Everthus the Deadbeats

Looking like a group of lumberjack circus performers, Everthus the Deadbeats helped kick off the South Park Music Festival Sept. 7 with a well-attended set at the Park Bar in Fairplay. Their self-described "freak-pop" was on shining display as the audience waffled between raucous approval and occasional head-scratching.

The spirit of Billy Joel hung heavy in the air during "Some Terry's," an appropriately bombastic, piano-led tune that got the crowd hopping. The Indianapolis-based quintet seemed to enjoy working the audience with its unpredictable antics, sometimes sounding like a fey Modest Mouse, other times like a heavy-metal Pink Floyd.

The general sense of mayhem settled in during "She," a weirdly propulsive song sporting non sequiturs like "she dropped right out of law school" and "she's bilingual." The combination of buzzing synths and child-toy percussion created a pleasant state of confusion that most people seemed reluctant to leave behind.
- John Wenzel - Denverpost.com

Just for a second pretend you're reading MOKB, GVB or YANP (linking to the boys in a lame attempt to get these crazy kids a little more pub). Imagine you just read the week in the NFL wrapup or a concert review/preview of some great show in Austin or an anti-Zune review. Imagine you're sitting on the edge of your swivel chair in the hopes of finding the next big thing. And then imagine you're reading about this band - Everthus The Deadbeat. They record for the Indianapolis label Standard Recording Company. You now, the ones who first brought you Margot and the Nuclear So And So's. Anyway back to Everthus. They have a disarming sound that is equal parts the Stranglers, Tilly And The Wall and the soundtrack from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

A release like this is never going to show up on any of the Tuesday new release lists. So it's autimatically not going to be mentioned by a hundred different bloggers. It's not going to sell enough copies out of the gate to appear on any best sellers list and it doesn't appear that the label has signed up Fanatic or Team Clermont to bribe college kids with swag so they probably won't make it very far up the CMJ charts. But they should do all of these things. So get your jazz hands out and enjoy these two tracks from the their new EP. Buy their new EP, Addicts Stuck In Traffic, here now. - songs:illinoismp3.blogspot.com

I am going to cautiously say this next statement, for I am afraid that I may be assassinated by one of you and if not you then by my partner-in-crime Connor.

Four days ago, I finally got to see The Big Lebowski in it's entirety.

Yeah, I know. It's a sin, I'm a horrible person, how can I be a complete movie fan, yadda yadda. I had seen various parts of the movie at different times, but had never sat down and watched it play through continuously. After seeing that remarkable flick, I have a new appreciation for a band that I have neglected posting on called Everthus the Deadbeats. If you're a Big Lebowski fan, I'm sure you can recall Dude's rug getting pissed on as a man fist pumps and shouts "Everthus the deadbeats, Lebowski!" Now that you know where they got their name, shall we discuss music?

The Deadbeats hail from the Indianapolis area, where they make a variety of terrific songs for your listening pleasure. Their music is a vague and reminiscent clash of bands like Ween or even Man Man. With the contrasting effect of deep vocals meeting high pitched vocals, Everthus the Deadbeats are able to craft a sound that I would love to see played before my eyes. Lyrically the band is very solid, with fun lines like "addicts stuck in traffic!" and even inserting a clever play of words on their name with a line saying "Trevor dust the bedsheets." Aside from enjoying the creativity stemming from their vocal chords, I really like the various keyboard and percussion heavy musical breakdowns in each of the below songs. Without their coy use of keys, this band could've been nothing more than an oriental rug soaking up urine on the floor. - iguessimfloating.blogspot.com

