About Beautiful Losers

Based in Syracuse, NY, the band originally surfaced from the duo Jack Parrish and Reagan Guthrie, with new members coming in throughout 2024. Coming out of its infantile stage, they look toward future projects and musical discoveries.

Beautiful Losers delivers a reflective experience with skillful, tender, and hypnotic vocals backed with intuitive accompaniment. This ensemble of musicians carry various and exciting musical backgrounds and philosophies that bear a delicate torch guiding the most receptive listeners.

The debut Record.
YOUNG HELEN, BOIL!

I can still feel it. The blinding white Sanctuary, the icons basking in the light, the offensive stress weighing in on vision. Coming up the stairs, the heat always surged to the scalp first. It was recording day -one of three-, and we had to get to work. With the calendar stuck in the month of July, having no air conditioning made time feel sinking and still. 15 hrs each day we swung ourselves into a pressure cooker, Sweat steaming out of our pores as if it were some nourishment for this fierce ambition to finish it all.

"Young Helen, Boil!" is a mark of persistence through the ever infuriating habitual limits to our own condition that keep us cyclically settling, curdling, and ultimately tailoring our own inherited blood. A sequence that we can keep tamed, then lose, and pull back together mercifully. The cathartic experience of music can uproot, soothe, speak to, or ignore that child in all of us that never learned what we should know. We act out of desperation to soothe whatever is bottled up and molding inside of us. We have triumphs, failures, crash and burn outs, leading us to hurl ourselves to the ground, and hide our face. In this ugly shadow, lies our splattered beauty. Saddled in darkness, we can mangle ourselves and rise above our own ashes, and build something anew. This is the webbing sewn into the
wheel of life for a Beautiful Loser.
-Reagan Guthrie

Meet The Band

REAGAN GUTHRIE is the captain of this ship. Her artistic vision and precision are steadily clearing up, with the determination to see it through. Her lyrics cut to the heart of human emotion in a way that feels pure and grounded in experience. She naturally channels and creates an energy, although she is still working to shed the skin for her most authentic self to lay before an audience. A background in musical theater throughout her adolescence has developed her understanding of stage performance and audience engagement.

JACK PARRISH is the music man behind the foundations of each track. His strong will to experience all types of music has brewed into his own distinctive style. Parrish carries any instrument with a straight back and a desire to make it sing in provocative and challenging ways. His musical evolution isn't stopping anytime soon.

JACK BRAUNSTEIN is a clarinetist and songwriter based between Syracuse, NY and Philadelphia, PA. As a clarinet improvisor and experimental musician, Braunstein has been an active member of DIY communities of Philadelphia and New England for over 10 years, sharing bills with artists from Thurston Moore and Wolf Eyes to Palehound and Alex G. He is also the principle songwriter for Shande (שאַנדע), a 12-piece experimental folk rock band focusing on diaspora politics and love in a disintegrating world.

ALEX COLEMAN GRIDLEY was raised in a musical environment, and has played piano from a young age. He likes to use the keys to add depth and texture to the songs he plays on. He takes a collaborative approach to music and wants to nourish the creative tendencies in everyone around him to allow them to reach new artistic heights.

GUS COST is the technician and the bass player. He's always on top of the mechanical elements of our performances, dialing in the tone, and making sure instruments stay in tune. His basement studio houses an abundant handful of local bands, and he is simply just a kind soul.

MIKE GRIDLEY is a chameleon of stringed instruments. Whether it be mandolin, 12 string, bouzouki, or electric guitar- they all fit calm and collected in his hand.

ANTHONY POLETTO is a self-taught drummer from Syracuse. He started in 1997 with influences ranging from the eclectic styles of Weather Report, to Primus and Van Halen - moving in and out of various musical interests and styles - but always leaning toward jazz-laden comping and erratic phrasing. Through many years of stylistic muscle-memory, leanings of Max Roach, Joe Morello, Tony Williams, Clyde Stubblefield and Levon Helm can be heard.
Past bands of note include Ladies & Everyone, American Glove, Formidable Duke, Amorous Radio, Onehundredmetronomes, etc…
After an unrelated medical recovery from 2020-2024 he’s recently gotten back on the drum stool, and now finds himself undergoing daily self-therapy for Focal Dystonia, a neurological disorder that is normally a career-ender for musicians.