Eldridge Rodriguez

A pummeling punch of noise pop from the Boston/Brooklyn family band
Eldridge Rodriguez is a family affair, not just for the relatives involved, but for the Boston music scene in general. At its base, the band is made up of two pairs of brothers: Cameron and Clayton Keiber, and Dennis and David Grabowski. The roots run even deeper than that, though. Cameron and Dennis played together in Boston favorites The Beatings, the Grabowski brothers are both in Louder My Dear, and the Keibers run indie label Midriff Records, Cameron from Boston and Clayton from Brooklyn. Eldridge Rodriguez started as an outlet for Cameron’s musical aspirations outside of The Beatings, but over the years has grown like a family tree into something much bigger.

Now, the band is releasing their sixth album and first in four years, The Castrati Menace. Though “Menace” may be in the title, the album is more melodious than much of their past material. But don’t let that fool you, this is still a noisy-ass band capable of pummeling you with sound. For proof, take a listen to new song “U-Lock”. Cameron’s vocals come on like a strained yell, diced up amidst sharp guitar chops and a dense wall of noise. Underneath all the insanity, though, a sprinting, springing bass line and some playful cymbal runs bring a brightness to the otherwise dark track. It’s noise pop with a hard rock hairdo, so you might want to check your volume level before you hit play below. - Consequence of Sound

While I’d typically only post a premiere of a song around here if at least 2/5 of the band are wearing ambitious leggings and/or aggressive architecturally-inspired eye makeup in their band photo, I figured I’d make an exception for the music of Eldridge Rodriguez. The Boston band’s “Stay Angry”, from their The Castrati Menace, walks a fine line between the ambitious scope of Arcade Fire, while calling to mind the post-punk tunefulness of The Jesus & Mary Chain. In other words, it’s a rock and roll song. Weird.

“I think of this band as a “modern blues” band,” frontman Cameron Keiber says when asked about the song. “It covers dissatisfaction, regret, confusion, alienation, failure and themes like that. The arrangements lean heavily on discordance, noise and simple song structures which kind of support those themes. But I also like the whole ‘song and dance’ tradition of pop/rock. So hopefully, we were able to mesh all those ideas together cohesively… hopefully. The idea of dancing alone in the dark because crowds don’t suit you.” - Bullett Magazine

Eldridge Rodriguez is the current project and songwriting moniker of Cameron Keiber, formerly frontman of Boston indie band the Beatings. Eldridge Rodriguez’s last release was 2011’s You Are Released, and soon, the band — which also includes members of Louder My Dear — will return with their fifth album, The Castrati Menace. The upcoming record explores themes of nature, religion, and entitlement, and seeks forgiveness and redemption, but in an aggressive, disparaging toned. Castrati were Italian classical male singers, whose high tenor and soprano voices were produced by castration before puberty. The band’s new single, “Big Dead Heart,” counters Castrati youth and falsetto with growling vocals, noisy drums, and flippant lyrics that speak of pain and a “hateful kind of wit.” Whenever Keiber sings in a calm reflective voice, his thoughts and music soon build into screams that refuse to rehash the past, “because it’s just a little heart attack.” Listen. - Stereogum

Cameron Keiber would seem to be a pretty nice name. But as this Bostonian got to making more music once his 2000s indie bunch, the Beatings, fizzled out, he drummed up Eldridge Rodriguez as his latest nom de tunes.

“Big Dead Heart” is the first single from the band’s sixth album, The Castrati Menace, out now on Keiber’s own Midriff Records. It’s a sweeping, bracing epic of a song.

This little, extremely well-made, and oddly touching little epic of a video is a great love/horror/sandwich story, though we’d suggest you view it after eating your lunch today. Check out the premiere, below. - CMJ

As co-founder of both NY/Boston noise pop outfit The Beatings and Midriff Records Cameron Keiber has been responsible for some of the finest releases within the northeast’s indie rock landscape. His current project and main songwriting vehicle Eldridge Rodriguez is no exception. With impressive releases like The Conspiracy Against Us and 2011′s You Are Released already to their credit the bands forthcoming LP, The Castrati Menace has been garnering some pre release buzz.