If playwright Samuel Beckett were alive, he'd probably be an Everthus the Deadbeats fan. Equal parts glam rock, sleazy lounge act, and theater, the Deadbeats create a world within their songs not far removed from Beckett's plays-amorphous landscapes populated with insanity and characters of questionable reputation. On Friday night, they celebrated the release of their debut album, "Addicts Stuck in Traffic," at Indy CD and Vinyl, turning their performance into a "Theater of the Absurd" Beckett would be proud of.
When taking the stage, the five band members slinked from the store's stockroom, tossing noisemakers as they crept along. Lead vocalist John Muylle grasped his microphone and, in the deranged voice of a washed-up cabaret M.C. at a nightclub in hell, welcomed everyone to the show. They opened the set by launching into "Blackout," a claustrophobic nightmare reminiscent of Beckett's "Endgame." The survivors of the song's world fret over dwindling food supplies, fish drifting dead in their tank, black water, and wailing sirens.
"Anyone who wants to report to the stage to dance, please do so at this time," keyboardist Lisa Berlin announced at one point, welcoming several fans into their midst. Performing live, the Deadbeats become demented pied pipers, hypnotizing their audience with bouncing melodies and addictive "la-la-las" and "ba-ba-bas." Their fans march merrily into the chaos the band creates, singing all the way.
One such singalong is"Demons Free," about finding someone "twice as crazy as me" who can "set my demons free." Guitarists Allen Bannister and Benny Sanders laced the song with a country twang, which was interrupted when Daniel Fahrner exploded with an outburst on drums, even standing on his seat to use the light fixture for percussion. It was one of several new compositions sprinkled through the set, including "Tommy Wommy," a Danny Elfman-esque piece witha climax sharing musical similarities to the opening of the "Laverne and Shirley" theme.
In "Some Terry's," the band sings "we've always liked to be abit more than you could ever hope to fit in your common day to day boring personality." they lived up to the credo, proving anything but boring. Like Beckett, their work evokes two responses: enthusiastic applause or deep rumination. At night's end, their audience bombarded them with cheers. - Sagamore IUPUI Newspaper - by Josh Flynn

Muncie, IN, is the sort of small college town (like Athens, GA, or Lawrence, KS) where bands start up largely out of a lack of much else to do. Freed from the temptation to follow the trends of the moment, these bands can occasionally grow so insular and weird that unless you happen to know the songwriters personally, it's near impossible to tell just what they're on about. Released in 2007, Addicts Stuck in Traffic suggested that this might be the fate of Everthus the Deadbeats, but the band's far superior full-length debut, John Kill and the Microscopic Lullaby, is both even odder and, crucially, far more accessible than the debut EP. Rather than the sense of near-random weirdness for its own sake that occasionally plagued the EP, John Kill and the Microscopic Lullaby integrates its more unusual aspects smoothly into the well-arranged, carefully constructed songs, such as the sudden vocal chorale that at one point overtakes the limpid chamber pop of "Twenty-Three." Similarly, more purely atmospheric passages like the electronic pulses of "General L.C.D. Quartz" and the dreamy psychedelic waltz "Sweetie" are kept brief enough to avoid bogging down the generally more song-oriented flow. Echoes of everyone from the Olivia Tremor Control's homemade tape loop anarchy to Tom Waits' clanking junkyard instrumentation to 10cc's quirky but slick prog pop can be found on these 15 varied tunes. The album's press notes claim that leader John Muylle's lyrics form a loosely constructed concept album, something about the symbolic dreams of the fictional character John Kill. In reality, being able to follow the story clearly almost never has any bearing on the listener's enjoyment of a concept album, so the fairly impenetrable storyline can be safely ignored without losing any of the album's oddball charms, which are legion. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide - All Music Guide

A band that takes their name from a Big Lebowski quote is worth at least a quick listen. And after that quick listen you'll be very confused about what you just heard. Better listen again. Indiana's Everthus the Deadbeats are one strange band. And I say that as a compliment. Their quirky glam-pop can be compared to Electric Light Orchestra meets Moth!Fight! meets The Beatles meets Panda Bear.

This is what happens when sunshine-pop gets freaky, or when psych-rock gets a sense of humor. I have no idea what these songs are about, but listening to this big band of five gives me an incredible urge to eat funnel cake, twirl around in big plastic teacups, and water-color on the back of paper plates like there's no tomorrow. - ohmyrockness.com

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing a small, unsigned act is recording “the record.” Pitfalls are aplenty and trouble has a way of finding even the best of bands. Maybe the biggest of these obstacles is capturing an accomplished live band’s sound.

