All City Affairs

By Tom Lynch

I’ve always dug Baby Teeth for its soul-infused goofy-pop charm, pretty much from the first time I caught the band live. While I don’t really remember when or where exactly that was, I’m willing to bet I had had more than enough drinks to be overly engaged, as I distinctly remember dancing, which I don’t really do that often because I’m a terrible dancer.

Peter Andreadis, drummer and sometimes-vocalist for Baby Teeth, has carried on a solo side project called All City Affairs for a few years now, an even more sugary counterpart to the other group, in which he elaborately constructs little indie-pop gems, mostly set to programmed electronic beats and glitches. Keyboards, synths and acoustic guitars often make appearances, and Andreadis’ voice, catching and inviting, seems a perfect match for the material. His work in this band is an example of various elements falling smoothly in line to create a glistening whole. “Identity Theft,” All City Affairs’ new record on Lujo—the release of which the band celebrates January 8 at Schubas—has the unique ability to impress and not impose. The album glides…a collection of calm, cozy, beat-happy nuggets that never drift farther from the middle than what’s required. Andreadis’ knack for churning out delicious hooks doesn’t hurt, either.

He says that with “Identity Theft,” he, for the first time, truly set out solo. “This was the first [record] where I had to sort out much of it on my own,” he says. “And I was also trying to go ahead and do some songwriting that was a little more streamlined and simple. I felt like, when I first got started, that I was gonna write complex songs with a lot of chord changes, different parts, two bridges on songs. [With ‘Identity Theft’] I tried to do something different with the formula, make the songs and harmonies simple.”

It certainly worked, as the allure of “Identity Theft” has much to do with its breezy, relaxed attitude. “I had been influenced by acoustic songwriting growing up, some REM, then I started getting into Jeff Buckley,” Andreadis says. “I was [into] that kind of thing when I was first starting to write songs; this was like high school and early college. But I wanted to make a statement with what I was doing, I [wanted to] elaborate on what I was doing, so I didn’t sound like I was just a regular singer-songwriter guy coming out. It’s so easily dismissed—this is the formula, here’s a new person doing it, but nothing’s changed though. I thought if I’m going to do this, I’m gonna make it so that I can be something that takes a lot more time, more time to sink in…over the course of time came a lot more electronic elements, which was, for me, another departure.”

Andreadis says that it now takes longer than usual for him to complete a song. “It does take me a fairly long time—I wish I was faster,” he says. “When I first got started, I felt like I could turn them out quickly. But then I started playing drums in Baby Teeth and got a whole new perspective on percussion and what that can do to develop a song, take a song that already existed and give it a new shape. I started stripping down what I was doing, starting with just a drum part or a just a bassline. Also, a lot of what I did on the new record, there’s an electronic rhythm that stays steady throughout the song, and that causes the song development to take a little bit longer.”

The persistent electronic element seems to make the biggest impression, as well. A common reaction found in most of the critical reviews for “Identity Theft” is surprise, or a specific interest in why Andreadis, a drummer, would prominently use beat programming as the driving foundation of his solo work. “I was surprised about that, too,” he says of this response to the band. “You listen to the radio, or the things that critics are recommending, and we are in this state of time where everything is a hybrid—rock music now has so many electronic elements. So I found that puzzling. I think there’s a lot of pop music that has electronic instruments. I can make my pop record sound like a Kanye West record, with hip-hop-sounding drums, or basslines, or synthesizers. That to me is a really exciting way of doing something that’s kind-of rock, what I grew up listening to. I really just want to make pop music, something [you] could put on next to a Kanye record, or a Paul McCartney song, or Neil Young.” - New City Chicago

rice: $7
If your solo project is worth pursuing, sooner or later it’s gonna threaten to outstrip your main gig, and Baby Teeth drummer Peter Andreadis may have reached that point with his one-man band, ALL CITY AFFAIRS. The music on the new Identity Theft (Lujo) tweaks Baby Teeth’s brainy pop, dialing down the smarminess and adding an undercurrent of hip-hop and R & B that co­exists somewhat uneasily with the yacht-rock vibe. Andreadis uses a fairly generic home-recording setup—keyboard, acoustic and electric guitar, drum machine—but instead of cranking out yet another Postal Service knockoff he throws in un­expected funkiness as a counterpoint to his relatively standard-issue singer-songwriter sentimentality. “One More Shot” is bolstered by a throbbing bass synth straight out of early electro, and “White People Clapping” has the same kind of dive-bombing tom fills that Young Jeezy’s been rapping over lately. Luckily these juxtapositions are only slightly tongue-in-cheek—Andreadis treats the hip-hop elements with respect, and as a result his music works on a level much deeper than “Hey, I bet it’d be funny if I wrote some really white-sounding songs and slapped B96 beats under them.” —Miles Raymer
- Chicago Reader

