Philadelphia based band.

Eliza Hardy — Vocals, Piano, Mandolin <p>
Brandon Beaver — Vocals, Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin <p>
Tom Bendel — Percussion, Vocals <p>
Tom Mallon — Bass, Vocals <p>
Hallie Boyle — Viola <p>

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Philadelphia’s Buried Beds started small, and grew into a monster. Physically. In three years, what began as a piano-and-guitar duo has ballooned into a mini-orchestra that has seen as many as eight people on stage. On two EPs and their debut full-length, Empty Rooms, the band has developed a unique fusion of old-time Americana, indie rock melancholy and classical string arrangements that earned them the title of Best Band in Philadelphia in Philadelphia Magazine’s Best of Philly 2004 issue. <p>

Buried Beds sprang from the New Planet Art Collective, a West Philly haven for painters, musicians and writers where high-school friends Brandon Beaver and Eliza Hardy lived. Each began helping the other with their songs, creating a sound that mixed the harmonies of old-time Americana with the sad sensibilities of Carole King and Randy Newman. With the help of Philadelphia producer Edan Cohen and string arrangements by Brendan Cooney, another high-school friend, the songs took on new life in the studio, resulting in their first, self-titled EP. A second EP, Po Tolo, soon followed, garnering rave reviews from respected outlets like The Onion, The Believer and Philadelphia Magazine. Po Tolo’s haunting “River” even made its way into a Converse commercial

Live, the band was still just Brandon and Eliza, who now found themselves with two EPs full of lushly orchestrated songs that were impossible to play in a duo setting. After months of using a rotating who’s-who of Philly indie rock musicians and string players as a backing band, they assembled the full-time band that appears on Buried Beds' first full-length, Empty Rooms. <p>

On Empty Rooms, every aspect of Buried Beds’ sound has grown. Working with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Curtis Institute and the Peabody Conservatory, the band and Brendan Cooney have created an ambitious hybrid of classical music and Americana-rooted pop. On songs like “Great Divide” and “Perfect Skyline,” a muscular rhythm section combines with Cooney’s otherworldly string arrangements to create a new kind of chamber rock; the echoing atmospheres of the title track and “Anchor and Sea” find the band taking folk in a spaced-out, experimental new direction; and the lilting melodies of ‘Camellia,” “Insomnia” and the whimsical “Forever in You” show that their pop songcraft has been refined even further.

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Carole King runs into the Beach Boys while trekking the Appalachian Trail... Exquisitely arranged yet homespun songs.
—Philadelphia Magazine, Best Band 2004, August 2004
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The long-awaited full-length from Philadelphia's Buried Beds features an expansion and revision of their sound from their 2003 EP Po Tolo. The mournful, beautiful, orchestral arrangements are reminiscent of the chamber pop outfit Hem, but slightly sadder and more haunting. The centerpiece of Empty Rooms is a redesigned version of the sultry love song "Camellia," which has been slowed down and rearranged from earlier incarnations. Eliza Hardy's lonely, lovely singing intertwines with Brandon Beaver's aching vocals on other standouts, including "Anchor and Sea" and "Perfect Skyline," while tracks like "Great Divide" begin with a spare intimacy and grow into lush and fully realized soundscapes. On "Forever in You," Hardy sings, "Daybreak, roll out of bed, feel the earth shake, wondering if I'll ever be awake." Empty Rooms evokes that same nebulous dream-world between sleep and consciousness.
—David Faris, Philadelphia Citypaper, March 16, 2006 <p>

Once a folky duo with ambitious range, Philly's Buried Beds truly break out on the new self-released Empty Rooms. They're now a quintet armed with guest stars and string parts, and the latter combine with Eliza Hardy's and Brandon Beaver's introspective vocals to recall the swooning misery of the Delgados.
—Doug Wallen, Philadelphia Weekly <p>

A young band with a seemingly innate flair for elegant melodrama, Philadelphia's Buried Beds sound remarkably assured on 'Po Tolo,' a self-released five-song EP that's so achingly sad, it's enough to slow the blood. Principal members Eliza Hardy and Brandon Beaver know how to lend a rustic feel—aided by piano, lap steel, and a generous application of strings—to angsty, heart-on-the-sleeve melancholia that sounds both winsome and wise...
—The Onion, August 4, 2004
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One of Philly's most important indie/folk bands.... Buried Beds has created one of Philly’s most memorable albums in some time.
—Jaimie Krems, Bi-College News, February 21, 2006
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Though their songs are steeped in the traditions of American folk music, these Philadelphians don’t come off as an old-timey preservation society. They are history buffs, to be sure, but they aren’t peering over their reading glasses at each other. Gently sung, their beautiful “Camellia” contains the line, “I don’t see much in this world, but I see my arms around you.” The song is as measured as it is melancholy, never overstating, never tugging too hard at those weary heartstrings, and it’s easy to see and feel much in the worlds constructed by singers Eliza Hardy and Brandon Beaver. A disarming indie minimalism pervades the group’s simple, lovely songs, marking them as Americana at its unassuming, delicate best.

—Nashville Scene, Dec. 1, 2005

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Information taken from the buried beds official website.