Recording an album seems to be a balancing act of sorts: Too little production, too much tape hiss and too much lo-fi madness can lead to an understated effect. Too much gloss and superstar production can lead to fake, soulless music. Either approach leads to diminishing said accomplished live band’s energetic sound.

Enter Everthus.the.Deadbeats. Muncie, Indiana’s very own excessively punctuated freak-pop outfit has just released its second record, produced by If Anything’s Andrew Malott and Daniel Clark, Addicts Stuck in Traffic is a gigantic and ominous-sounding joy-ride that blazes through six tracks without ever feeling rushed.

While not technically an EP, Addicts Stuck in Traffic isn’t exactly a full-length either. The material – culled from the band’s familiar live repertoire – includes no surprises. These songs have been played live almost since the band’s inception. What is surprising (and refreshingly so) is that the band has managed to find that peaceful area between lo-fi glory and produced gloss.

Guitars shimmer and snarl, vocals swirl, keyboards punch, and the rhythm section holds the project down with down with menacing vengeance and tactful subtlety. Addicts is, quite frankly, immaculately produced.

In apropos fashion, Benny Sanders' fuzzed-out bass on “Blackout” is the first thing we hear on Addicts. Then the vocals – layers and layers of them – hurtle in. The blood-curding scream fades out and John Muylle’s and Lisa Berlin’s keyboards provide the gloomy soundtrack for Muylle’s apocalyptic lyrics.

While one of Deadbeats' best live songs, they stumble a bit on “She”. The heavy crunch of Sanders bass and the cavernous production – particularly on the drums – weighs the track down, burying Allen Bannister’s guitar-work – which is at its best on this track – beneath a tidal wave of low end.

However the the Deadbeats redeems themselves throughout the rest of the album. “Human Paraquat,” propelled by a driving dance/jazz drum beat, stands out as the album’s best track.

But the biggest strength of Addicts Stuck in Traffic is that each band member contributes equally. Muylle doesn’t overshadow the band with his alter-ego kitsch. Bannister’s understated work on guitar provides dashes of texture. Berlin’s work on vocals belies Muylle’s Jim Morrison-esque vocals perfectly. Sanders and drummer Dan Fahrner serve up inventive and adventurous rhythmic parts.

One gets the sense that the band has something better in store on their next outing. Addicts is a chance for the band to move on and to start writing and recording new material.

For now, consider this album a success.
- Matt Erler - Rock Music Review.com

Named for the witty rejoinder hurled at The Dude by the guy who pisses on his rug in the early moments of the Coen brothers' masterwork, The Big Lebowski, Everthus the Deadbeats has been compared favorably to everyone from Ween to The Stranglers to Oingo Boingo to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

And while all of that seems at the very least appropriate and occasionally dead on the mark, it hardly begins to accurately describe the sonic jaw drop that accompanies your first exposure to the mad, mad, mad, mad world of Everthus the Deadbeats.

Take the phonically playful "Trevor Dust the Bedsheets," from the Muncie, Ind., quintet's most recent EP, Addicts Stuck in Traffic. Vocalist John Muyelle works the dark side of the microphone, a cross between Bunnyman Ian McCullough and Lust For Life-era Iggy Pop, while the band swings into psychotic Pop carnival mode, like Sparks collaborating with Danny Elfman on the soundtrack to a Tim Burton animated epic about disquieting childhood fears coming to fabulously shrieking real life. Propelled by the twin keyboards of Muyelle and Lisa Berlin, guitarist Allen Bannister's velvety psychotronic six-string crunch, Benny Sanders' fuzz-drenched bass and Dan Fahrner's subtle yet insistent timekeeping, Everthus the Deadbeats veer crazily from manic Pop to frenetic Dance/Jazz to blistering AltRock with barely a flinch.