"Identity Theft" by All City Affairs is a slick study in modern and contemporary music, taking cues from all genres including rock, reggae, hip-hop, jazz and pop. The song "One More Shot" has a fat synth bass line and beat to go with the funky guitar and lyrics about a hipster's shallow attempt to be seen in the scene. "The End Of Loneliness" combines acoustic guitar, and an 80's synth drone with hand-clap drums. Mixing samples, hip-hop beats and live instrumentation with layers of Peter's smooth, unassuming voice, he has created a danceable album to get lost in. - Atlas and the Anchor

Almost exactly one year ago in an interview with Peter Andreadis, I gushed and raved over Bees, an album recorded under his project moniker All City Affairs. One of the year’s very best, I swore up and down. The problem however, was that it hadn’t been widely released, making me a fool! A fool, I say! But Bees is finally seeing the light of day, and I’m happy to report that all prior hyperbolic statements are as true today as they were then. Bees is an eclectic but coherent set of songs, belying heavy fixations on funk, reggae, rock, electronica, and jazz, with an emphasis on solid craftsmanship and songwriting. From cover to content there is no false advertising. The colorfully illustrated artwork depicts mail and cargo trucks headed for collision, a flower selling pushing his wares down the sidewalk in a wheelbarrow, and a bellhop watching a taxi careen down the street: truly all city affairs. And despite the loopy, danceable exteriors of Andreadis’s compositions, the songs explore the mundane details of life one doesn’t normally expect to hear in pop music.

The protagonist in “Man of Modern Times” declares the album’s thesis with, “I dream of living lightly/ But I can’t make up my mind,” echoing the sentiments of young city-dwellers everywhere, surrounded by unlimited choices in art and commerce. “Today I’m going to do my part/ To be a productive member of society”, he declares, which ends up meaning, “Get my haircut at the salon/ Cough up 20 dollars for a shampoo.” It sounds like a joke, especially as synths bleep and bloop in the background, but it’s not, or at least not quite. Neither is it a strict indictment of “what’s wrong with the world.” All City Affairs’ songs fall somewhere between comedy and commentary. And by singing and writing without self-righteousness or self-pity, Andreadis sidesteps the usual pitfalls that have collected so many others trying to make sense out of this crazy, crazy world. “I changed my shoes from Nikes/ Cause they exploit child labor and I’m not down with it/ No more red meat with my meals/ Cause my daddy’s daddy died of an exploding heart”, he sings, but accompanying harmonized falsetto “oohs” and “aahs” pull the rug out from under any accidental moralizing. The song, apart from being fun and catchy, is about how one individual chooses to spend their time and money. By using specifics (getting regular test results for syphilis, working out at the gym), the song exposes just how many such choices we’re confronted with every day.

“Fake Soul Singer” also examines the phenomenon of overwhelming choice, this time through the endless stream of rancid popular music saturating all media. The song blames the fake soul singer of the title, hippie chicks, and “fake hillbillies… playing the part of hipster hicks” for “making the whole world sick”. It’s more accusatory than “Man of Modern Times”, but no less charming for its humor. Andreadis’ doesn’t condemn style or production values, but rather the insincerity of a watered-down music market, with its suburban gangstas and reality-show suck-ups. “Fake Soul Singer” itself rides a reggae beat peppered with electronic gurgles and squawks, mashing up a variety of sounds to support Andreadis’s clean, direct delivery. A part-time DJ, and full-time drummer for Chicago trio Baby Teeth, Andreadis delights in drawing from a wide range of genres and textures, from the horn driven “Grease Up the Rod” to the doo-wop flavors of “Fuss and Fight” to the crazy drum fills on the instrumental title track.

So it’s appropriate that “How to Sell a Product” breaks a music lover’s heart with its clear-eyed view of advertising strategy, “Some torch song will shine the light/ On everything you’ve felt in your life/ And on some drunken night you will identify with someone’s CD/ This is how you sell your product to me.” The exploitation of desire is definitely this bee’s stinger, but it’s also an admittedly attractive flower. “Come on and join the club/ And be one of those people that you’d love to be,” Andreadis sings on the bridge, echoing Darth Vader, “Hey now child/ Don’t be scared /It’s your destiny.” We’re all disgusted by excess, but selling out also has undeniable appeal, if for no other reason than its promises of care- and worry-free indulgence. Materialism is the Dark Side for All City Affairs, and in all city affairs, and it’s these depths that Bees plumbs with great mischief and melody. “How can I avoid becoming another asshole/ With some truly unwanted comment about the kind of car that I drive?”, he croons, and even the best of us can sympathize. - Pop Matters (www.popmatters.com)

