The Chambermaids are:

Guitars/vocals: Neil Weir
Bass/vocals: Martha Weir
Drums: Colin Johnson

“We've always had certain ideas concerning what the band should be (or not be.) There seems to be a lot of bands, including underground bands, who try to come across as trendy or stylish in superficial ways and imply that they are leading more interesting lives than the people who listen to their music. I think it goes without saying that we aren’t interested in the music-as-a-backdrop-to-someone’s-social-calendar ideal that tends to go along with so much contemporary music. We aren’t interested in scenes, we’re interested in music,” explains Neil Weir, The Chambermaids’ co-vocalist and guitarist.

The Chambermaids are siblings Neil (vocals, guitars) and Martha Weir (vocals, bass), and Colin Johnson (drums). The Weirs formed the band nearly two years ago in Minneapolis, MN with a drum machine. They cut five demos, put them on their website (www.thechambermaids.com) and began playing out in the indie rock friendly dive bars of the Twin Cities. Soon the song “City Predators” was picked up by local college radio station, Radio K (where the band also did an on air performance) and the Twin Town’s music scene was formally introduced to The Chambermaids.

The Weirs honed their craft and their performance as they continued to play live shows – sharing bills with locals (such as Tora! Tora! Torrance!, Huge Rat Attacks, The Deaths) and national acts (such as Mark Shippy of US Maple, K Records/indie legend Calvin Johnson). Still they were always writing, moving ideas from head-and-heart to the practice space. The poor drum machine couldn’t cut it, as it lacked the capacity for the structures and nuisances of these new songs (“At times, with the drum machine, it felt like we were driving through mud,” says Neil). The drum machine was replaced after Thanksgiving 2004 when Johnson joined. That brings us to the all-important and ever remarkable now.

The Chambermaids have just finished their debut full-length record, a slab of weird noise and ugly beauty. The Weirs both sing, alternating lead and backing vocals that run the gamut from lovely to awful (in that good, Mark E. Smith kind of awful). Punchy clean bass lines, slicing noisy guitars, and minimalist drumming (Johnson’s subtle homage to that icy minimalism of the fired drum machine – it should be noted that his technique is similar, yet made organic by jarring idiosyncratic fills and runs) punctuate the oddly catchy melodies and murky lyrics. Johnson says, “[We are] creating that hypnotic mood … a good rhythm that will grab you and throw you.” Tension and opulence permeate the songs; it’s close to unsettling, even unpredictable.

The songs aren’t really pop, but they do have a sensibility. This stuff isn’t thrown together, but it definitely isn’t tidy. The Weirs state, “One of the reasons we have settled on a three piece lineup is because often the more instruments that are playing at any one time in a rock context, the less presence and perceived volume each instrument has in the overall mix. We want clutter but not too much clutter.

”The sounds that emanate from the recordings present an unconscious and weirdly foreboding sense of serendipity that makes The Chambermaids’ sound difficult to peg. Naturally, there are points of reference: certainly Wire and Sonic Youth; probably The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Velvet Underground with bits of the far-reaching shoegazer genre and old-fashioned 60s pop, but they do it in their own way.

From the two-minute 60s R&B-through-art-punk-racket of “City Predators” and “Nailed To The Floor” to the foreboding-slow-burn of “Sleeper” and “Tin Murder”, The Chambermaids pillage pop and rock history, tweaking and bending their influences enough, decreeing this isn’t theft. Believe me, this is more than homage. This is what makes good music.

Written by Chris M. Short