ETD are Rock freaks with an ominously twisted sense of humor and self and an expansive view of music history and their well deserved place in the sonic food chain. - Cincinnati City Beat

The floor of the Ball State student center cafeteria is cleared of tables and chairs. People congregate in the corners, some talking and laughing, some watching the Indianapolis Colts play the New England Patriots. On the stage in front, Everthus the Deadbeats are setting up their equipment. When the opening notes of “Some Terry’s” bounce across the empty expanse of dance floor, fans mob the stage and their bodies twist and turn, their arms move through the air like so many conductors orchestrating the music. On stage it’s equally chaotic. The Deadbeats pound at their keyboards, thrash their guitars, pummel the drums. In the middle of it all stands John Muylle, singing, “We’d always like to be a bit more than your average, day-to-day, boring personality.”

Everthus the Deadbeats is a glam rock band that began in Muncie, Indiana in 2004. But it was a long process for the five Ball State art students to grow into one of the most talked about bands in the state. “The band was a supplement to our partying,” says drummer Dan Fahrner, one of the three original members still playing, including Benny Sanders on bass and guitarist Allen Banister. “We would fill our basement with two hundred people and everybody would scream and push each other and break bottles over each other’s heads."

The band started by performing grungy instrumental pieces, but after a year together, they weren’t evolving into anything more than background music to get drunk to. Enter John Muylle, and all that would eventually change. But not immediately. It wasn’t a match made in heaven initially. “I went and saw them play and they didn’t have a singer,” he says. “They played this kind of jammy, surfy rock music and I told them they needed a singer. I auditioned and they didn’t like me. Dan was the only one who wanted me in the band.”


“Everybody was like, ‘Forget it. We can do it ourselves.’ Which wasn’t true because we were awful,” Fahrner confesses. “I took it upon myself to bring him in. They were receptive to it because it worked well.”

Muylle added a new dimension to the music, taking previously recorded songs and adding his own lyrics, creating twisted landscapes within a pop song format. He appears a musical mastermind in the vein of Danny Elfman, and possesses a similar dynamic vocal range that can go from singing simple la-la-las one minute, and the next becoming absurd and theatrical. Muylle acts as a pied piper, luring Deadbeat fans with melodies that make them want to dance and sing along, and ensnaring them with a maniacal laugh.

“There has always been a sort of crooner aspect to the music,” Muylle says. “There has always been this loungey, sleazy, kind of circus aspect and I think that’s just our personalities showing through.”

The other personalities compliment Muylle. Fahrner, Sanders and Banister draw from diverse musical tastes, ranging from The Beatles to Bowie, Sonic Youth to Latin music, Tom Waits and dance beats. The band can do separate recordings, bring everything together, and allow each other to fill in the blanks.

Despite the new creative energy Muylle brought with him, he still felt something was missing. He’d find the last ingredient in a shy art student named Lisa Berlin.




Lisa Berlin doesn’t look like a Deadbeat. She’s often found with a smile on her face and seems to be one of those people overflowing with positive energy. Once she is behind her keyboard, though, she undergoes a chilling transformation. She brings a haunting atmosphere to the band. Almost schizophrenic onstage, her singing mutates from a deadly staccato drone to soothing and lovely and back again in a matter of seconds on songs like “Blackout.” On “Some Terry’s” she happily bounces around, and her smile is so infectious you wonder how this sweet girl got mixed up with these guys.

“ We were all in art school together at Ball State,” Berlin explains. “I was in a class with John and I had them play at a student art gallery. Me and John, when we hung out he would play guitar and I would sing harmonies with him. The way he writes music, there is always a lot of backing vocals. When he joined the band he asked if he could bring in a back up singer.”

In January of 2005, the band took its last step to get to where it is now, accepting Berlin into their fold. “I went over to John’s and he said, ‘I have a surprise for you. I talked to the guys and they want you in the band.’ I had no idea he was even going to ask them and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Okay.’”

With their lineup now set, the Deadbeats expanded outside of Muncie, playing more shows in Indianapolis and around the state. A mystique developed around them. It became an event when the Deadbeats arrived in town. The demand for them grew so great, they found it more profitable to scale back on local shows and build anticipation for future performances.

“ Muncie bands like Everything, NOW! were huge inspirations to us when it came to performing. They passed out - Copper Press by Josh Flynn