Beefeater formed in 1984. In September of 1985 they put out
"Plays for Lovers".
Their second record,"House Burning Down", was recorded in the spring of
1986 and finally finished in September of that same year. Throughout their
history as a
band they had three drummers, though the rest of the band stayed the same. The
song 'Blind leads Blind' from the "House Burning Down" record was originally an
instrumental song, entitled 'Washington D.C.'; but when Beefeater were
asked to
donate a song for an animal rights compilation,Tomas and Ian MacKaye went into
the studio and recorded vocals for it, at which point its title changed.
Beefeater string together the 'caught in the air' vocals of
Tomas Squip, the precise guitar of Fred Smith and Dug E. Bird's mathematical
bass (having studied classical piano did him no harm). By combining musical
styles they challenge the listener to once again ask, "how does anyone classify
music?"