As I awoke today with a sweaty brow and a splitting headache, I was moved to despair by the gray, rainy, waterlogged tableau outside my bedroom window. Consolation was quickly found, however, as soon as I walked out the door and turned on my iPod; for what should be next in the queue of shuffled songs but The Beta Band's 1998 single, "Dry the Rain" (you know, the one from the High Fidelity soundtrack). Aside from reaffirming my appreciation for the sentience and wry wit of my iPod, it also got me wondering: what ever happened to The Beta Band? Which brings us to the second installment of LWMB's "What Ever Happened To...?" series.

This Scottish quartet were immensely popular among critics, with a dreamy off-kilter pop sound born of mixing breakbeats, jam-folk, and psychedelic slow grooves, among others. Inexplicably, record sales were less-than-stellar; though profitable in the UK, the band just couldn't seem to sell records in the U.S., even after opening for Radiohead in the summer of 2001 on their North American tour. After just three proper LPs, The Three E.P.'s [sic] compilation, and a handful of singles, The Beta Band announced in 2004 that they would disband at the end of that year, after a brief farewell tour. The two-disc (one studio, one live) The Best of the Beta Band - Music would follow in October 2005, but by then the band had already moved on to work on their respective side projects.

While never having ruled out the possibility of a reunion in the future--in fact, they still maintain a MySpace page for the band--the band's members have found a good measure of post-Beta success. Former frontman Stephen Mason went on to pursue his solo project, King Biscuit Time. Meanwhile, drummer Robin Jones, DJ/keyboardist John Maclean, and original bassist Gordon Anderson started The Aliens, whose debut album, Astronomy for Dogs, was released in the UK in March (and June in the U.S.) and garnered mostly positive reviews from music critics. While neither project deviates too far from The Beta Band's formula of sprawling grooves, warm acoustic strumming, and occasionally bizarre lyrics, neither quite matches the parent band's charisma or offbeat charm, in my humble opinion. Let's hope a reunion isn't too far away.