The Scene Is Now

THE SCENE IS NOW created one of the most extraordinary bodies of work that the world has yet "known". They combined severe intellectual formalism with the sort of surreally-hungover stumbo-technicality that is usually associated only with the most overtly primitive blues performers. Sometimes, listening to their music, it is possible to imagine that their recordings were actually made by a troupe of disabled, alcoholic street performers infatuated with the philosophic stance of the Red Crayola.

Living outside of New York City made it all but impossible to observe THE SCENE IS NOW in a live context (unlike their "constantly" "touring" "comrades", Mofungo). And there is, unfortunately, nothing that can quite replace the act of seeing Chris Nelson (the Abraham Lincoln of his generation) envelope a stage with the beautiful gas of his genius. Still, their studio work provides a virtually three dimensional image of their greatness. Organ tones of unprecedented cheeziness, trombones vaulting around in most esteemed "air bass" fashion, guitars strung taut with slivers of Beefheart's intestines, "little instruments" clattering against the glass walls of Lenin's coffin, vocals reaching far beyond the strictures of approved sound, lyrical opacity dissolving into the center of hick-pop air-bubbles... all this and more is contained (but just barely) in THE SCENE IS NOW's sound.

Listening to this compilation you will hear threads of sound that were nicked and embroidered upon by such Metropolitan area worthies as Yo La Tengo, Chain Gang and Sonic Youth (combos lucky enough to share a contemporaneous place with THE SCENE IS NOW in space/time continuum). It is now only left to you, the wily hepster living far from the physical pull of Manhattan's Lower East Side, to complete a circuit and allow the wonderful motes on this album to settle upon and shape the aesthetic beaks of the hinterlands. You've got nothing to lose and so goddamn much to gain. I mean, wow. Y'know?

-Byron Coley


Bar/None Announces the Retro-Future Series
(Retrospectives from great bands you might have missed)

Bar/None is proud to be repackaging a collective past many of us never got to share! Great bands that traveled under the radar of the American fame machine but made lasting contributions to our culture. We hope to do more of these retrospectives in the years to come so let us know your favorite cult bands. The possibilities are endless and potentially frightening.

"You can never say enough about THE SCENE IS NOW," says Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan, and he should know since he covered their song "Yellow Sarong" on their Fakebook album (also on Bar/None). THE SCENE IS NOW came out of the ashes of the NYC no wave scene. Along with their pals Mofungo they made great lower east side art rock. The Oily Years contains 27 songs including their rare first single "1150 LBs". and the finest moments from their Twin/Tone-Lost albums. With Chris Nelson and Phil Dray at the helm, the group included such luminaries as Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, They Might Be Giants) and Will Rigby (dB's, Matthew Sweet).

Return to THE STORY OF THE SCENE IS NOW.

[Return to the BAR/NONE Homepage]