“Chandelier”
from the EP Souvenirs
2007
MP3 – “Chandelier” [right-click/save-as]
At the core of the New Tragedies is husband-and-wife couple Aaron and Bev Weidner. They’re joined by Jason Wright on drums, Dustin Kinsey on lead guitar, and Nate Hofer on pedal steel. Aaron writes the songs and plays rhythm, Bev plays bass, and they team up on singing in a virtually constant duet manner reminiscent of Low. And like the chair-kicking couple from Duluth, the Kansas City-based Weidners don’t have the sunniest disposish of all the kids in day care. But they aren’t the saddest, either.
It’s a predictable combination for such an attractive duo — so sweet, so pwetty and soooo saaad — but on their latest EP, Souvenirs, Aaron and Bev show maturity and innovation in their songcraft with lyrics and melodies that are weary but not tiresome. “Chandelier” has simple and catchy electric licks Ryan Adams would’ve cut off his bangs to have written first. Other tracks include “Onward Christian Soldier,” an anti-war song to turn the heads of people who didn’t think protest could sound pretty, and “90 Proof,” evoking Neil Young when he was angry and still young.