Tom Lynch

If the strongest musical bonds between musicians are formed at an early stage, then local five-piece The Names That Spell have a serious advantage. Having played together since each member was in his early teens, everything has led to this moment: the self-released “A & R,” an attractive assemblage of countless instruments, a kind-of-indie-pop record with a delirious determination to explore the outer realms. Jazz is definitely an influence—off-kilter sax solos interrupt at various moments—but other elements introduce themselves at assorted intervals as well, electronic and otherwise. “A & R” has its ups and downs, but for a debut record crafted by youngsters who are still writing papers for college, it’s some feat.

“Basically, it all came from a strong desire to experiment, just mess around with genres,” says Lucas Elenitsky, who’s one of the band’s two drummers but, essentially, is a multi-instrumentalist. “The whole album is an anti-concept album; there’s really no one set idea behind it. We were just recording, over the course of four years. When we started we had no idea we were gonna put out an album. We were recording just for the sake of recording. A couple of years down the line, we had so many songs, so we just put them all together.”

To the band, the record seems like a collection of singles rather than a complete piece, and it’s divided as such, into six pairings of what they indicate as A-sides and B-sides. Maybe this all was a result of the longer-than-usual writing and recording process, and that the band didn’t intend outright to make a full-length record, but the album doesn’t seem as choppy as you might expect.

Right now, the emphasis is on shows. “Basically, get as many shows as possible,” Elenitsky says of the band’s current plan. “We haven’t really made a strong attempt to play out, playing out of Chicago.”

Of the band’s live performance, Elenitsky says they’re not concerned with recreating the record. “I can’t stand playing the same thing constantly,” he says. “[We want] each performance to be a different experience, every time. That’s our goal.”

The Names That Spell celebrate the release of “A & R” September 17 at Beat Kitchen, 2100 West Belmont, (773)281-4444, at 9pm. $8.

(2008-09-09)

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