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The last EP is free for downloading above. Enjoy. The rest of the catalogue is available at

"We will shed a solitary tear for what could have been with BGR, as we dance. We'll also keep an eye on frontman Tim John O'Brien, who promises a new band soon." - Williamette Week

Thank you to anyone who has come to the shows and especially all of those that kept coming back and keeping me focused. All the support I've gotten has been unbelievable and I can't wait to get back with a new project to keep playing music for everyone. - TJO

THIS HEART WILL BURN RIGHT (EXPLODER) OUT INTERVIEW/REVIEW: (Thx to Ed Thanhouser & Hoyt Emerson)

Babies Got Rabies marks the second band I’ve seen this year whose record release party is also their final show. It’s never a pretty thing to see a good band split up, but it’s even worse to see one dissolve just as they’re hitting their musical stride. The scene at Someday Lounge late last month was anything but tragic, however. The Babies’ lead man and songwriter, Tim John O’Brien seemed anything but morose. Maybe it was just the beguiling charms of his disarming mid-western manner (Tim John hails from Menomani, WI), but he seemed very much at ease, as did everyone else in the band. Between the ecstatic crowd, the celebration of the new EP, and the rousing opening performance of Serious Buisness, nobody seemed much in the mood for moping or mourning. In fact, everyone was so danged amicable, that if you had walked in off the street, you might never have guessed you were watching a farewell show. Not to mention that the Babies ran effortlessly through one of the tightest sets of their unfortunately short career.

Back home, listening to the farewell EP, Do Not Resuscitate (the title of which even pokes a bit of self-conscious fun at the bands demise), you get a surprising amount of depth and continuity, the kind more commonly found on long-players. Synth hooks lock in with driving two-step bass and an intricate mix of programed/live drums to create an amazingly lush mixture of dance-inducing retro-pop. Often silly, sometimes poetic, Do Not Resuscitate spans a fair chunk of musical territory. The catty call-and-response of “Post Crackle Blip” will have you chuckling when O’Brien deadpans lines like, “You talk shit and you drink all my booze.” In the very next track, though, he’ll knock you flat with lines like “You come through the door/cause that’s what it’s for/a square shaped portal/ to access the ones we love.” Musically too, the vocabulary is impressive, seamlessly moving from the classic retro-funk of “Our Past is a Healthy Petal on a Dying Flower” to the lush, poppy shoegaze of “Someday We’ll See Crystal Blue Skies.” What’s more, this EP doesn’t just sound good, it looks good too. take one look at the eerie “finger-piano” on the cover, or any of the band’s past fliers and it’s plain as day that Tim John has a background in graphic arts. In fact, he majored in them before making the pilgrimage west to pursue music. As a result, what is ostensibly a modest EP actually looks & feels a lot more like a fully dressed full-length from a seasoned band. How does one accomplish such a thing? I surprised Babies’ founder and fearless leader with a phone call this afternoon to find out exactly that.

XPLDR: What was it like finishing up a project like Babies Got Rabies? Was it a coincidence, releasing the EP at the same time as the band’s demise, or was that planned out in advance?
TJO’B: The EP wasn’t planned to come out at the same time… but that’s kinda what happened. At the same time I feel that it was kind of a proper send off- to have an EP that’s a sort of culmination of where the project was at the moment to come out at the same time as the band’s final chapter… but that was something in the works for several months before hand. It was all the songs that I was writing while teaching the band the songs that I had already written. So it was written after coming home from practice after teaching the band old songs and kind of winding down by writing new material…
XPLDR: So you recorded the EP entirely by yourselves or did you go into a studio?
TJO’B: I recorded it mostly myself in my house and my synth player’s basement, while he was working at a credit union during the day (lolz). I would just get the key from him and go down into his basement where he had drums and drum mics and pre-amps and all sorts of equipment… I used Ian Oneacre for all the live acoustic drums, who was the drummer for the band. I play most of the rest of the instruments on it, except Danielle Fish obviously does her own vocals and Andrew Checka, my synth player, played some synth on one song and Travis Evans did some guitar tracks…
XPLDR: But it sounds like this EP was very much “your” project, at least recording wise.
TJO’B: Yeah, I would say I put about 90% of the elbow grease into it. I mean, I wrote the songs, and all the parts, and recorded the bulk of the instruments… But throughout my history as a musician it’s been important to have other people’s influence in what I do. Travis, for example, had written several of the guitar parts and lots of people contributed in some sense. For instance, the cover of the EP is an image done by David Kargol, who’s one of my best friends from back home, who I went to design school with.
XPLDR: I know you’ve told me that you’re going to be soldiering on with music after Babies Got Rabies. Does that project have a name yet?
TJO’B: The working title of the new project is “Vanimal.”
XPLDR: Will any of the Babies Got Rabies members be working on that?
TJO’B: I sort of like the idea of starting fresh… and that’s not meant to be a bad mark on anyone I’ve worked with; the lineup for Babies was incredible… I just want to kind of soldier on into new territory… which is hard to be sure about anyway, because Travis has been there from the beginning and Danielle, I’m obviously still working with her in Pascal Coeur, which I’m really excited about. I just really want to do something with people who have no other, conflicting commitments. I’d obviously rather not have a repeat of what happened with Babies.
XPLDR: Of course. As I understand it, the cause for the breakup of Babies was members leaving to pursue other commitments, is that right?
TJO’B: That’s right… I mean it’s sort of the vaguest way possible to say it but uh….
XPLDR: Yeah, but that’s OK… this isn’t VH1 after all…(lolz)
TJO’B: No, it was definitely not a soap opera kind of thing at all.
XPLDR: Bands have certainly broken up for less, let’s just say that…How did it feel to play the last show? Was that weird at all?
TJO’B: Well, it was kinda numbing… there was nothing leading up to it, no other shows, for like a month. So it was a lot of nothingness, and then picking up my bass a couple times to practice and well, that was it. There were a couple other shows though, in late August, where we knew we were breaking up, and that was kind of weird…
XPLDR: Yeah, I bet (lolz).
TJO’B: But since there was nothing really leading up to this one, and since we had the EP release to celebrate, The Someday show was almost more of a ‘fond farewell’ kind of thing.
XPLDR: That would explain the attitude at the show… It was pretty relaxed, and definitely fun.
TJO’B: Yeah I know… it almost felt more like a reunion.
You can find out more about Tim John and Babies Got Rabies, AND download Do Not Resuscitate for free at www.babiesgotrabies.com.

One Day We'll See Crystal Blue Skies