It's always exciting for a reporter to find an unexposed, fledgling band that possesses all the qualities of a group destined for greatness. That's what I found in the Pregnant Clones.
So new is the band that its name - an oxymoron that has prompted a few grimaces from friends and followers - might change in the near future. But a bit of advice: music like this has no name.
It could be called "indie-rock for a changing world," but even this does not describe the melodies and sentiments behind the Pregnant Clones' music. Deeply sentimental, poetic and, above all, beautifully instrumented with a keyboard, bass guitar, violin and drums, the group's compositions give new life to the corps of independent music.
One song in the repertoire called "Stuck" is about the horrors of being just that, conveys through dissonant and choppy chords the message that nothing is permanent.
"This song is about a really bad day, which I guess for some people is their whole life, but for me it was just one day," said Laura Braziel, band member and UNM student, in an honest appeal to the audience at Viva Bikes. She has also been known to preempt the song with the advice, "I'm going to yell in this song, so watch out."
The Pregnant Clones made its debut in Taos this weekend at a semi-weekly gathering of bands that is held, whenever possible, at Viva Bikes - a bike shop with a vested interest in local bands. Halfway through the Pregnant Clones' set, an organizer of the event implored the audience to get up and dance, but it was having enough trouble keeping its jaws off the floor.
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Another key element in the band's unique sound is that each of its members is an excellent solo musician, all of whom played on their own prior to the band's recent creation. The sounds coming from the band are morphed by Braziel's influences in musical theater and violinist Susanna Alcorne's history in classical music. Bassist Donnie Funk played his own solo creations, eliciting enthusiastic cheers from the audience. The coalescence of these independently talented musicians has created the Pregnant Clones.
"Atoms are constantly forming covalent bonds with one another and these bonds are the strongest in the world," Braziel said after the show. "That's how I feel about the bonds in the band."
She went on to say that this could be the foundation for their new name.
We'll have to wait and see.