The LP opens with the squealing and fuzz drenched Big Dead Heart which sets the tone for the 9 track noise rock triumph. The Castrati Menace finds Cameron Keiber turning in arguably his strongest song cycle to date which Eldridge Rodriguez balances with electronics, screeching walls of distortion and a propulsive drumming courtesy of Dennis Grabowski and aided by bassist David Gabrowski and guitarist Clayton Kieber. What’s most striking about this LP isn’t the moments of cacophony as enthralling as they are,but the songs themselves which stand up individually and are manaage to be all uniquely engaging. Tracks like Giving Myself Over To Boston and Stay Angry are examples of Kiebers ability to write bracing rock songs with quantum size pop hooks. Throughout The Castrati Menace Eldridge Rodriguez deliver 9 tales of cathartic and aresting noise rock while turning in one of the most satisfying listens of the year. - The Ash Gray Proclamation

Eldridge Rodriguez, “Christmas on the Allston-Brighton Line”
Naughty: The major downfall of this three-song EP is that it’s only a three-song EP.
Nice: The way that E.R. inte-grates pre-existing holiday lines into his originals is effortless. “I’ve got my records on, but all I play is ‘Silent Night,’” he sings on “Baby I’m Alone Tonight (Christmas Time).” And though his narrator is certainly having a blue Christmas, there’s a playfulness to the presentation, evident from the title of the song “Christmas Eve (At Old Country Buffet).” - The Metro

Eldridge Rodriguez, “Christmas on the Allston-Brighton Line”
Naughty: The major downfall of this three-song EP is that it’s only a three-song EP.
Nice: The way that E.R. inte-grates pre-existing holiday lines into his originals is effortless. “I’ve got my records on, but all I play is ‘Silent Night,’” he sings on “Baby I’m Alone Tonight (Christmas Time).” And though his narrator is certainly having a blue Christmas, there’s a playfulness to the presentation, evident from the title of the song “Christmas Eve (At Old Country Buffet).” - The Metro

“BABY I’M ALONE TONIGHT (CHRISTMAS TIME)”
Eldridge Rodriguez

Free from the romantic Beatings, Rodriguez laments the lonely days leading up to Santa’s visit, making cocktails for one and staring blankly into the fireplace. ER has always been one of Boston’s more underrated songwriters, but here – the first track off the three-song Christmas On The Allston-Brighton Line EP -- he reaches new heights (or depths): “Now the house is quiet, the decorations done/I lit the candles in the window so you know I’m home.” Catch him performing live at Porterbelly’s in Brighton at the Cradles to Crayons toy drive, and try, just try, to cheer him up.

- Boston Phoenix

review - The Ripple Effect

review - Addicted to Shows

review
- Ink 19

Sonicbids/CMJ interview - CMJ.com

Last Friday night I had the opportunity to catch up with the pleasurably humble and honest Cameron Keiber (aka Eldridge Rodriguez) before his album release show at O’Briens. His solo album “You Are Released” had just been released, and I sat down with him over a beer (or two) to talk about his musicianship and the new album.

First off, Eldridge Rodriguez is not your real name. Any particular reason you decided upon Eldridge Rodriguez (ER) as your stage name?

ER: I was 22 and living in Los Angeles. All my music heroes had stage names and they were all very Anglo-centric. When your 22, you really want to be iconoclastic. I thought to myself, “what would be the most anti-stage name for a kid like me?” At the time I knew a lot of people that I liked with the name Rodriguez, and it just kind of worked out. I thought I was being very clever and iconoclastic. I was very important for me to have a stage name back then, and as I’ve gotten older, I just sort of use it when I use it.

When you were first starting out, did you use the name ER when you were out on the scene, for instance when you met people out at bars?

ER: No. I’ve only ever really used it to record under. I don’t really think I’m pulling anything over on anybody. I’ve always introduced myself as Cameron. I just started using it, then it got in the paper, and I was like “oh shit, now I got to use it all the time.” It also creates an air of mystery. It’s weird and creepy that you have a facade to throw up, but it’s fun and I’ve always gotten a kick out of using it.

The Beatings is your band when you’re not performing/recording solo. I’m assuming that since you go back and forth between the two, it’s not a matter of discord. What are your main reasons for continuously embarking on solo projects?

ER: I tend to write a lot. I wanted an outlet and to be able to do stuff constantly. Tony from the Beatings also has a side project. We’ve been playing together for ten years. We all want to try different things, and if the band as a whole doesn’t dig it, we usually take it to our side projects. It’s always been about just getting stuff out there, you know, I just really enjoy writing. It’s all I do all day, I get up and I just start writing. We did a Beatings album in 09’ and we’ll probably do another one at the end of this year. There’s also stuff I want to do that doesn’t really fit in to what we want to do as a group. Some softer stuff, some noisier stuff, some stuff with beats, more experimental stuff. With The Beatings you have to be responsible for the other people in the band. You want to make sure your not misrepresenting them, you make sure everyone’s comfortable. With solo stuff I don’t have to worry about all that. At this point, we have a pretty good system going on.

