Athenaeum Mini-Concerts
The Beautiful View - Photo by Tim Fears
The best band you’ve never heard of is taking a break.
On Monday, The Big Thank You frontman Jesse Fox delivered a handwritten note to CityBeat’s North Park office announcing that the trio is going on “indefinite hiatus.” Choking back tears, he said he’s moving back to his hometown in Iowa in May to work on art and get some rest.
But in a Facebook message, bassist Tomas Hicks says he and guitarist Shaun Watkins hope to keep the core group together and recruit a drummer. They might perform under a new name, he says. “But as of now we intend to be at the Ruby Room in some form May 29th.”
With their eclectic, trippy sounds, the trio seems almost destined for obscurity. They’ve played live only once, but in two years they’ve released two wildly intriguing albums, 2011’s Audio Sapien Medicine Show and this year’s Guardian Angel Roadside Chapel: Demos & Retakes, that push the boundaries of psych-rock.
You might be hearing pop-rockers The Beautiful View on episodes of Mob Wives or 16 and Pregnant sometime soon. The band recently signed a licensing deal with MTV and VH1 that allows the networks to use songs from the band’s recently released album, Life is Beautiful, in commercials and TV shows. No tracks have yet been used, but bassist Paul Rich is stoked. “It’s a great opportunity to get in front of a tremendously large audience,” he says.
Email peterh@sdcitybeat.com or follow him on Twitter at @peterholslin.
