May 5, 1997

Cosmetics put new face on scene

By Ryan Fowler

n a tradition similar to The Red Hot Chili Peppers and even Spinal Tap, the roster for local band The Cosmetics has been under construction almost since the group's inception.

The Cosmetics consists of Carter Albrecht, vocals and guitar, Josh Baugher, vocals and bass, Daniel Stampfel, vocals and guitar and Ned Brower, drums. Albrecht and Stampfel are SMU alumni and Brower is a junior cinema major at SMU.

Albrecht and Baugher started The Cosmetics in October of '94 and have gone through a number of different musicians in the past few years. They now perform regularly at Home.

Instead of choosing a symbolic band name, Albrecht said they selected one that "sounded like a good campy name from the past," one they felt fit the mood of the group.

Members of the group take their style from numerous British influences such as Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones and Blur. The group has a difficult time putting itself into a genre.

"We're a song band. Whatever the song needs," Albrecht said. "So therefore, it's pop. Retro-influenced pop."

Many songs by the band have quite a limited spectrum when it comes to subject matter.

"Girls. Being the aggressor or the spit upon, but they sound positive," Albrecht said. "They make for great pop songs."

The band has been playing locally and is starting to get an audience, which is tough to accomplish in a bar atmosphere like Home.

"It's not some rhythmic oriented jam session that a bunch of people get together and relive old Widespread Panic shows," Albrecht said.

The group is starting to get a good showing of people at Home who are there to hear the music, not just there to drink and socialize. The members are starting to see a change in the crowd.

"It's usually been just a bunch of girls hanging out in front of the stage," Albrecht said, "which is good."

"The crowd of people we don't know is growing," Stampfel said. "[There are more] people who seem to take a genuine interest."

The members of The Cosmetics have performed in other bands before. Brower performed in "skate-punk bands" when he lived in Seattle.

Stampfel played in well-known SMU band The Skastafarians, which appeared last year on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as the best college band in America. Since the breakup of The Skastafarians last year, the Cosmetics hesitate to speculate about the future of the band.

"This band's been through five or six drummers," Stampfel said. "It seems that when you finally get something and it's working, and something happens and you're back to ground zero."

As the newest member, Brower is starting to feel like he's contributing to the band.

"I feel like I'm starting to mesh with band," Brower said, "once we started playing shows, it started to come together more."

The band is trying to expand its set list to include new songs, a few cover tunes and songs from their CD, Final Album, which is available at their shows and CD Warehouse at Mockingbird and Greenville.

The band has been playing at Home for the last few months and is booked through May at numerous clubs in North Texas.

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