Getting back to your writing: Is there a specific setting you like to place yourself in when you write, is there a process for you to find inspiration?

ER: I know people who can sit down and write, they have a certain time to write. I can’t do that. I mean, I do it like that sometimes. But I carry around a handheld tape recorder, and it’s little bits and pieces, and little bits and pieces, and then patching them together. It’s a couple of verses here and there, and then I go back and fix it all up. I’m really envious of the people who can sit down in one setting, and be like,” Here’s my fuckin’ song, here it is.” That they can sit down with a clear vision, know what they want to say and then write it all down. I’ve never been like that. I really do have to piece it all together and at the end ask myself “Was it a cohesive idea, or did I just spew out a bunch of shit?” It’s put together afterwards and then revised. I do write a lot, but it generally takes me a long time to be happy with a song. I’m good at knowing when a song is good enough, but it generally takes a while to get to that point. I’ll labor over a song for weeks, and find one thing wrong. And if I change that thing then I have to change another, and I labor over that, and I probably don’t need to.

You say that you write all day. It’s hard to get by as just a musician. Do you do anything on the side?

ER: I write throughout the day. It’s not like I sit at a laptop and a handheld tape recorder all day long. I work in television/film/commercials as an art director, there’s no money in music. My brother Clayton (who happens to be in my band) and I also run the label Midriff Records (http://www.midriffrecords.com/).

Did you guys build Midriff from the ground up?

ER: Well, it was initially Tony from The Beatings and The Beatings old manager Mike who ran it. After a couple of years they started to get burnt out, they had moved to New York and had told us they were going to pull the label. Clayton and I told them not to pull it and that we would take it over. My entire music career was on that label and I didn’t want to see it disappear. So on top of making music, I have a day job, and run Midriff R - Allston Pudding

For the last 10 years Cameron Keiber A.K.A. Eldridge Rodriguez has been co-fronting Boston's meritorious post-punk institution, The Beatings. During that time E.R. has issued four estimable solo releases including the superb new LP, You Are Released. You can read our hyperbole riddled review here. Early this week we had the chance to speak with E.R. about the new album, the future of The Beatings, and Thursday's show at the Middle East. Thanks to Eldridge for taking the time and to the entire Midriff Records staff for sharing the music.

Bryan Hamill: Due to recording You Are Released around the same time as The Beatings' Late Season Kids, was it a challenge to decide what songs would be designated for the solo album?

Eldridge Rodriguez: Sometimes, I spend a year or so writing furiously, then I bring a disk of my work to the Beatings, who stand in a circle wearing headphones, with me in the middle and harshly judge and berate me about how shitty each song is as it comes up in the playlist. When the disk is done, they leave me in the room alone, turn off the light and don't come back for a hour or so. When they return they'll have 5-7 songs written down on a napkin as the songs they're not embarrassed to play. The rest go on solo albums. Other times I write songs that I'd like to hear without their interference and those go on solo albums too.

Bryan: What was the creative process behind You Are Released?

Eldridge: Ray Jeffery, who co-produced the record and recorded/mixed it at his Liberty and Union Recording Co., used a lot more loops and beats on this record. We had done a bunch of records together, he and I (Late Season Kids, ER-This Conspiracy Against Us, Ian Adams- Stay Up Late,etc) but we hadn't really used as much digital tracking before. A lot of this one was recorded on 8-track reel to reel and then dumped to Pro-tools, where we did more tracking and mixing. And now we have a bunch of producers doing remixes of tracks off the album for a remix album of You Are Released coming out next month or so, in other programs like Logic Pro and such. So, we hopped around a lot of different platforms and media throughout the entire process of this record. And it was great. It's great fun to come into the studio one day with nothing and build songs from scratch starting with beats or layer noise loops over the 8 track stuff. It allowed for an amount of freedom in the studio that I won't work without again.

Bryan:With more loops and beats than your previous solo releases, this album seems more pop friendly and bombastic, was that part of your vision for You Are Released?

