White-Collar Pop: The Caribbean

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

A LAWYER, A LIBRARIAN AND A TEACHER walk into a bar, set their instruments up and perform a series of lovely, smart, quiet, idiosyncratically structured pop-rock tunes.

Expecting a punch-line? You're not alone.

"It sounds like a joke," admitted The Caribbean's singer/songwriter/litigator Michael Kentoff, but it's not.

"For years, I always hedged about what I did for a living," he said. "I didn't want people to think that we weren't making a serious artistic statement, or trying to. Inevitably, you meet somebody, 'Oh, you're in a band? My cousin — he's an orthodontist and he's in a band called Four to Five Doctors.'

"You're like, 'It's not that kind of band.'

"I was worried for a long time about that," the finely attired Kentoff continued. "I didn't want to be perceived as somebody just visiting: 'Just dropping in; this is a hobby; I'll outgrow it.' This is what I do. I like my job. I like music. I don't find them mutually exclusive pursuits. They complement each other in some interesting ways."

On Thursday, The Caribbean, a remarkably prolific bedroom-pop collective that records songs brimming with interesting arrangements — but gigs as a trio, with its members rotating instruments — will perform in support of its new record, "Populations" (Hometapes), at the D.C. record store Crooked Beat.

» EXPRESS: What kind of law do you practice?
» KENTOFF: I'm a civil litigator, which means I do a lot of brief writing, which is what I like to do. I went into law because I like to write and I wanted to be paid to write.

» EXPRESS: Does the whole band have white-collar jobs?
» KENTOFF: Everybody has white-collar jobs. Matt Byars is a school teacher up in Baltimore and Dave Jones is a librarian at the Department of Transportation. Tony Denison, who plays drums, lives in Florida, is an attorney, although currently he's more of a Mr. Mom. Don Campbell is a paralegal who's in law school. We're in danger of becoming lawyer-heavy. But the three of us who tour, we have a teacher, a lawyer and a librarian.

» EXPRESS: Do you dream of quitting your job and playing music full-time?
» KENTOFF: Not really. I like having two lives. When I'm on tour, I look forward to coming back here and working on something that's completely different than music, but creative in its own way. The limitations on my time that a job presents force me to be focused when I'm doing The Caribbean and forces all of us to be very resourceful in doing this. So, I think that our musical "work product" — to use a lawyer term — is that much more distinct, that much more unusual, because of it, but also hopefully has connections to things that we observe as people who work in the world. A school teacher sees things that somebody who's only a musician is never going to see. I don't know if I want to give that up.

It would be really interesting if somebody would pay us a living wage to do what we do. But, of course, one of the other problems is: As you work long enough and make more money, what defines a living wage changes. Ain't nobody payin' me, to do what I do, the same kind of money that I make here. So that's part of the issue.

I think everybody fantasizes about being an artist and not doing anything but art, but I like my job and I like the double life.

» EXPRESS: The Caribbean sounds like the atmospheric Dischord band Beauty Pill. Do you get that a lot?
» KENTOFF: No, although we've worked with [Beauty Pill maestro and D.C super-producer] Chad [Clark] for awhile and, of course, Tony was in a band [Smart Went Crazy] with Chad. ... We're certainly kindred spirits. I'm a fan. We love working together, because we both feel we're trying to make thoughtful pop music, something that's pretty and ugly at the same time. Often, we'll make an aesthetic choice and he'll be mixing it and he'll laugh, because he'll recognize something we're doing as something that he thinks about. And I hear their stuff and I have the same sort of reaction. We get some comparisons that are like, "Huh? That one makes sense. " Certainly, his fingerprints are all over our stuff. He is a really gifted mixer. I've learned a ton from him.

» EXPRESS: What are some of the comparisons that you see as off-base?
» KENTOFF: Death Cab for Cutie. I don't get it. This started a few years ago ... Every record, at least two reviews mention Ben Gibbard. Yeah, we're both white. We both play guitar. There's rock music being played. By that measure, we sound like Boston.

» EXPRESS: The Caribbean also reminds me of Elliot Smith, particularly your whispery vocal style.
» KENTOFF: I don't love everything Elliot Smith ever did, but I always liked his voice. I can hear that. There's an intimate thing he does and that's what I like most about him. Certainly, like us, he's obviously a Beatles fan.

» EXPRESS: How has getting reviewed by PitchforkMedia.com affected the band?
» KENTOFF: We've been treated pretty well by Pitchfork. For a long time, we were kind of locked in the 7s range [out of 10]. And then this record comes out and I read the review and it's a lovely review — and it got a 6.2.

I was happy with the tone of the review. He clearly got what we were doing. But I know that a lot of people, they see the number and it's not an 8 or above — they don't even bother. They move on. So, I don't know if it's a positive or negative.

It's good to be reviewed by Pitchfork. You know the Travis Morrison story: His record got a 0; people jeered him. I like that record. It's kind of ridiculous: Far, far too many people need the permission of Pitchfork to like you. It seems unhealthy for any publication to have that kind of influence over people's tastes. People should have permission to like whatever they want, but part of being in rock is being hip and being cool and indie rock has suffered from that immensely. For some reason, people need that: "It's OK: They're cool." If it weren't Pitchfork, it would be someone else.

Our last record, it was interesting: It was a good review and he put a link to the Web site, 'cause he thought it was cool and thought it fit with what we were doing. That day, our site had a huge spike [in views] and actually crashed, because so many people looked at it — which was cool, but creepy. If they love you, you'll sell five, 10 times as many records and play to packed rooms. If they hate you, you get nobody and people will jeer you. And if they just like you, eh, you'll get some people. It's very unnatural, but that's the way it is.

» EXPRESS: What's with all the indie bands named after places?
» KENTOFF: I have a rebuttal question: What's the deal with all these indie bands that have "Wolf" in the name? Wolfmother, Wolf Parade, Wolf Eyes, We Are Wolves. I don't get the Wolf thing. I'm beginning to have a problem with it. It almost says, "We're not original." The shame of it is: The next Wolf band could be the best of them.

I think places are evocative. I think it gives people a starting point. There was no plan behind it. ... I hate steel drums ... I just thought it was a nice word. I like the fact that there's two ways to say it. I like the way it looks on the page. I don't know what other people's motivations are. Boston's kinda funny: "Oh, we're from Boston." OK — touche. Well played!

» Crooked Beat Records, 2318 18th St NW; with Don Zientara, Thu., 7.p.m., free; 202-483-2328. (Adams Morgan)

Written by Express contributor Tim Follos