Biography
A heap of facts about the Minor Thirds:
The basics
The Minor Thirds are Chris Piuma, Charlotte Wells, Jake Anderson, Chris Calvert, and whoever else they drag into the project. They live in Portland, Oregon, and have been making music together since January 2002.
(Chris's last name is pronounced "PYOO-muh", with two syllables.)
The albums
Their first album, The Zealot's Curse, was released on Sad Penguin Records in June 2002. It is a stark and aggressively lo-fi album with minimal instrumentation, usually just guitar and voice or keyboard and voice. It's a story of unrequited (or, perhaps, briefly requited) love, of obsession, of being constantly defeated.
The second album, which is either a long EP or a very short album, is called Saskatchewan, and was released on Tape Mountain in May 2003. About a dozen people from all sorts of Portland bands were invited to play on it, and it has a much fuller sound that the first album. It tells the fever dream of a Bostonian who dreams of escaping to Saskatchewan, a place he knows very little about. In 2005, a DVD of videos for all six songs on the album was released by Sad Penguin Records.
In 2004 they released Dishwasher Thief, a pulp crime story. It features everything from chase scenes to contract bridge, from filth-infested hideaways to Cole Porter tunes.
The Minor Thirds are working on a new album. They have also released several EPs. A fuller discography is available.
The experience, live and recorded
If you haven't noticed from all the talk of "stories", the Minor Thirds are a "writerly" band. Most of their albums have recurring characters and narrative arcs; they are focused on their lyrics; they use semicolons abundantly; they love rhetorical devices and grammatical tricks.
Their albums tend to be somber and dark. Their live shows, on the other hand, are often vaudeville, or sometimes extended shoegazer drones. Well, there are things you want out of a live show, and things you want out of a record, you know? Live, the Minor Thirds range from utter silliness to noisy vitriol to whispered tenderness.
They have performed in a variety of venues, from living rooms to traditional rock clubs to empty lots to radio shows to children's "fun centers". In January 2003, they toured Nevada and California; in December 2003 they toured the Canadian prairies. They play regularly in Portland. Check here for upcoming live shows.
