Scene Is Now - Songbirds Lie

  by Andrew Carver

published: 27 / 9 / 2004

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Review

'Songbirds Lie' the first album from New York veterans the Scene is Now since 1990, opens with 'Tsin Fight Song.' It’s a snappy, upbeat instrumental, with a melody not unlike 'Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head' but instead of piano, there’s a mariachi on trumpet, someone hitting a gong, Robert Fripp-ish guitar squall, the sound of typing (there are still typewriters out there? Who knew …) and someone jangling their keys, plus occasional metallic clanking. And here I was expecting something unusual. For those who haven’t heard of the Scene is Now (which includes just apart everyone who isn’t either familiar with Yo La Tengo’s cover of their 'Yellow Sarong', an obsessive  Perfect Sound Forever readers or fans of dada NY artrock … hmm, there’s a lot of overlap in there), the group rocketed to obscurity with oddball debut 'Burn All Your Records', released a couple of more “normal” LPs (a very relative thing, in their case), and bowed out at the start of the 1990s with a cassette only release. The Scene is Now mainstay Chris Nelson was associated with manic saxophone buggerers Mofungo, who were fairly odd themselves. Despite their love of peculiarity, one shouldn’t conclude that 'Songbirds Lie' is unlistenable. Far from it. Jaunty brass and piano swing and jump, squawking only with great restraint (that is, the trumpet squawks. There is no piano squawking – wait, maybe there is!). For a band often compared to Pere Ubu, Red Krayola and various other fringe nutters (everything I know comes from there, the outfit sounds remarkably normal (then again I reviewed this after listening to Sunn0)))) and Sunburned Hand of The Man, so my weirdo detector may have busted from overload). Anyway, there’s a lot to enjoy here for anyone who likes their music smart, active and adventurous but, as film critic Pauline Kael once put it, doesn’t feel like suffering for someone else’s art.

Track Listing:-

1 T.S.I.N. Fight Song
2 Machiavelli
3 Going To Where It's Green
4 Falling Leaves
5 The West
6 Inching Along
7 Maddie Sloane
8 The Monkey Climbs
9 Mediocre Wedding Band
10 Libertyville
11 Rialto
12 Angelique
13 Molasses, 25Cents