Eldridge: It's probably a little more self consciously pop than I've done before, or at least my understanding of what I think modern pop should sound like. I'd never done a pop record before. Everything before has been a series of genres separated by backslashes; noise/rock, noise/folk, etc. I like pop. I don't like the particular brand of pop that's popularized by things like American Idol or any of these knock off TV shows, I think that stuff's shit. I don't like people liking shitty pop ironically as the college educated and hip tend to do. I'm not buying 30 something music journalists seriously writing about the new Beiber or Lady Ga Ga album, 'cause 14 year old's don't typically read your Rolling Stones or Pitchforks, it's not your target audience and seems desperate. I don't particularly care for pop culture. But I like pop hooks and melodies and appreciate when it's not being presented in the way that you've seen done before. That's what we were trying to do, I think... create an album with all the styles, moods and conventions of pop music w/o pop's triteness and cliches. We were trying to an a deconstructionist pop record, certainly. Whether that's what people hear in it, I don't know and frankly don't care. I'd like them to simply enjoy it for whatever reason they want, without the academics and on a purely pleasurable level. If they enjoy it as a straight up pop album, I'm cool with that.

Bryan: Once again you chose to record with Ray Jeffery at Liberty & Union Studios in Taunton, can you tell us how that relationship came about?

Eldridge: We've just known each other from being around the scene for years. Before he had the full studio and only had the software he'd record my projects for dirt cheap and I'd take full advantage of that by demanding all his free time to work on my stuff. We get a kick out of each other and can work in confined spaces at long times together. He's allot more tolerant of my idiosyncrasies than most people. We just know how to navigate a studio together without getting in each others way and in the end turn out fairly decent albums. Plus he has really famous friends and I'm biding my time to meet them and ride their coattails.

Bryan: There seems to be a common theme of mortality and coming of age throughout the album, did you draw on personal experience?

Eldridge: I think that es - Ash Gray Proclamation

large write up - Ryans Smashing Life Blog

scoll down - Boston Globe

Cameron Keiber is a founder of Boston-based label Midriff Records. He plays music under the moniker Eldridge Rodri-guez and as a member of the Beatings. He and his cohorts spent roughly $5,000 to rent out a venue in Austin for a few hours with a realistic goal: Fun!

“I don’t have a real barometer for success,” he says. “If everybody has a good time and people make new friends and everybody gets home safely and the gear gets back in one piece, as far as I’m concerned, it was successful.”
- Metro

Boston noise-rock stalwart Eldridge Rodriguez' fourth solo effort, separate and apart from his work with local titans The Beatings. This full-length was written during and around the sessions for The Beatings' superlative 2009 effort Late Season Kids, and as such You Are Released evidences what seems to have been an incredibly fertile songwriting period for Mr. Rodriguez. But while his songs on Late Season Kids sound contemporary, there is something in the production on You Are Released's more aggressive numbers that imbues the guitar squall with a throw-back flannel dysphoria. Highlights include the annunciatory thriller "The Big Windup" and the melodic, mid-tempo, slide guitar-slung "Fragile Things," during which Rodriguez deploys an uncharacteristic murmur over a pulsing mirage of guitars, confessing "Dear Lord I shot my mouth off again." Midriff Records will issue You Are Released March 22. - Clicky Clicky Blog

Eldridge Rodriguez’s newest album You Are Released is a marked change from his earlier releases. Instead of the heavy, morose chords that flooded his prior releases (particularly This Conspiracy Against Us), the new album comes out with a heavy borrowings from alt-country acts like Wilco and more traditional rock acts like Modest Mouse or Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

You Are Released is a stunning album. Opening track, “The Big Windup,” is a raucous lead that set the tone for the whole album. The real gem on the album is “Miss Me When I’m Gone,” which is performed as a duet with alt-country starlet Sarah Borges. “Miss Me” is filled with male-female vocal interplay along the lines of the best country duets.

Overall, You Are Released is a power-packed album of floor-stomping rockers with stellar lyrics. Everything that made Rodriguez’s previous albums great sticks with You Are Released, which brings in new sounds to the repertoire. - Verbicide Magazine

Nominated in the Best Male Vocalist category in the 2011 Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll - Boston Phoenix

Over the past decade, the Beatings’ ELDRIDGE RODRIGUEZ has been one of the more prolific and distinguished voices in Boston rock, releasing 10 studio albums (six with band, four solo) that range from deconstructionist pop to noisy post-punk. On his latest effort, You Are Released (Midriff Records), Rodriguez further channels his inner Scott Walker for an experimental romp through themes of isolation, nature, and mortality, enlisting Wheat and Sarah Borges to fill out the record’s myriad sounds, moods, and vibes. First single “What a Difference a Drug Makes” is a swirling crooner’s tale spun straight through a sonic funnel, Rodriguez opening the number with the sneering line “Well, I got used to the headaches.” He drops You Are Released this Friday, April 1, at O’Brien’s Pub in Allston, alongside Pray for Polanski and Soccer Mom, but you can grab the “What a Difference a Drug Makes” MP3 below.

