The Helio Sequence are a terrific duo comprised of Benjamin Weikel and Brandon Summers, based in Portland, who have been playing together for at least 10 years. You might know them from their gig opening for the Pixies down in Eugene a few years ago. Or, if you’ve listened to any alt rock radio in the past few years, you’ve heard Benjamin’s superb drum work on Modest Mouse’s last album, during his stint as their drummer.
The Helio Sequence’s live performances are an awesome presentation of psychedelic meets wall-of-sound rock ‘n’ roll guitar and Bonham-esque drum bombast, both mixed with the meticulous precision of computer-sequenced synthesizers. What does this all come out sounding like? Think The Who’s “Baba O’Riley" meets My Bloody Valentine meets The Beatles’ Revolver. The Helio Sequence even does a cover of “Tomorrow Never Knows."
Brandon and Benjamin started playing together years ago when they worked together at a musical instrument store in Beaverton. At night, they would clear stuff out and work on their own music, often staying up all night in the process. They eventually began making recordings, finally self-releasing the Accelerated Slow Motion Cinema EP in 1999, Com Plex in 2000 (Cavity Search), Young Effectuals in 2001 (Cavity Search), and Love and Distance (2004) on the Sub Pop label. They’re currently finishing up their next album, due to be released on Sub Pop in early 2007.
I asked Brandon what the band has been up to and what we can expect from The Helio Sequence in the future.
”For the past nine months we’ve been holed up in our new studio on the east side cooking up our new album," he said. “It’s an old dance studio that we spent a month moving into and sound-treating that’s now officially ‘Helio Studio A.’ Just like all of our past albums, we’re taking on all of the recording, engineering, production and mixing tasks." he said.
You might be wondering why there’s been such a long gap between the last album and the next.
”We’re notoriously slow in the recording process because we’re both such perfectionists," Brandon explains. “We actually started the writing and recording of the record in the second half of ’05 but were just unhappy with how things were sounding. We had a different studio space then that just didn’t sound right, so we scrapped the recordings we had and started over again in our new space early this year. We meet there every morning and split time between working together and independently in our own home studios writing and arranging the new songs."
So they’ve been hard at work on the new album for quite a while now. Not only that, but they also toured the United States twice this year: one West Coast tour, and one “half country" tour, with the Crystal Skulls opening. After all that, they decided to stop touring until the next album is done. But it’s a short break from touring. Helio Sequence will be on the road for the next year and a half, doing U.S. and European tours, possibly branching out into Japan and Australia as well.
Can’t wait ’til next year to see them? You’re in luck. They’ve put together a show this weekend, which they’re calling the “Little Duo-Fest!" The two other bands on the bill are Dykeritz and The Snuggle Ups, both of whom are duos. Brandon promises they’ll be playing a handful of new songs from their forthcoming album, for the very first time in front of an audience. It’s a show you don’t want to miss, at a good venue, by a great band.
The Helio Sequence
With The Snuggle Ups and Dykeritz
Dante’s
Nov. 10, $10 advanced, $12 at the door