’t walk anymore. So it’s either music or walking.”
After soundcheck, we’re in the greenroom, which seems like it was constructed minutes ago. The fresh room glistens with white light, and the carpet is virginal salt-and-pepper-colored Berber. There is a brand new Kenmore fridge in the corner with a twelve-pack of bottled water in it. The cleanest mirror I have ever seen hangs on an avocado green wall, gleaming. We sit on gray plastic chairs around a folding table with a guitar case on top of it. The band goes over their setlist, making sure the times will work out. “Is this right?” keyboardist Evan Beaumont questions, handing the small square piece of paper to guitarist John Knauss, who is worried that they won’t have enough time for all the songs. “I almost think we should hold one of these up here just in case they’re going to cut us off at the end.” Conrad tells him it will be allright, counting the songs off out-loud: “5,10,15,20,25,30. If they’re all five-minute songs we should be fine.”
I ask the band where they like to play in Minnesota. “I think the music scene in Duluth is really cool,” Conrad says. “I mean, there aren’t a whole lot of places to play, but every single time we’ve went up there, there’s been people that seem to have come out for the music, not so much for the beer.
And in Minneapolis there seems to be a lot of different kinds of music and there’s a lot of different genres going on. I don’t know but, as far as the rock scene, it seems like Minneapolis has its own thing, too, and maybe I’ve been hanging out at the wrong places, but, it seems like everyone is trying to be really alternative and extremely hip. The attention isn’t focused on the music.”
“To sum that up for Lance,” Beaumont adds, “there are too many scarves.”
Back in the prison-like room, there is no separation between stage and floor. The crowd is full of all types of folks. Boys with short hair and long hair.
Girls with pigtails or wearing stocking caps. Young. Old. One is wearing a trench coat. One looks like Matt Damon. Nobody’s hammered, everyone is paying attention. This is music at its purist form.
We all listen to the band begin and it is immediately evident their sound is progressive—not bound by authoritarian, traditional forms. The Alpha Centauri abandon the typical verse/chorus/verse structure. In the middle of the atmospheric “Supernal,” the song morphs into a duet between synthesized alienesque voices asking, “Where do we go from here” with Conrad answering, “I don’t know.” His tortured croon invites the listener on a transcendent journey into his dimension; an intense, high-wrought plane of fervor and emotion. His voice sounds classically trained, yet contains an abstract uniqueness, an ominous tension that sets Alpha Centauri apart.
The Alpha Centauri is driven by an irreverent electronic sound. Synthesizers are heavy, hypnotic, and torrential. Conrad believes, “A lot of our electronical influence came from Aphex Twin.” But Knauss feels he has had different influences. “I learned how I like guitars in songs from bands like The Pixies and The Flaming Lips.” Bjork is readily cited as the artist the the band would most like to play with. “It would be cool if she could open for us,” claimed Blair.
The classic instrumentation of guitar, bass, and drum are evident throughout the music, thickening the commanding sound of the vocals, synthesizers, and samples. The song “Handshakes and Smiles,” epitomizes the sound of The Alpha Centauri. It begins with a grandiose violin sample and a soft drumbeat in the background. The drum is erased by some psychedelic synth, but then everything is pulled away, leaving only a lonely clipping guitar. Then in a flash, all the instruments collide back together and the vocals kick in. This systematic addition and subtraction of instruments and sounds is consistent throughout the music of The Alpha Centauri.
At the end of the set Conrad thanks the crowd and says. “We’re on the web and all that other stuff that no one wants to hear at a show. CD’s.” He waves it off with his right arm and says, “Fuck it.” He pauses before finishing, “Music.”
With all the dramatic new concepts being materialized every day, about the world around us, The Alpha Centauri reminds their listener that big things are happening and warns not to get left behind.
The Alpha Centauri plays Sun., Mar. 7, at the Dinkytowner. With TBA. 6 p.m. $5. All Ages. 412 1/2 14th Ave. SE., Mpls. 612-362-0427.
Download an mp3 of the Alpha Centauri’s song Cryogenics.
You can find out more about the Alpha Centauri on their official website.
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