Read more: http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/onthedownload/archive/2011/03/31/mp3-of-the-week-eldridge-rodriguez-quot-what-a-difference-a-drug-makes-quot.aspx#ixzz1ITDKhHHv
- Boston Phoenix

Eldridge Rodriguez’s voice sounds like someone reincarnated Warren Zevon, made him listen to The National, and gave him an electronic drum machine. Trust me. It works.

Though Rodriguez is the founder of The Beatings, Released implies that he might actually work better solo. On “The Shame of the Scene,” defeated lyrics join a strange mix of acoustic guitars and industrial beats, seamlessly adding a current touch to an otherwise simple songwriting style. “Miss Me When I’m Gone,” a duet with the lovely and talented Sarah Borges, is considerably less modern-sounding, but you probably won’t notice because their vocal combo is pitch perfect.

You Are Released, at its center, is a melancholy dude singing over folk music, but he makes the sound fresh and memorable. - Dig Boston

Eldridge Rodriguez radio interview - 100.7 WZLX BOSTON

Have you ever, in your life, said to yourself, "Well, that about does it, I think I have had enough of that Elridge Rodriguez and all his crazy deconstructivist notions of music?" I will bet you haven't, because you can't have enough of that rascal.

The great news for you is that O'Briens in Allston is fueling your E.R. addiction with a May residency. Mr. Rodriguez and friends will be appearing every Wednesday in May (starting tomorrow), and we expect he'll be playing some selections from possibly the longest-titled all-digital EP in existence, There's No Gray Area, No Middle Ground... You Are a Thief, and probably his upcoming, much more conservatively-titled fall release (release! ha!) You Are Released. I hope you see what happened there.

The revolving supporting cast of characters will include some of our very favorites, including Ted Billing, Tony Skalicky (and the rest of The Beatings in an acoustic set), DJ's Andy & Jen from bandinboston and those crazy kids from Soccer Mom. - Boston Band Crush

The male solo musician falls into one of two categories, generally. He's either ripping off Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith or he's backed by bored synthesizers or a bored acoustic guitar. Singer Eldridge Rodriguez successfully avoids both traps on his new album, This Conspiracy Against Us. At some points, there are echoes of Xiu Xiu; at other points, he channels Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen.
He's got that exasperated, exhausted passion pushing its way through fuzzy, mysterious instruments on every track. The songs start off simple and raw but eventually fold into epic, desperate pleas for something. I'm not sure what that something is just yet.
"You Get What You Want" is one such song, unpredictable and fascinating as it is. When Rodriguez finally leads us to the chorus, it feels like we've heard a few songs. It's exhausting. "A-C-T-I-O-N / Action action, we want action," is yelled by cheerleaders or something while he tells us we get what we want. The song slows and sounds like it's about to end while the cheerleaders yell, then Rodriguez chimes in with another verse and the song takes on a new meaning.
This Conspiracy Against Us shows Rodriguez's potential, and he has tons. It's raw and full of stumbles and uneven moments but by the end of the album, one feels like they've just been taken on a broken journey through their very depths. Pianos haunt on "Tirefire," while Eldridge pleads again for that strange something. There are songs of heartbreak and songs of unrequited love, of watching that girl from behind a wall while she sways and manipulates. "Lexington, KY" is beautiful and sad, just like a stupid plan to get her back. A harmonica is utilized on "Parade of the Saddest Girls," the track with the most interesting lyrics of the album.
Most of the lyrics are too vague and confusing to be about anything in particular. They blend together into something slightly stream-of-consciousness and intriguing. Sometimes the lyrics make it sound like Rodriguez is an amateur, but it works. This Conspiracy feels real and more DIY than any indie staple I've heard lately.
The album is sad and endearing. It's exhausting and heavy. It's brilliant, and there's a perfect word to describe it, but it's escaping me, like the album's theme. It moves subtly and steadily along towards the next desperately breathed epic. I can imagine myself listening to it while staring at the ceiling and wondering where my life's going to go next. It's a snapshot of Eldridge Rodriguez' insides, full of melancholy and optimism; he probably wrote it while staring at the ceiling and wondering where his life's going to go next. (Stephen Conley // 01/18/08) - Space Rock City

