The Scene Is Now

Emerging from the flatlands of Brooklyn in 1983, The Scene Is Now are often inaccurately lumped in with the New York No-Wave scene of that era, despite producing what is probably best described as off-kilter pop or postmodern jug music.

As with many of the bands associated with No-Wave, they eschewed technicality. However, unlike many of their contemporaries, The Scene Is Now displayed a natural ear for melody and dream-like pop. They are perhaps best known (though the term is applied rather loosely indeed) for the song Yellow Sarong, covered by Yo La Tengo on their 1990 album Fakebook.

Effortlessly sliding from the ethereal and surreal, from jerky and angular songs to fluid and melodic compositions, to the absurd, to the strangely (though undeniably) touching, The Scene Is Now are a hard band to pin down for comparative purposes,and it is clear that such elusiveness, a quality so rare in the modern music industry, is one of their most rewarding features.

The idea of a revolving-door policy in a band may conjure up ideas of careerist intentions and internal rivalry and disquiet, as the only permanent members of The Scene is Now are ex-Mofungo members Philip Dray and Chris Nelson. Yet while such a hostile term perhaps would not do justice to the joyous experimentation evident in their recorded output, the fluid and loose nature of the lineup is indicative of a band unwilling to stay in one musical avenue for too long.

In 1985, The Scene Is Now released their debut single, 1150lbs, which was quickly followed by a full-length entitled Burn All Your Records, a jerky, dadaist outing. Elliot Sharp joined as producer and part-time saxophonist for the 1986 album, Total Jive, resulting in a more mellow, simplified sound, but still retaining the band's trademark eccentricity.

For the 1988 album Tonight We Ride, Dray and Nelson enlisted the help of Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone and ex-DB Will Rigby. A collection of new The Scene Is Now material appeared on 1990's cassette-only release, Shotgun Wedding.

In 1998, the Bar/None label released an expansive, eclectic career overview entitled The Oily Years (1983-1993), and 2008 saw the re-release of Tonight We Ride on Lexicon Devil.

February 2011 has also witnessed the release of "Magpie Alarm", their first new record in nearly 5 year.

The Scene is Now are perhaps the sort of band that the more unadventurous listener would lethargically throw off as "an acquired taste", if they were able to tolerate such a comfortable notion. Many may say that it is a travesty that such a band does not command a wider audience, and while they might be right, perhaps The Scene is Now are proof that the most gratifying pleasures were never made for all to enjoy.

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