rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (03/07/84)
Hoboken NJ's claims to fame seem to have been limited to the Maxwell House coffee plant (for which the suave new music club Maxwell's was named), the entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel and Holland Tunnel (which flank the town on north and south), and the PATH train terminal. But recently it has been the center of what some critics have called a "new music renaissance", with the emergence of a number of bands that are best described as "new pop", a form of real pop music (not the schlock dispensed by AM radio) with roots in '60s folk- and pop-rock forms combined with the "new wave" do-it-yourself sensibilities of other New York area bands (e.g., early Talking Heads & Blondie, Raybeats). The Bongos were the first of these bands that I managed to catch up with (by listening to local NJ college radio stations). Theirs is a more basic sound, very guitar-oriented (not in the hard rock/heavy metal sense). Though their sound is generally "folkier" sounding than what you'd expect from a "new wave" band (many songs, including the current "Numbers with Wings", have a thick consistent acoustic guitar strum at the root of the song), they manage to rock out quite well on songs like "In the Congo", "Telephoto Lens", and "Barbarella". Their songs range from simple, basic guitar-based tunes (the folkier side) to more experimental sounds that can still qualify as pop (members of Throbbing Gristle make cameo appearances playing unusual instruments on their first album). They recently got a real live record contract with RCA, and you may have seen the Numbers with Wings video on MTV or HBO. I got to see them open up for Huey Lewis & the News last week (I went to see the Bongos---HL and company were predictably atrocious), and they managed to suffer the slings and arrows of being an opening act rather admirably; their sound was awful, the crowd ranged from amiable to discourteous (apparently this is to be expected---they were only there to see a "real band" that they see on MTV regularly), yet the Bongos came through with what I thought was a good performance. They performed songs from the new "Numbers with Wings" EP (RCA) as well as older songs from the PVC album "Drums Along the Hudson" including "The Bulrushes (You, You Know I'm Right)", "Zebra Club (White Leather)", "In the Congo", and "Telephoto Lens". Richard Barone and James Mastro, half of the group (Barone is the main singer and songwriter), did an album on PVC called "Nuts and Bolts" containing Bongo-like gems like "I've Got a Secret" plus an updated cover of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy". The Bongos are proof that "pop" is not a dirty word, that there's room for creativity in new pop, and that the sometimes flashy electronics and production can be used in a subtle manner in a pop context with great results. After familiarizing myself with the Bongos, I was introduced to the dB's, another Hoboken local band. They don't have a national record contract (they're on Albion). They've lost one of their two main songwriters (Chris Stamey has left to form "It's a Wonderful Life"---yup, that's the name of the band). But they have come to impress me even more than the Bongos (if you've seen or heard the Bongos, you know that's saying a lot), and I think they're (at least in their original form) at least as deserving of national recognition as the Bongos (certainly more deserving than, say, Air Supply or Toto or Huey Lewis). Where the Bongos keep it simple and direct, the dB's songs take harmonic twists and turns that often take you where no listener has gone before, at least not while listening to an unabashed "pop" song. They combine a variety of styles with incredible harmonic songwriting chops in a way only the Beatles have done. I know, it's the death knell to compare a band to the Beatles. But I think this band pulls together the creative sounds of Beatles songs in their middle period (Rubber Soul and Revolver, with a tinge of Pepper) with lush Beach Boy harmonies, topping it all off with a British new wave feel that actually predates a lot of what gets called the second British Invasion. Yet they still sound uniquely American (it's the twang in their voices). Am I laying it on a little too thick? You tell me. Listen to songs like "She's Not Worried" (off of "Stands for Decibels") and "From a Window to a Screen" (from "Repercussion") and compare them to Beatles and Beach Boys songs like "If I Fell", "Norwegian Wood", "Good Vibrations", and "Surf's Up". No, they don't *sound* like those songs; but they generate the same sorts of reactions that you got when those older songs were new. They're very fresh, and that freshness is sustained even through repeated listenings. I've always been a sucker for lush tearjerker tunes with powerful harmonies and unique chord changes. The dB's don't let me down in this area. They can vocally resolve a suspended seventh with the best of them. And they can rock, too. "Black and White", a single of theirs from the "Stands for Decibels" album as well as the Albion sampler "Shake to Date", is a real kicker, as is "Neverland" from "Repercussion". Most of their songs are neither ballads or rockers, but fall somewhere in between, often defying an attempted classification. They could be compared to XTC in terms of the unusual approach they take to creative pop (songs like "Respectable Street", "Living Through Another Cuba", and the whole "Go 2" album), but their range is best compared to a band like Squeeze, who forged Beatlesque ballads like "F-Hole" and rockers like "Another Nail in My Heart" and lots of good stuff in between. As I grew acquainted with their two albums, I noticed that the songs by Peter Holsapple stick out right away, while the Chris Stamey songs tend to sit back and grow on you. It's a generalization to say Stamey wrote the better ballads and Holsapple wrote the better rockers, but they both seemed to juxtapose and complement each other much like Lennon & McCartney (there I go again...). Stamey will be missed. Enough ranting. Discography: The Bongos - "Drums Along the Hudson" (PVC) "In the Congo", "Telephoto Lens", "The Bulrushes", "Zebra Club", "Glow in the Dark", "Automatic Doors" - "Numbers with Wings (RCA - EP) "Numbers with Wings", "Barbarella" Richard Barone/James Mastro - "Nuts & Bolts" "I've Got a Secret", "Dizzy", "Jamais" The dB's - "Stands for Decibels" (Albion) "Black & White", "Dynamite", "She's Not Worried" "Cycles Per Second" - "Repercussion" (Albion) "We Were Happy There", "Living a Lie" (which resembles Paul Weller's horn section experiments with the Jam), "From a Window to a Screen","Ask for Jill","Neverland", "Ups and Downs" (not the Residents' tune, but still worth hearing) - "Shake to Date" (Albion - sampler contains Peter Holsapple tunes, Mitch Easter who produced Pylon and R.E.M. and the dB's, the Cosmopolitans "Wild Moose Party" and Richard Hell with the pre-Television Neon Boys, AND "Black and White" by the dB's) Start Swimming - (Stiff live sampler contains cuts by the dB's, the Bongos, the Fleshtones, the Raybeats, and the Bush Tetras) Mitch Easter and Let's Active - (IRS - EP) producer of Pylon, dB's, Barone/Mastro, R.E.M., "Every Word Means No", "In Between", "Room with a View", "Make Up With Me" The Individuals - another local Hoboken band of equally eclectic persuasion -- Pardon me for breathing, which I never do anyway oh, god, I'm so depressed... Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr