Bands Around Town

Prince Ruperts Drops
(aka The Frams, aka The Woods)

Spin yourself into the bliss of airwaves filled with catchy sounds of the 70's -- thick strums of guitars, plenty of Vox and sitars, and sweeping organ drifts. Finally, a band so fresh and so new that they escape the pigeon-holes of genre-labeling. Musically sound in their craft, The Frams offer flow-breeze-easy melodies set to evoke all your emotional senses.

The Frams fuse a peculiar blend from every era and genre to create their own flawlessly-crafted toothsome flavor, from the finest ditties originating from what seems to be of a poor man's back porch deep in the south of Louisiana, to the distinct alternative touch from the likes of The Breeders, a hint of distortions straight from Beck's Mellowgold album, and poppy tones of the 70's. If their concocted sound isn't unique enough, the female vocalist has a hauntingly strange resemblance to Billie Holiday. No need to polish her with soundboard effects; her voice is simply beautiful and cosmic, a concept that has long been perverted by top ten darlings throughout the years.

Not bad for a band that had no intentions to do anything with their songs. In 2004, Bruno Meyrick Jones (guitar, vox) and Leslie Stein (guitar, vox) tripped upon creating this band while casually plucking whiskey-lured songs in an apartment they shared together. Soon after, Brad Truax (Bruno's friend and former bandmate of Broke Revue-Truax is also well-known from the bands Home and Jah Division) offered to dabble with his bass in the creative realm that was forming. Gaining momentum shortly after the decision to play-out sporadically, opening for friends like Oakley Hall, Awesome Color, Black Dice and Comets on Fire, the band was ready to start cutting their first album. By 2006, The Frams were recording with Barry London at his shared studio with Onedia. Yet after a few setbacks like replacing Brad with Chad Laird (due to Brad's busy schedule and the band's desire to play out more), along with a change in band names, going from The Woods to The Frams due to several bands using the same name, they are still persevering to finish recording their first album.

Every big city in American can offer you great music, but only Brooklyn can offer you The Frams - the happy-go-lucky-feel-good-music of our decade. Find yourself where they are staged at next and get lost in their aura, but be careful, you may trip on your own soul.

By Rebecca Campbell

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Since the publication of this article the band formerly known as The Frams, formerly known as the Woods have changed their name yet again. Now called "Prince Ruperts Drops", you can still hear their music on MySpace.