UN DEUX TROIS
Chapel Hill, NC



photo: david winton 2006


Bio:
Let's start at the beginning, but let's quickly and certainly call it collision. Perhaps, a certain cat and dog might properly brief us better, bearing witness to the bedroom blueprints sketched over the tenantships and relationships of Heather McEntire (Bellafea, Mount Moriah). Picture a filmstrip reel, not quite fit to frame and spotty with sepia toner. Here, fiction is impossible, and what you have is a narrative sequence of scene, epigramatic and cinematic; straightforward snapshots.

To admit, the odds were against anything other than a most unpretentious pet serenade to come of these songs. Insert: Jenks Miller (Horseback, Mount Moriah, In the Year of the Pig), who upon hearing a CD-R of lo-fi laptop drafts, declared a collaboration was in order. So with guitar and drums configured, the search for low-end and backing vocals began, only to be quickly resolved by the enthusiasm of fellow record store co-worker Maria Albani (Pleasant, Schooner). Alas, in the following months Maria found a passport and moved to Toronto and Megan Culton (Ben Davis and the Jetts) now completes the trio. We make music that is probably not considered very hip in these hippest of days, but we think it is very fun.

Update:
+ Currently writing/recording a full-length
+ Lovers EP released March 6th, 2007

Band members:
Heather McEntire - guitars, vox
Jenks Miller - drums
Megan Culton - bass, vox
Maria Albani - bass [fall 06-spring 07]

Releases:

Lovers EP - HFQ001

Reviews:
“Heather McEntire, singer of new Southern signing Bellafea, does double-duty as a singer in UDT. Her and drummer Jenks Miller craft catchy 60's era tender ballads and clap-along pop gems. McEntire's voice and song writing makes this stand out among all the other retro/throwback bands. Her delivery and lyrics are simply stunning.”
– Southern Records, Highlights for 2007

“A collection of second-lesson Barre chords and '50s soda-shop drums, Un Deux Trois is a new setting for the voice of Bellafea, Heather McEntire. But simplicity pulls favors for the Lovers EP, the demo-turned-debut of McEntire's collaboration with In the Year of the Pig, Horseback and Mt. Moriah member Jenks Miller. Over its four tracks, de-emphasized guitars and less-is-more kit work allow McEntire's felt-like tone and post-riot melodies to do all of the impressing. Whether short and peppy ("Janice Says") or steady and dreamy ("Everything That Is Happening Is Happening"), the music steals only a few moments from McEntire, surprisingly sturdy and quite different when her songs aren't the wounded, howling animals of Bellafea's. After she sings the line "I waited like a tower" on the rolling "You Earn Your Enemies," you can't help but dismiss the wayward lover leaving her high and dry. But something in her voice shuns pity. This McEntire could wait forever, and she'd be OK.”
- Independent Weekly

"You Earn Your Enemies" is a duet of vivid clanging guitar and hissing/thumping drums -- a rough, gentle, clumsy, graceful pas de deux of faith and disappointment, praise, (but mostly) reproach. Its title is withering and just a little self-righteous. You would be too if you'd stood still and solid as a tower while your errant lover romped across the countryside quaffing whiskey and collecting bodies and other souvenirs. Yet Heather McEntire never sings cold or bitter; her tongue sustains notes like orange embers. And I nominate the backing ahs ahs in a best supporting role. They coax the lead with courage, courage, like some Ronette or Shangri-La or Go-Go who wandered off and into 2007, into a fun, fresh-faced Chapel Hill, NC indie pop band.”
– Shake Your Fist

“With the ‘Lovers EP’, Un Deux Trois captures the essence of wistful, lovelorn adolescent summers, suggesting that ‘three chords and the truth’ isn’t just the provenance of punk. Un Deux Trois might sound better at a twee sock-hop than a mosh pit, but Heather McEntire’s often heartbreaking songwriting and bare-bones guitar work spin threadbare sheets of ambiguous wisdom such as ‘there’s nothing like regret to keep you on your knees’ on ‘Everything That is Happening Is Happening." – Shuffle Magazine
“Un Deux Trois' Heather McEntire sings with a confident fragility that steers her songs squarely into affecting memorability. When she describes some of life's more fleeting joys on "45 RPM," the final track of Lovers, the pain of knowing it'll all be done soon is bearable only because the pleasure in her songwriting is so real and so heart-pumpingly immediate.”
– Daily Tar Heel (2007’s Best EPs)

“’Lovers EP’ by Un Deux Trois…#4 - Top 7 Albums of 2007.”
- Derives.net

Booking/Contact:
undeuxtroisband [at] gmail [dot] com

Band Website:
undeuxtroisband.com

LISTEN:
+ tracks from Lovers EP