“Nobody knows that we had almost broken up,” reveals Derek Fudesco, bassist for the five-member, Seattle-based group Pretty Girls Make Graves. Fortunately for fans of their lush tangle of indie rock and something a little like hardcore pop, the split never occurred. In fact, the band’s 2003 release on Matador Records, The New Romance, is simply that—a tribute to their rekindled love of making music together. “A lot of people probably just think of the title as a song on the record,” Fudesco points out, “but it does have dual meaning.”

With a freeform approach tempered by influences as incongruous as soundtracks and ’60s soul, The New Romance has drawn a spectrum of reviews. “I’ve heard everything from Sleater-Kinney to R.E.M. to New Order to Martha and The Muffins,” offers Fudesco. Yet a dedication to music itself is the band’s most defining trait. They’re selfish somehow, oblivious to audience, absorbed in the process and the craft—but in a way that makes you respect their indulgence. What they offer up publicly is sincere, uncontrived, borderline voyeuristic. “We fight on stage sometimes, and don’t get along,” admits Fudesco. “I think we’re very honest.”

It’s hardly shocking, then, to learn that Fudesco’s dream bill features the band on stage with Arthur Conley and The Sugarcubes. Or that their cover of choice is Bow Wow Wow’s “C30, C60, C90, Go!” Or that Fudesco’s way of gathering the bones of songs could, in a less-forgiving city, elicit stares. “I’ll just walk down the street and have some weird beating in my head, or I’ll be humming,” he confesses. “I carry around a handheld tape recorder…so I’ll tape an idea and then run home and start working on it.”

Work has already commenced on their third record and, according to Fudesco, the only recognizable consistency between this and their two previous releases is the absence thereof. “[Our] signature is our lack of song structure,” he admits, lauging. Might as well make it even and call ‘em the new Tom Waits.

“Nobody knows that we had almost broken up,” reveals Derek Fudesco, bassist for the five-member, Seattle-based group Pretty Girls Make Graves. Fortunately for fans of their lush tangle of indie rock and something a little like hardcore pop, the split never occurred. In fact, the band’s 2003 release on Matador Records, The New Romance, is simply that—a tribute to their rekindled love of making music together. “A lot of people probably just think of the title as a song on the record,” Fudesco points out, “but it does have dual meaning.”