Peter Andreadis, the man behind All City Affairs, must have the guts of a great white shark. Many people can perform in a band. Many people can even perform all by their lonesome if they are playing some kind of instrument. Andreadis, on the other hand, performs on stage to a recording with all of the background music on it while he sings. Which is bad if it's just a person standing a a mic, crooning. However, as a quick Google image search will tell you, Andreadis doesn’t just stand there and sing. No, instead he evokes images of vaudeville performers of years past, often sprawling on the stage in a theatrical manner. Which is interesting because you can’t tell from the music that theatrics might be a direction he might go. You can imagine it from an artist like Antony & The Johnsons, who’s overly dramatic music would fit well with that idea of a stage show.

All City Affair is fun, light-hearted music that borrows heavily from The Beatles and other oldies pop rock icons, while adding more contemporary influences like The Flaming Lips at the same time. Nothing about the song’s sound will bowl you over initially. But after several plays you’ll pick out some of the great details, either compositionally or vocally, that stand out and make the song excel.

The vocals are generally great. He has a voice that can sound sensitive without sounding emo and powerful without being overbearing. But the best parts are when he has harmonies going by layering the vocal tracks. His ear for a captivating harmony is what drives this album.

Andreadis has a sixth sense for knowing when to add new elements to a song to keep it from feeling like it’s being too repetitive. A good example of that is the song “Accidental Death Of A Highschool Football Player” which is the only track to go over 4 and a half minutes. He builds up the ending, first throwing in a great guitar part, then slowly adding things like bells, cello, and so forth. Anyone can add bells, but it takes good songwriting to know the best time to add them.

If you’re just looking for good pop rock songs, Bees is a pretty fantastic album to check out. There will be moments where you might have to double check your stereo to see what artist you’re really playing, but it’s just done so well that I find it hard to fault him for that. - Decapolis (www.decapolis.com)

Peter Andreadis is the drummer for up-and-coming Chicago rock band Baby Teeth, but when he's not busy pounding the skins, he's making interesting music as All City Affairs. The two bands couldn't sound more different, though. While a certain music website recently proclaimed that Baby Teeth, "sounds just like David Bowie," the music of All City Affairs is mellower, and it's certainly more intricate and delicate, and it doesn't really sound like any one particular band. What's most striking about Bees, the band's second album, is that lyrically, it falls into a narrative pattern about the day in the life of a city, with all sorts of characters populating the landscape--from the busy worker to the failed soul singer. It's an interesting concept, and it's one that's quite enjoyable, too. I had a chance to speak with Mr. Andreadis recently, to get him to talk about his music.


All City Affairs is a side project from your main band, Baby Teeth. What prompted you to start it?

Well, it kind of didn't start off as a side project. It had been a project I'd been working on since about 2000. I was just writing songs, and it was just a songwriting project, really. I had a bunch of friends who were coming in and out and playing--not playing for shows, but just playing around my home and in my recording studio. I released a record in 2001 on a real small Chicago label that didn't do much; it folded after my record was released. I started working on my next record, which is the one that just came out, with some of those same people from the first. As soon as I started working on that, a lot of those people got really busy with their own projects, so it became a solo project almost by default. Then Baby Teeth started, and things with them really took off, so All City Affairs got put on hold for a while. Baby Teeth had a lot of momentum, so I thought that if anything good happened with that, it'd reflect well on me and on All City Affairs as well. So for a lot of people, All City Affairs is a new thing, and it's getting a new birth now.

Bees seems to be a conceptual piece about a city, a sort of slice of life. Were you trying to write a day-in-the-life in the city sort of record?

Yeah, it was pretty intentional. I was trying to challenge myself into not writing songs about being in love or breaking up or something like that. I think that's an easy well to draw inspiration from. I've been writing songs since I was fifteen, and I've written a ton of songs like that. I thought, "Okay, I want to do something that's a little bit more focused on what a daily routine is like>" Just common, every day things, about things I'd see on television or would read about in the paper. All City Affairs is a good vehicle to explore such different concepts. A lot of what I ended up writing about was more about how money plays a role in art, being an artist, and following one's interests, and about money and materialism--when you start to get a little bit older, you start to realize the value of things that are non-materialistic. I wanted to write about those frustrations, and about how what's valuable to one person might not mean anything to another.

On some levels, it sounds like a spiritual quest, about transcending the trappings of the flesh, in search of something higher...

A lot of that did come out in the writing. A lot of that was me sort of looking inward and making sense of some things. I did what I could to not make it so much a first person record. I didn't want it to seem to be about me.

