Photography by Matt Marcinkowski
Joe Willis, Jerry Green, and Andrew Benn
This month, The Potomac Accord plays one of the more unusual release parties of any rock band in these parts. That it’s at the Central Library’s auditorium is one quirk; that the one-hour show will begin promptly at the early hour of 7 p.m. is another. Oh, they’ll actually be giving out stickers at the event, with a download code in lieu of a physical release. And the music of Beams? Well, it was recorded in 2013 and was intended for a local label with international reach, which imploded at the time of original release. Did we mention it’s also been available on Spotify since 2015?
The kicker to it all is Beams is an amazing record. If there was such a genre as Nuance Rock, The Potomac Accord would be practitioners of such: able to play in unusual time signatures, adept at playing at various volumes and in various moods, with co-founder and frontman Andrew Benn’s emotive vocals surfing atop an instrumental base that’s at time lovely, at times powerful.
“We want to get some press on it, let people hear it, then move onto doing another record,” Benn says.
“We’ve wanted to do the album justice,” adds bassist Joe Willis, “let it have a moment.”
The seven songs on the album captured the band as a four-piece, though the current version employs only three; it’s the third version of the group since the recording of Beams. Benn’s working triple duty, frequently employing keys, guitars, and vocals on a single track. Jerry Green, his cohort since the first days, is a tasteful drummer, with plenty of oomph when necessary. Willis, who is in his first rock band, handles the bass, though Benn deadpans that “he came in like a wild monkey, playing six instruments.”
These days, all the members are incorporating more into their sounds, be those loops, synths, additional textures. Every Thursday night, the band decamps for a well-appointed basement in the city’s North Hampton neighborhood, where they’re deep into writing material for a new album, one that they’re promising to release in shorter order than Beams. Judging by some previewed cuts, they’re well on the way to finding their new sound.
Green says that Benn’s “stuff is a little weird and dark, and he’s always changed the roles of his songs as players have come in. The richness comes through with each member and he’s adapted to people’s playing styles. Joe’s actually been a huge flame for us, his excitement’s meant that we’re looking to the future.”
The Potomac Accord’s been a band since 2000, save for a period from 2006-09, during which time Andrew Benn took a job in Chicago. Through several lineup changes and as many shifts in sound, the group’s nearly-two-decade history means that they’ve seen many of their musical contemporaries disband, while a number of their former venues have gone moved into the history books. In their earliest days, The Potomac Accord was firmly found within a group of American underground bands (like Low and Bedhead) playing very quiet music, or as Green says, music of the era of “‘quiet is the new loud,” a descriptor they fit perfectly.
“Our first record was us, after being in rock bands, wanting to go a new direction and being very, very quiet, writing thoughtful, lyrical and quietly-meticulous songs,” Benn says. “With changes in the sound, we’ve forced ourselves to be more expressive, to rock and turn the distortion on. It still sounds like us—we’ve just gone away from being only a slow, quiet band. There are elements of that that remind, but now we rock a little bit, as we get back to our roots. The new stuff’s our reinventing ourselves, and we’re using synths, samples and getting away from just piano and guitars, forcing ourselves in a new direction. It’s our rising out of the ashes, no longer afraid to crank it up a bit in 4/4 and to play the music we loved when we were younger. But still having elements of The Potomac Accord, as people knew us.”
The CD release show for Beams happens October 19. The latest info on gigs and releases can be found at facebook.com/thepotomacaccord.
Pick Three
The Potomac Accord’s nearly 20-year history of a band means it clocked time at some of St. Louis’ legendary rock clubs. Among them:
Centro Sociale: This DIY space on The Hill played host to plenty of concerts, along with live theater, often compliments of the house company, The Tin Ceiling; that collective would eventually decamp for the corner of Compton and Cherokee, the home of the former Way Out Club.
The Rocket Bar: Pablo Weiss retooled his namesake martini club into a launching pad for multiple local and national rock acts. Tiny, unusual stage, weird sight lines, killer booking.
Galaxy: Located at 1227 Washington, this rock club engaged in a nice, long run of success inside of a room that held several venues before. That Radiohead played a club show there cements its reputation.
