Since mid-July, D.C. art-rockers Beauty Pill have been holed up in Artisphere's Black Box Theatre recording a new album. I've filed a few dispatches. Today is the band's final day there, and it's worth stopping by the building's third-floor observation window anytime until about 10 p.m., so that you can look in on the sessions [...]
It's Thursday, and Beauty Pill is working on "Near Miss Stories"—the band's only song that addresses the illness that nearly killed frontman Chad Clark in 2007 and 2008. "You’re in a desperate situation," says Clark, explaining the lyrics. "You’re in a shipwreck, you’re out at sea, holding onto a piece of wood. You’re at the [...]
It's Tuesday afternoon at Artisphere, and Beauty Pill is advancing the song "When Cornered" from Beatles circa 1967 (frontman Chad Clark's demo of the song is rich in sitar-like sounds and "Lucy in the Sky" lilt) to Beatles circa 1968. Specifically: a layered guitar line that's poppy and hyper-chromatic and heavy and messy. It also [...]
"I come bearing caffeine. Caffeine! Caffeina!" announces Chad Clark near the top of his band's first day in Artisphere's Black Box Theatre, where his band Beauty Pill is holed up for most of the rest of the month to complete its next album, and where runs to the Starbucks down the street are both required [...]
