The Beths Bring Their Evocative, Well-Honed Power Pop to Music City

A five-minute punk-pop tour de force, The Beths’ “Little Death” takes the starry-eyed, tongue-tied euphoria of the early moments of a new relationship and eloquently sets it to music. Every song on the New Zealand foursome’s 2018 debut Future Me Hates Me is a winner, but “Little Death” takes top honors, its chiming clean guitars quickly giving way to crunchy power chords and explosive drum fills, a flurry of dramatic shifts in tempo and dynamics guided by singer-guitarist and band namesake Elizabeth Stokes’ melodious, heartfelt lilt. 

“Little Death” ought to be a mainstay of crush mixtapes — or rather, Spotify playlists — for years to come. The Beths will play it and other instant classics off Future Me on Thursday night at The Basement. “Little Death” was written quickly but took some time to crystallize, Stokes tells the Scene in an email. 

“The lyrics kind of spewed out in one go and dictated the structure of the song,” says Stokes. “I sat in my head with it for a while, then started plotting out on paper where I wanted it to go. Our drummer at the time [Ivan Luketina-Johnston] paired the military-style drums with it. It was difficult to sing and to play, so we went through long periods of not playing it. But it’s a staple now.”

As a listener, it’s tough to ascertain whether younger indie-rock bands currently gaining traction are the best out there, or just the lucky beneficiaries of good timing and great publicists. But The Beths’ emergence is a reminder that the cream can still rise to the top. Issued in August by Washington, D.C., label Carpark, Future Me abounds with clever hooks, tight harmonies and jangly guitars, and it’s performed with breakneck energy that never flags. In time-honored power-pop tradition, Stokes’ lyrics couch feelings of anxiety, bad decision-making and crippling self-doubt inside melodies warm enough to thaw even the most severe seasonal depression.

New Zealand has a storied history of catchy guitar pop, but Stokes quickly dispels the notion that Kiwi kids come out of the womb listening to bands like The Clean, The Chills or The Verlaines. For her, it started in a suburban Auckland mall. 

“My best friend Chelsea Jade [Metcalf] and I learned a bunch of Jenny Lewis songs and went busking,” she says. “Then we recorded some demos using Audacity and started getting asked to play shows around town. The way she was so sure that we were worth hearing is the only thing that could pull my impostor-syndrome-addled teen self into this industry.” 

Their band together, a folk trio called Teacups rounded out by Talita Setyadi, went on to share bills with the likes of Cat Power and Kimya Dawson. Setyadi gave up music to become a chef; Metcalf, now a solo artist living in L.A., has opened for Lorde and penned songs for The Chainsmokers.

Stokes, guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Ben Sinclair and drummer Luketina-Johnston formed The Beths in 2015 after studying jazz together at the University of Auckland — a fact that helps explain how Future Me sounds so fully formed for a debut. You have to strain your ears to hear much of a jazz influence, but the musical proficiency and collaborative spirit the quartet developed in its studies are apparent in both the economy of the songwriting and the strength of the playing. They make it look easy, as naturals do. (Drummer Katie Everingham and bassist Chris Pearce make up the rhythm section for the touring unit.)

When The Beths came through Nashville in October, they shared a bill with local faves Sad Baxter at the now-closed Fond Object Records downtown. The place was packed well beyond capacity, the crowd spilling out onto the sidewalk. The band appeared pleasantly surprised at the response, delivering a short but spirited set that turned on the charm: about a half-dozen songs, played a tick faster than on the record — and closing with “Little Death,” naturally. It was one of those gigs wherein the group had gained recognition since the date was booked, outgrowing the venues they were playing by the time the tour got to town. Even The Basement seems a little small for a band that placed 23rd on the Village Voice’s 2018 Pazz & Jop poll — ahead of Bridgestone-headlining pop stars (Ariana Grande, Travis Scott) and rock legacy acts (Elvis Costello, David Byrne) alike.

“The momentum in the U.S. is crazy,” Stokes says. “Touring throws some struggle days at you, and it doesn’t take a big obstacle to trip you up and hurl you into despair. … So to know that the music is speaking to a lot of people is really nice. I don’t feel like we have exploded or anything, so generally it just feels like growth, in a good way.”