Perhaps one of the most important album releases of 2007 has been in my CD player all week. It's "This Conspiracy Against Us" from Eldridge Rodriguez (the Beatings) and its now available on Midriff Records. It's with great satisfaction that I share a fine Boston release with my daily international readership.
There is a profound intensity to Rodriguez's songs that is rarely seen these days. The instruments and the sound of E.R.'s voice seem to stir rainclouds and we realize that thunder cannot be far behind. These songs are not for everyone - but great records rarely are. The songs here are soft toned and yet frantic (think sticky sweet metronome-metered heart beats) with Rodriguez's deep, chilling voice. The pacing is perfect for his lyrics - a feat he has mastered as a solo artist and with The Beatings with whom he released a second album just last year; "Holding On to Hand Grenades." This solo effort is an out-growth of those sessions it appears - but such organic artistry tends to time-date a prolific mind. If this is the case, the 14-track "Conspiracy" album is a road marker worth owning.
I last wrote about Rodriguez in December when I named him - along with Austin performers Bill Baird (Sound Team) and Jared Van Fleet (Voxtrot, Sparrowhouse) as the best indie rock artists in the country to try their hand at releasing solo material. Both Baird and Van Fleet (as Sparrowhouse) have come to draw attention from an adoring indie nation. Perhaps this is because of their music-centric Austin locale; but with a serious listen to the "Conspiracy" album - I can now say Rodriguez is ready and worthy of such serious attention.

The lyrical gems abound in the "Conspiracy" tracks and come at quite unexpected intervals. Rodriguez is his own man, but echoes of Ian Curtis live in songs like "The Deal Breaker" and "Lexington, KY"

From "The Deal Breaker"
You and I can’t ignore them.
And give ‘em what’s best for them.
When we rob them of the gossip that they need.
Don’t Speak. Don’t Speak.
Don’t Speak. Don’t Speak.
Don’t let Our secrets be released. - Ryans Smashing Life

Sometime last year I wrote a small piece on Boston noise-rockers The Beatings and their last record Holding on to Hand Grenades, which I was really impressed with. Well, I’ve been lucky enough to receive the solo offering from Beatings/La Faccia Brutta member Eldridge Rodriguez, who is dubbed as just E.R. on his record This Conspiracy Against Us.

Rodriguez is joined here on the album by his backing band The New Jerseys, who is made up of members Willie Dale Scales (Spanish Armada), Greg Lyons (Spanish Armada, The Pending Disappointment), Dan Parlin, and Kamiko Darrow (La Faccia Brutta). With help from this group, Rodriguez is able to construct some fascinating and fractured noise-pop. Rodriguez has taken the most intimate aspects of being a singer/songwriter and basically made it into a much more personal and upfront issue. As hinted at in the press release, this album is all about being unhappy with everything that surrounds you, from bad relationships all the way to just being completely fed up with others unjustified artistic merit. It seems as if Rodriguez had some things that he undoubtedly wanted to get off his chest and This Conspiracy Against Us is where he absolutely lets loose.

One of the most interesting things about this record is getting to hear Rodriguez’s lyrics, which are completely raw and at times in your face. You don’t necessarily get to see that side of him in The Beatings, or at least you don’t get to notice it as much when those lyrics are being screamed over a bunch of crashing distortion. Here though, Rodriguez is able to take them and make it a very valuable tool to the albums overall success.

E.R. – Stillborn in New Jersey [MP3]
E.R. – This Conspiracy Against Us [MP3]

I recommend anyone who is interested in hearing music that is brutally honest or is just simply a fan of The Beatings to check this album out. It’s a very solid solo effort. This Conspiracy Against Us will be released officially on February 27th, however it can be pre-order now over at Midriff Records. Check it out! - Built on a Weak Spot

Midriff Record’s promotional material for Eldridge Rodriguez's The Conspiracy Against Us pushes the album as being "angsty" and Eldridge Rodriguez as being "our own little Holden Caulfield." Even more bafflingly, Eldridge Rodriguez is described as being "fresh-faced:" he resembles a squinty, young-ish Lou Reed shorn of his protective sunglasses. Although Eldridge Rodriguez and his band The New Jerseys (often billed simply as E.R.) do explore a youthful theme of running away, they are far from J.D. Salinger's moping teenager. The choice in adjective and literary reference both miserably misrepresent the greatness of this album.

