Timothy Bracken is the self-professed "worst banterer alive." Prefacing songs with the ironic, humorous, or playfully disturbing ("Here's a song about little girls"), he has made an increasingly known name for himself. It probably also helps that he writes sharp pop songs, toys with the blues, and delivers it with a vocal lurch akin to Okay or Rivers Cuomo. Originally from the Baltimore area, Bracken studied percussion in school and drummed in a few bands. Teaching himself guitar and bass, he began to write songs that would lead to his first big break at Iota in '99.
Playing bass with Junestar, Tim was tapped to perform a few songs to kill time while a fellow bandmate restrung his guitar. Impressed with his talents, Iota invited him back to open for Todd Snider, which encouraged and propelled his musical output. Unfortunately, contract battles with his independent label postponed the release of his first LP, Disrepair, until 2003. Since a job change last September, Bracken has had more time to focus on recording and playing shows with his full band and solo. His next album, Long Untied, is slated for release at the end of the summer.

At the Galaxy Hut this past Sunday, the one weakness of the Complex's performance was their loudness – in the small confines of Galaxy Hut, their own music worked against them, forcing the crowd to focus more on spikes of loud sounds rather than the melodies and comfortable rhythms within. Their performance would have worked better with the amps and drum kit dialed down or in a school-dance setting. This is no disrespect to Complex, but rather shows their rocking yet heartfelt appeal. Their live show is mostly solid blues and hard rock, with some pop songs and folk structure thrown in. The 60s blues rock of their show on Sunday contrasted radically with the poppy songs on their MySpace page. Their blues influences were strong: in addition to Mr. Bracken's steady rhythm guitar, they had Phoebus Spiliotopoulos on lead guitar, spinning wonderful melodies so seamless they sounded like keyboards or silk on the side of your face.

The blues or pop question persisted throughout the set's undulations. "Unmade" displayed gently churning rhythms and a pastoral charm similar to Badly Drawn Boy. Yet the guitars and drums on "Waiting Room" (and a few other songs about young love) were undoubtedly rock, lacking the high note/low note textures and cadence of most pop. "Waiting Room" did, however, feature subdued, aqueous vocals -- like those made famous by pop/blues specialists Robert Pollard or the Beatles. "Long Way Nowhere" followed. What began with soaring and peaceful instrumentation turned into an Aerosmith rock-out by the end.

Their last song, a cover of Lou Reed's "Hooky Wooky," was absolutely wonderful. It was one of those great moments where you witness a band really loving a song and wanting to do it justice very badly. The lead guitar squealed like a fickle echoe of itself, the percussion pounded and bounded unrelentingly, and Bracken howled "Under the wheels of a car" like the madman protagonist he embodied. Capping the set with that last song put it all together -- the blues, the primal nature of pop, and rage of the 21st century. The Timothy Bracken Complex's recordings and performance, as well as the differences between the two, opens up all these interesting avenues of what pop is and what it can be. Considering Tim pulled off that last song's screaming while dealing with a worsening respiratory infection, his personal and artistic limits remain to be seen.

Visit him at: http://www.myspace.com/timothybracken

See him next at: DC9 May 31st and Iota June 7th

Questions for Timothy Bracken:

You work for XM Satellite Radio. Many say it is changing the music industry and exposing unsigned artists. Do you feel you the benefits of that? Your website mentioned you are getting more involved in production - is that a product of your work at XM?

XM absolutely does help unsigned artists get some attention, as they have an entire channel devoted to only unsigned bands. I haven't really pushed myself at XM a whole lot, but I do send emails out to let everyone know when I'm playing. One benefit I get from working at XM as a writer is getting to hear music that is new to me. It's such an inspiration for me to discover something new. To answer the question about the production thing: no, it's not really due to working at XM, although it is something I would certainly be interested in! The studios they have are amazing.

Is the band's music still written by you solo? How is the dynamic of keeping up a band and a solo act? Does your style differ from pop to blues rock depending?

Yeah, everything we do as a band is a song I wrote on my own. Of course,
with the band, the songs usually take on a new sound. The arrangements are
a group effort, everybody has some input in that sense. I don't really
think much about performing as a group and a solo act, but maybe I should
since the two sound quite different! It's also hard to think about my
style of music, because I am moved by so many different things. I never
know what kind of song I am going to come up with.

It seems that a lot of naysayers (and perhaps even champions) in the DC music scene say people don't work enough on their image and they can't be successful/signable because they don't have an image. And some then go on to complain about too much image. As a guy who presents himself as a regular person who plays good music and has a good sense of humor, what's your take on this? Do you aim for something?

I guess it depends on what the group does. It's hard for me to say what I think about maintaining an image because I just don't think about it! I think you got it right, I'm just a regular guy playing songs, you know?

What are your favorite places to perform in the DC area?

I love Iota Club and Cafe. They have always been so good to me...you can't find a nicer place to perform. I love the Galaxy Hut and the Austin Grill locations in Alexandria and Silver Spring, too.

Many of your influences: The Beatles, GBV, The Velvet Underground, and Elvis Costello span that [pop and blues rock] gap and can even be said to have discovered our modern incarnations of pop. That being said, what do you think of the gap between pop and blues-rock?

I'm not sure how to respond there...I never think about what kind of music
I'm creating, it just happens!

Pictures from http://www.timothybrackencomplex.com/