BUMMER VACATION: Brett Cutts - Beautyfull Birds (2006)

I wish I could just post this album and not feel compelled to share my story in relation to it. But it's all I think about when I hear it and I'm so proud. Brett Cutts is my cousin and he lived from 1977 to 2006. I was probably around 16 or 17 when I really started to bond with Brett beyond a family level. He had moved back to Long Beach from his parents' place in Washington (where he recorded most of this) and I was just starting to play in my own bands. Looking back I must have been that nerdy, overly eager younger cousin but he always had encouraging and powerful things to say to me. He also gave me the only lesson in guitar I had ever taken.

Brett was no stranger to the Long Beach music scene. He ran with the Southern California 90's hardcore scene and grew with it into the Long Beach music attitude that many local bands hold today; and place between nihilism, street life, and enjoying every minute of both. The popular Long Beach punk band Le Shok had written a song poking fun at the last name called "Brett Cutts (Himself)", a joke still used on me from time to time. When he moved back he joined the FM Bats, which was stitched together by members who were collectively in dozens of LA-based bands, including the first drummer of Jail Weddings and the singer of Le Shok. It was swampy and trashy and a lot of fun live, and if you paid attention you could catch Brett playing the most beautiful and lush guitar pieces while everyone else was still setting up. This album is based primarily in that beauty he could write in the middle of the struggle and sweat reflected in his other bands, places he lived, and personal demons that dominated much of Brett's adult life.

In the summer of '06 I put out a 7" with a couple of his songs on it. A few years later I realized I'm no businessman and closed up shop, but I've still got some copies in the garage. Leave a comment if you're interested. I couldn't bring myself to go through the emotional investment of releasing his music again and put out the full length, so here it is. Download it, enjoy it, remember it, and PS if anyone has any recordings of his project No Ghost, No Zombies please put them up for everyone to download.

TRACK LIST