Eldridge Rodriguez's voice is long past adolescent larynx cracking; its deepness fills the wooded noise-scapes provided by his backup band (a conglomerate of several other Boston acts). The Conspiracy Against Us is comprised of some lovely solid-oak tracks. He provides cautionary tales in a well-worn indie-screech as Sarah Borges' soft murmur blows through the aural canopy, alighting on the splintering branches of each song, softening their bows with her round tones.

Aside from a few "Fuck Yourself"s and "That Sucks" thrown into the lyrics, the only remotely "angsty" song on the album is the title track, which seems to be a conspiracy against potential fans. Lyrics like, "always let down by the hipster crowd/so self consciously they keep in the distance" do make for some eye-rolling.

Rodriguez is one part threatening guardian and one part fretful lover. Despite the menacing feel of his musical presence, E.R. plays the prey. He bleats bitter threats at an unnamed predator while hidden by static darkness, a growling organ and a peppery tambourine.

The most endearing moments of The Conspiracy Against Us are wrapped up in escape. In the thick and bitter "Break What We Can’t Take," the common anxiety-nightmare of leaving something behind during an evacuation/exodus is explored. Kids run and hide in "Next Year's Prom Song." The opening track, "You and Me" ripples with bluesy guitar and church organ as E.R.'s paramour delivers a simple elopement ballad to a lover: "pick somewhere to meet…you always said this city/never looks more pretty than from an airplane seat."

Listen to this album. Eldridge Rodriguez is exceptional and I'm not "shooting the bull" as Holden would say.
By Sophia Al-Maria. - Junkmedia

It's like this. Especially with the screams and wrenching bone-deep blues on "Tirefire," Conspiracy is a textbook lesson on how to be a true doomed crooner -- E.R. takes his cues from the greats: Johnny Ray, Scott Walker, Nick Cave -- where it's never too dark or too dramatic or too painful. The play of cigarette smoke against a lone white spotlight, the glint of a crumpled shirt collar, stained with wine, a hand pressed to the brow, trying to relieve the pressure... and after songs like "Lexington, KY," it's quite clear why the teenagers and housewives of the world flock to ball-less eunuchs like Michael Buble as their man of choice instead of stuff like this -- they want the WELLBUTRIN, not the pain. And when you've got a guy who will hold a kitten and wear a sweater knitted by his grandma and eat a delicious cake all WHILE singing inoffensive crap, well, you've certainly found a way to while away those car rides back and forth to soccer practice, haven't you?

Eldridge Rodriguez, more well-known as singer/guitarist in the Beatings, but here just the shadowy E.R., moves away from his day job of harsh noise and here fronts a sort of East Coast Divine Horsemen, ably assisted by members of the Spanish Armada. For Conspiracy, Rodriquez uses a dark palette of cabaret noir, an underpinning of the blues, twilit country torch, and a sense of strung-out Velvetsy hopelessness - all blessed by Saint Nick (no, not that one). Smoky verses give way to great massed, singalong, desperate choruses, signing carelessly as the whole world goes to hell.

The recording is deceptively low-fi, which actually ends up giving Conspiracy a bigger, more mysterious, and intimate sound, as the ear engages directly with the sounds flowing out of the speakers. And nothing could muffle THAT VOICE, a voice way too deep and way too old and way more pained than it should be for someone so young. A young acolyte of Mark Lanegan, Chris D, and Mike Johnson, keeping the torch flickering, he delivers lyrics brimming full of "just the two of us against everyone", and no one does that doomed Bonnie and Clyde fuck-yeahness anymore. Just a note to say that I appreciate it.

