#four-track

At the time I didn't understand what the problem was. Was I too pop for the punks? Too punk for the indie crowd? Lo-fi at the wrong time? Hi-fi too long after anyone cared about the band? The lyrics a little too dumb for the arty types? Those things vexed me during the tenure of Mazeffect. Sure, the band preceding it was Slappy, a more or less a "poppish" punk band. We used to say "pop-punk like the Ramones, not like NOFX..." But all anyone heard was "pop-punk" which immediately alienated half of your potential punk rock audience who couldn't, or more accurately wouldn't, discern the difference between the Buzzcocks (awesome) and Blink 182 (the opposite of awesome). So you sacrificed a certain segment of the crowd by adding some hooks to your loud, fast rules. New Jersey circa 1996 wasn't like Berkeley, CA (home of Lookout! Records, when it was all The Queers, Screeching Weasel and The Mr. T Experience). NJ was filled with hardcore (decent, but not my thing) and ska/punk (shitastic). Okay, there were a few pop-punk bands, but then again they were of the Fat Wreck Chords variety. Slappy just did the Ramones, Screeching Weasel-esque type thing, only insanely fast. This is probably the only reason we continued to get gigs. Because we were fast. So fast we eventually imploded. Mazeffect were more "college rock" in my mind. This was and is a nebulous term. Husker Du were "college rock" back in the 80's (awesome, and what we were akin to, in my humble opinion), but then again, so was 10,000 Maniacs (the opposite of awesome. Okay, "Like The Weather" was a good song, but they did not rock ass in any way, shape, or form). So that didn't work as far as an easy description. Besides, no one in the 2000's used the term college rock anymore. It became co-opted and rebranded as alternative rock in the 90's, with bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer. Mazeffect, much to the chagrin of our drummer, were not the genetic lovechild of William Corgan and Puddle Cuomo. We weren't your standard brand of punk (even though we covered G.G. Allin on occasion). We had big, poppy choruses, albeit played loudly, but with more breathing room than Slappy would have ever allowed. Better lyrics, too. We also went lo-fi. Out of necessity? Perhaps, but I loved doing home recording. I have ever since I got to fiddle with a Tascam Porta-2 four-track recorder in the early 90's. Too bad it was way before the lo-fi renaissance that is still currently happening (sometimes more so in a fashion sense than a creative one). So people just thought those few Mazeffect releases "sounded like shit". Which, well...they probably did. Unless you slap a sticker on it and tell everyone it's "Lo-Fi", you are invariably stuck with the "sounds like shit" moniker. However, once you utter the magic words "Lo-Fi", people will talk about how awesome and creative your record is, and how did you manage to get that sound, and develop some sort of crazy mystique about it. Mazeffect, collectively, were not smart enough to evoke those magical words at the time. Silly bastards. We did cough out another record (a fucking tit-tastic release, if I do say so myself) of professional grade quality, but it still fell between the cracks of the local NJ audience, the current crop being raised on grunge or the afore-mentioned Blink 182. No one wanted to hear a poppy Husker Du that covered Johnny Thunders tunes, apparently. So The Break Evens happen. We no longer find an attachment to what passes for punk nowadays. Indie rock (formerly college rock, which became alternative, then indie) with its current crop of folky, Garden State inspired melancholic slacker butt headedness (fuck you, Mr. Braff) is a suspect term... so it's down to rock and roll. Albeit, with pop melodies, once again. The band (when it is active) plays with what some people may refer to as "sack". Not quite punk or garage, but rock and roll with muscle, yet still with a bunch of pop swirled about in it. We haven't quite caught on in a big way yet, you know. Not pop enough, not punk enough, not anything but "ourselves" enough. While The Break Evens sort of do their thing, I also do my own home recording work. Private Iron was a very simple poppish punkish sort of thing I did for a while. Like a four-track version of Chixdiggit!, it was just ok. I moved on to something much more satisfying, that being Jason The First. Decent lyrics (I think), with a "Minneapolis 1985 on a four-track" mentality. But once again, I found the pop melodies crept in and won out, therefore damning me to that nebulous "too pop for indie/punk, to punk for indie/pop" realm. This makes it all an uneasy prospect to absorb for those with a rather marginal musical digestive tract, which is how power pop manages to falls through the cracks, and generally flies under the radar of respect, let alone the Billboard charts. Considering the recent appreciation of Big Star, though, it is possible that the tide may be turning ever so slightly. From Wikipedia: "Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, clear vocals and crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are usually kept to a minimum, and blues elements are largely downplayed." That sort of approximates what I do/have done in most of my endeavors (other than the lo-fi guitar excursions I have recorded, most of which remain unreleased. But that's a tale for another time).

So do I identify my home recording work as power pop? Perhaps, but how do I reconcile my preference and proclivity for home recording over other higher quality methods of documentation? That's where Cleaners From Venus and Shoes come into play. Cleaners From Venus, or more so head cleaner Martin Newell himself, writes and records unabashed pop songs (not even power pop, really, though "Living With Victoria Grey" and "Ilya Kuryakin Looked At Me" undoubtedly qualify) in a shed on a four-track. Shoes recorded their first power pop gem of an album "Black Vinyl Shoes" on a four-track in their living room. So there is a precedent for this sort genre: lo-fi power pop. It's always comforting to find out others share your world view and approach on creative matters. So now with reconciliation achieved, I have found a comfort in what I do. It's never going to be for everyone. Respect may have to wait. I'm nonetheless happy doing what I do. Call it lo-fi power pop if you need to slap a name on it. Or don't. I'm okay either way.