The Bedridden
by James Andean
originally in bmx 1.0 March 2001* click covers for individual reviews *
Bedridden (or The Bedridden, depending on where you're looking) is an Australian band, formed in 1989 and based in Adelaide, South Australia. Their music is (for the most part) all acoustic, but beyond that it is difficult to do their sound justice with a quick description. The term "folk" is the first to present itself, but is wildly inadequate - more of a constant flow between folk, punk, pop, and back to folk, with sidelines to everything from Celtic to Mexican balladry. Alternately frenzied and introspective, their music is energetic, barely controlled mayhem, with occasional moments of deeply melancholic beauty, all coupled with an absurd, irrepressible, and occasionally morbid sense of humour.
With a broad and somewhat fluid cast of characters and an even more impressive array of instruments, the band most often sounds like they are having an outrageously good time, which one quickly discovers to be deeply infectious. Coming up with comparisons for the Bedridden sound is difficult. Bands like The Violent Femmes and The Pogues come to mind, with similar blends of various folk stylings with driving energy and a punk sensibility, but even this description doesn't really do the band justice; their irresistible charm is all their own, and needs to be experienced firsthand.
I first encountered Bedridden's debut album, It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye some eleven years ago, loved it to death, and so began singing their praises to friends - which proved to be something of an error in judgment. The album was tentatively lent out, only to be whisked away and rapidly lost track of, carried on a long and winding hand-to-hand journey, with only a teasing glimpse from time to time - for example, turning up on the answering machine of a friend of mine in another province - before suddenly reappearing in my parent's mailbox a full decade later. Such is the band's appeal.
Over time, the band changed from something of a collective to a more or less stable foursome, which may lead one to hope for more regular output in the future. So far the band has only three albums to their name, over a 12-year period.
Luckily, there are solo outings to fill the void. Baterz (pronounced "batters"), one of only two founding members to still be in the band, has released a superb solo album in the meantime, as well as a live album and several singles, which can, by virtue of his being one of the central characters in Bedridden, be reviewed here simultaneously with the band.
Click the covers for individual album reviews.
Addendum
When this feature originally appeared, it ended by saying that the band were working on another record.
Sadly, we learned shortly afterwards that on July 22nd, 2002, Baterz died. We thank Baterz for his great music. Rest in Peace.
Read an elegy here.
The contact information we had provided is not all working these days. The Baterz site is still up and still great, though it seems to have been left alone for a while now.