The opener "You and Me" is pure magic hour, Bad Seeds alley/junkie torch -- god, no one writes songs like this anymore, total Bukowski, two down on their luck doomed lovers/users -- a story song with E.R. begging his hopeless lover to leave this luckless town with him. It'll never fucking work. And that's why it's so fucking romantic. Well, that and the shuffling percussion, warm blanket of organs and Rodriguez's sepulchral voice and woozy romance. "Stillborn in New Jersey" finds Rodriguez edging toward total breakdown over a taut, Velvets-gone-country twang. Hypnotic fiddle guides along a desperate waltz and Rodriguez's vocal histrionics, collapsing into ragged breaths echoing in his chest and throat. CONVICTION. It's so awesomely jarring when a mock cheerleader chant by girl backup singers of "Action! Action! We Want Action!" punctures the whining of a ghostly organ, and as it builds, Rodriguez bursts in with a harrowing cry of "The quick fix! Sold! To the women who are feeling too old...." Howls of ambient feedback accompany distant rumbles of percussion on the beautifully sung piano lament of "Tirefire." FUCK! "Track 14" reminds me of Eno's "St. Elmo's Fire" recast as a suicide note. "And your makeup's caked on and your legs look strong from all the fucking with them behind your head/ How can you look at me like that, when I know all the guys you were with" is pure Lou Reed venom, accompanied by a swooning, chamber-music backdrop and a final sarcastic coda of Sha-la-la-las. "Everyone's got a plan and everyone's plan sucks" lifts "Lexington KY" into the sublime, with venomous lyrics accompanied by a heavily treated piano. Something for everyone, surely.
Midriff Records: www.midriffrecords.com - Ink 19

My favorite rock album of 2006 was by the New England collective The Beatings, whose sweet-tart invocation of the greats of Boston’s postpunk history (The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma) on Holding Onto Hand Grenades struck me as much more than just attribute to their influences.

In the wake of the release of Holding Onto Hand Grenades, Beatings guitarist E.R. (aka the improbably named Eldridge Rodriguez) kept going, writing and recording his own stuff under his own name, finally releasing in late February of this year an album of his own, The Conspiracy Against Us.

Many of the songs on Rodriguez’ album could fit comfortably on a Beatings record, but where the band as a whole tended toward tense, rigorous arrangements featuring loud and layered guitars, Rodriguez alone is much more relaxed, at times a little more acoustic, and in a welcome way, weirder. He’s still comfortably within the basic genre definition of “indie rock” or “postpunk” or whatever, but he sounds like he’s having a ball.

What do I mean by “weirder?” Well, for example, although the Beatings have a nice way with a hook, I can’t imagine a Beatings song featuring hand claps, ‘sha-la-la’ backing vocals, or a cheerleader chorus bleating “a-c-t-i-o-n, action, action, we want action” underneath the big hook. But there they are, the female chorus on “You Get What You Want,” adding a winsome dimension to what’s already a hooky modern rock song.

And I can’t imagine, well, anybody with the courage to write a Bowie song and record it in a Bowie voice like Rodriguez does on “Black History Month.” Yet, there it is in the middle of what, by rights, ought to be a mildly interesting set of songs by one member of a not-famous-quite-yet rock quartet. The Conspiracy Against Us is full of songs like this, quirky enough to stand out, but strong and restrained enough not to just be irritating, cutesy or precious.

The Conspiracy Against Us probably isn’t going to win any awards, and probably isn’t (such a crime!) going to break huge and move a million units at retail. But Eldridge Rodriguez has made a very impressive, accomplished and most of all interesting debut album, and that’s good news for the future.


Read more: http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-eldridge-rodriguez-the-conspiracy/#ixzz11iA1WvhW - Blogcritics

2007 has seen Boston's own Eldridge Rodriguez (ER) temporarily shed his role as the frontman of The Beatings to pursue this remarkable solo project. The songs here are awash with emotional steel and adventures resulting in love lost. In April I was all over this record and my feelings haven't diminished with time. Rodriguez just released a quality follow-up EP that follows close in this album's tracks. Do yourself a favor and check out his catalog of material available on Midriff Records. - Ryans Smashing Life- blog

This Conspiracy Against Us is a bizarrely beautiful record. Eldridge Rodriguez sings like a cross between Nick Cave and Thom Yorke, plays guitar like a rabid Tom Waits, and writes like the working class lovechild of Rivers Cuomo and Jeff Tweedy. Each song on here is downright perfect, from the cutting "Stillborn in New Jersey", to the spectacularly emotive "Lexington, KY", to the post-punk "Why I Fear the Ocean". Despite varying influences from The Fall to The Cure to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to Gang of Four, This Conspiracy... stays coherent all the way through. There are no missteps here. Everything falls into place. The album gets depressive, but it is lush throughout. Rodriguez rises above the throngs of singer/songwriters who stick with happy pop songs and pushes what a singer/songwriter should be with straightforward lyrics and simplistic guitars - and no one else sounds like him. Eldridge Rodriguez is simply to talented too ignore. - Verbicide Magazine