It reminded me of writers from earlier in the Twentieth Century, where they would write a series of things, all using the "I," and the "I" is not the author, and the "I" is not a single personality; in one story, "I" is one, and in the next, "I" is another, and the development of the story transcends a narrative tale. Like on Bees, where on one song you're singing about being a guy who's a soul singer, and the next you're singing about another person; I never got the impression it was the same character throughout.


Hmm, yeah, that's interesting. I don't necessarily feel like another character, but it gives me something to play around with while I'm performing. It gives me an identity to toy around with while playing my songs.

From what I've heard, Baby Teeth is more traditional in its style and its sound. Would you say All City Affairs is more about you experimenting with a sound, or experimenting with lyrics?

It definitely starts with me experimenting with sound. I struggle with lyrics; they're usually the last thing I work on. I guess, being a guitar player originally--I play drums in Baby Teeth, and have only been doing that for about four or five years--but being a guitar playing originally, it's "Write your tunes on acoustic guitar, and as you're strumming you get this acoustic thing building up." The way I work with All City Affairs is I'll take those chord changes, I'll fill them in with a drum and a bass pattern that's interesting and takes away from what a guitar might sound like if you were on stage strumming it by yourself. It definitely starts out on a sonic level with me trying to work out some kind of rhythmic thing that goes under the changes I've written on an acoustic guitar, then backing it up from there and putting in a guitar part. I guess I'm trying to accomplish something where you wouldn't know offhand the source of the music. You might think, "That's an interesting bass line" and "that guitar part must have been the first thing he put down," and it might not be the case at all. I guess the music I really admire has that sense of layers to it, so that every time you listen to it, you hear one or two things that you didn't hear before, so that you have an experience that's a little bit different from listen to listen.

Do you perform live with All City Affairs, or is it just a studio project?

I do play live, but it's been building up over the past year or so. I've been trying to get more gigs and get comfortable with it, because I am just performing by myself, and I'm trying to add things here and there on the backing tracks I perform with. It's kind of like a glorified karaoke revue. For me, if I just picked up my guitar and tried to assemble a band to perform with me, it would be like taking a step back, because I've gotten so used to doing things by myself; waking up in the morning and saying, "Oh! I know what I need to do with this song!" and running over to the setup in my room to lay that part down. It's interesting for me; I am having a really good time doing it, and I love getting up on stage and playing. (Beams) I'm having a really good time, and hopefully, after being off stage and wondering, "Man, is anybody going to like this?" at least if I'm entertaining myself, then that will shine through and that will be what the audience connects with. I just like having fun.


All City Affairs' second album, Bees, is available now on Lujo - Mundane Sounds (www.mundanesounds.blogspot.com)

All City Affairs - "Bees"

Ranking #6

Whenever I start to miss city life, I throw Bees on and soak up the straight facts: office drones sending themselves to work in cubicles, bombarded by corporate media culture that tells you you’re not good enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough, then turns around and sucks up to your precious, precious attentions. Peter Andreadis fills his songs with plenty of harmonized oohs, ahhs, and cascading sighs, live horns, fake (and real) beats, keys, and bees. And he sings so sweetly about injected thigh fat into one’s face that I instinctively reach for a hand mirror. There is rage on Bees, but it’s well concealed as it vies with empathy for the dominant reaction to the foibles of modern life. A popular high school football player dies, and watches horrified at the charmed world of cheerleader girlfriends and endless possibilities goes on without him. A relationship dissolves into bitter revenge fantasies and silent, awkward dinners. And these are not morbid or downbeat tunes: instead a blend of Queen, dub, cabaret, funk, reggae, and jazz. They are funny, honest, addictive, insightful, optimistic, self-deprecating, like cities themselves. I just booked my ticket. - Pop Matters (www.popmatters.com)

This group is the brainchild of Peter Andreadis. There are a lot of keyboard and effects used, but at the core is a string of very well-crafted pop songs with the singer bringing someone like XTC's Andy Partridge, Neil Finn or Ray Davies to mind. "Send Yourself to Work" is a tight and lovely pop tune that has some subtle layers added to it. From there, All City Affairs move south to the islands for the slow reggae groove fuelling "Fake Soul Singer," which is extremely easy on the ears. Meanwhile, "Man of Modern Times" is teeming with catchy electro-pop hooks that run the genre gamut. Although some of these tracks are quirky and sometimes jerky, they are well-worth replaying, especially the adventurous and infectious "Accidental Death of a High School Football Player." At other times, Andreadis nails gentle pop gems such as "Fuss and Fight" with its Beatles flavoring. The lone tune that could be considered worthy of being a single is the winding title track with bees buzzing about. Another surprisingly sweet pop jewel has to be the sugar-coated "Grease Up the Rod" which brings Crowded House to mind. The same can be said for the inviting and polished "Almighty Dollar." - www.allmusic.com