Some students play sports, have jobs or just play musical instruments, but others form bands like The Jettisons and Beatrix Kiddo.
The Jettisons
The Jettisons consists of five juniors: Quinn Coffman (bass), Charlie Teeter (keys), Bill Harned (lead guitar), Eli Bent (rhythm guitar) and Max McArthur (drums). The group categorizes itself as an indie rock band that draws inspiration from Boy Pablo, Mac Demarco, Glass Animals and The Artic Monkeys. However, it has been working to establish a unique sound within the genre.
“We formed [The Jettisons] last year after a friend of ours joked about how Bill, Quinn and Charlie looked like they belonged in a boy band together,” Bent said.
“This led to me joining the fake band, and once we decided to become a real group, we asked Max to play drums for us,” Bent said.
“We joked about writing a song together; then we got Eli and Max and actually did it,” Coffman said.
The group had trouble thinking of a fitting band name until they saw the movie “Hidden Figures.”
“[In the movie] they tell people not to jettison the retro package, and they never explain what that actually means despite making a big deal out of it,” Bent said.
“We threw lots of things out and didn’t like them…but we heard ‘jettison’…and it’s stuck so far,” Coffman said.
“We have a little inside joke where I call what we play ‘BeachPump.’ It’s a genre we made up, and it doesn’t mean anything, but hopefully,
when you hear our songs you think, ‘yeah, that sounds like BeachPump,’” Coffman said.
The Jettisons work on developing their sound about once a month.
“Our rehearsal schedule is maybe once a month, and then once we have a show we cram a few days before the concert. We’re horrific procrastinators,” Coffman said.
“We try to learn everything, write out chords and lyrics, record clips of us playing, talk about ideas for the shows and goof around. Eventually, it devolves into us giving up and getting food, but it works,” Coffman said.
This summer, the group had its first performance at Webstock and wanted to have pictures taken to promote itself.
“During one practice we had the great idea to ‘get pictures in the early morning with the sunrise.’ It seemed like a great idea. Everyone else set an alarm for 4 a.m., and we called our friend (senior) Greg Frazier to take the pictures,” Coffman said.
“I decided it would be easier to just not go to bed, so I stay up all night, and 4 a.m. comes around. I get picked up, and we drive to Blackburn to try and position ourselves in front of the sunset. There we are six teens in dress clothes, in the frigid morning air, instruments covered in dew, waiting in the dark for the sun to rise. It was so stupid. Turns out that it was way too cloudy to see the sun at all. We got the pics though. We shouldn’t be trusted to make plans,” Coffman said.
The Jettisons’ performed Nov. 2, at the DECA sponsored Night in the Courtyard.
Beatrix Kiddo
Beatrix Kiddo is an indie-alternative rock band that consists of Class of 2018 alumni Ian Thompsian (guitar and lead vocals), Terry Johnson (keyboard) and Kent Kleinschmidt (drums), senior Ben Ortinau (bass and background vocals) and junior Bill Harned (keys and vocals).
“Our self written music takes cues from alternative artists such as Wilco, and we often play covers of songs from bands like Wilco, the Beatles, etc,” Kleinschmidt said.
Beatrix Kiddo was formed in 2015 to perform for Webstock at the Fourth of July carnival.
“[Webstock] was an amazing experience, and we all loved playing together, so we decided to keep the new band together. We eventually added new members to become what we are today,” Kleinschmidt said.
Since then the group has played at house parties and AllWrite.
According to Ortinau, a typical rehearsal consists of “ Band arrives at the house, set up equipment, order pizza, talk about ideas for songs, run through a few songs and play FIFA.”
About any good stories the band has, Ortinau said, “Nothing worth mentioning in a school newspaper, [but something] worth mentioning: We have material in place and plan to record our first EP this winter.”
“We currently are not performing, for several members are at college, and so they aren’t here to play, but Bill Harned and myself have recently been scheming to come out with a few original recordings of our own, but you didn’t hear that from me,” Ortinau said.
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Evelyn Trampe – Video EditorThis will be Evelyn Trampe’s second year on ECHO staff, but she made several contributions while taking journalism class her sophomore year. She is also a member of Quill and Scroll. |
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