Big Midnight

A “two-fer” this month!  Quite by accident, my CD’s by THE RICHMOND SLUTS and BIG MIDNIGHT wound up side by side (they still are in fact).  I already had cleaned up the Richmond Sluts LP from the Katrina mud and had played it several times, though I didn’t know who the band was right away since there was only a photo on the label.  I was playing some CD’s one day in my three-disc CD changer (part of my turntable system actually), and I was struck almost immediately by how similar the lead singers were on the two CD’s.  They each had a similar up-note at the end of a line – Californians often talk as though each sentence is a question, and this was like singing in that way.  I checked the CD’s and found that the lead singer and primary songwriter – Shea Roberts – was the same in both bands.  Bassist Chris Beltran is in both bands as well; he is credited as Chris B in the Richmond Sluts.  That made me consider other situations where bands change names, or where a band changes dramatically using the same or a similar name.  

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Big Midnight is advertised on the Bomp! mailorder site as “former Richmond Sluts”, but I don’t remember it that way when I first ordered the album some years back.  Now that the Richmond Sluts have reformed, that might be the best way to relate to this band.  Still, this band has its own identity, exploring their more mature sound in varied ways rather than trying to mine all of their influences directly.  Even Shea Roberts’ lead vocals are sung in a lower register.   

The band was formed in 2002 by Shea Roberts (guitar, vocals, keyboards, percussion) and Chris Beltran (bass, harmonica, keyboards) of the Richmond Sluts, plus KC Kozak (drums, backing vocals), Elisha Drons (guitar), and Lydia Walker (backing vocals).  Jimmy Willets plays guitar on one track.  (The Richmond Sluts also have some uncredited female background vocals). 

It took me a while to notice, but the album photography is pretty special:  It has the same stagey poses that 1960’s and 1970’s bands employed.  This is one way that they highlight their retro-rock sound – the Bomp! mailorder advert puts the band “in the retro-as-if-retro-never-happened category”. 

Big Midnight also has released only one album, Everything for the First Time, which came out on Alive Records in 2003.  Allmusic immediately notes in their review by Brian O'Neill, “Actually, there is nothing here that you will be hearing for the first time” and continues:  “Everything for the First Time could have as easily came out in 1973 as it did in 2003.  Call ’em ‘the Rolling Stooges’ and the band will have to plead guilty, as Big Midnight combines the nihilism of Iggy Pop (‘Love for Sin’ could have been a [David] Bowie or [Lou] Reed side written specifically with Ig in mind) with the bloozey, boozy swagger of Keith Richards’ crew.” 

Great tracks on the album include the band’s single, “Doin’ All Right”. described by Creem magazine this way:  “These denim-clad, sunglass-sporting, Rolling Stones-patched hombres from the Bay Area have crafted a great smoking-in-the-high-school-parking-lot vibe on this debut single.”  “All the Dreams”, “Love for Sin” and “Spent Too Much” are slower, almost pensive numbers that are unlike anything on The Richmond Sluts; and “(You) Treat Me Too Bad” is another terrific number.  As with the Richmond Sluts album though, every song is well crafted and well performed.