Bedhead Loved Macha
Macha Loved Bedhead (Jetset)
Who would’ve thought a one-off, long-distance collaboration between two bands could result in some of the most compelling material either band ever recorded? Having grown up together in Wichita Falls, Bedhead’s Matt and Bubba Kadane always wanted to work with Macha’s Joshua and Mischo McKay, but the former operated out of Dallas and the latter out of Athens, Ga. Undaunted by the miles between them, the Kadanes sent a tape of unfinished songs to the McKays for completion in 1999, shortly before Bedhead broke up. What emerged is a well-tempered combination of Bedhead’s delicate, guitar-based slumber pop and Macha’s gamelan-influenced aural landscapes. Instead of layered guitars filling out Bedhead’s sparse arrangements, we have Javanese zither, Thai xylophone, vibraphone, and even a telephone on the keypad love elegy, “Believe.” Macha’s South Asian sonic pastiche makes tunes like “Hey Goodbye” and the more angular “You and New Plastic” undeniably unique, but they’re careful not to overwhelm the catchy skeletal riffs sent to them by Bedhead. Aside from the esoteric filler of “How Are Your Windows?” (programmed to last 80 cuts), everything on this six-song EP is eye-opening and innately memorable. Funny how headstrong clarity can sometimes emerge from such novel non-places.
This article appears in June 16 • 2000.
