The Oracles - Beet The Meatles

I was perusing last.fm last night and noticed that the amount of listeners for The Oracles' first album, Beet The Meatles, was significantly lower than for their opus that is Optimus Grimes. Many of you who actually follow this blog probably already have this album and know the legend of the short-lived Oracles band. As I've explicitly stated numerous times before, The Oracles were and still are one of my favorite bands of all time. No exaggeration. The talent seeping from these 5 individuals was stunning enough in their own rights, but when you put all of them in a room behind instruments TOGETHER?! What happened was pure magic. The collective songwriting/arrangements that would rival John Lennon, George Harrison and Brian Wilson. The level of intuitive communication between the members on a more significant plane than we typically see on a day-to-day basis. The hilarious inside jokes that came about on stage that, sometimes, you feel you might understand as well. And then there were the jams. The all out heart-on-our-sleeve-let's-blow-this-building-up-with-nothing-but-magic-and-sound jams. Seeing this band play live would leave me happy for weeks. They toured once to the west coast in the summer of '05 and I'm glad they were able to do so. People NEEDED to see this band. Their mysterious demise will be left for another soul to relay, but for now let's celebrate what they made.

The first time I got this CD-R, it had the Bob Dylan cover (Love/No Limit Zero) on the disc. Later versions dropped this for some reason. An amazing rendition of that song, to say the least. "In The Dark" will forever hold a special place in my heart and brain.

These were the songs that started it all. Andy's description via last.fm:

"A lo fi band with many vocals and generally good intentions."