The Beakers
| The Beakers | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Seattle, Washington |
| Genres | Art punk, post-punk, new wave |
| Years active | 1980–1981 |
| Labels | Mr. Brown, Engram Records |
| Associated acts | 3 Swimmers, Little Bears from Bangkok |
| Past members |
Mark Haskell Smith Jim Anderson George Romansic Frankie Sundsten |
The Beakers were an art punk band from Seattle, Washington. Although the band only existed for twelve months, they were considered influential on the local underground music scene.
The Beakers had roots in the creative scene of Olympia, Washington's The Evergreen State College where singer and guitarist Mark Haskell Smith and drummer George Romansic first had met. Smith and Romansic joined with Seattle-based saxophone player/singer Jim Anderson, and the group played their first concert on January 25 together with fellow Seattle art punk pioneers The Blackouts and Chinas Comidas. When asked to play their next gig at the Showbox, a larger Seattle venue, the trio asked Francesca "Frankie" Sundsten, then the girlfriend of Blackouts singer and guitarist Erich Werner, to join the band as a bassist. During the following twelve months of their existence, the Beakers established themselves as an active live band, touring the west coast and sharing the stage with local groups such as The Fartz as well as opening for renowned post-punk acts like Gang of Four, The Delta 5 and XTC, garnering critical acclaim from said bands and music critics alike.
The Beakers' musical style was defined by the combination of Smith's perpendicular guitar sounds and yelpy vocals, Sundsten's funk influenced bass lines and Anderson's dissonant saxophone while Romansic provided the rhythmic foundation, considered essential to the band's sound. Smith's vocals have been compared to "a hysterical David Byrne or an illiterate David Thomas" and D. Boon of the Minutemen. Other critics locate the band's music "somewhere between the nervy art rock of early Talking Heads and the broadly-defined hardcore aesthetic of the Minutemen" while AllMusic compares the Beakers to contemporaries Liquid Liquid, The Contortions and A Certain Ratio and sees the band as "spiritual forefathers to the Rapture, Erase Errata and other mid-2000s danceable rockers".Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil (who became a fan of the band in 1980 while still residing in Park Forest, Illinois) stressed the "quirky, herky-jerky, [...] chaotic, edgy element of new wave" that characterised the group's style. Writer Clark Humphrey also lauded the band for being "the first area band with a non-singing female musician".
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