VARNALINE “The Hammer Goes Down” b/w “Hear The Birds Cry” (Zero Hour Records ZHS7-11 white-label promo, 1996)
The “Lo-Fi Explosion” that seemed to take over the U.S. after the first few Ween, Pavement and Guided By Voices records was short-lived. Much to my dismay, actually. I mean, for all that I may kvetch about the sound-quality of certain discs, or that some recordings leave me with “listener’s fatigue” (fancy studio-lingo for an earache), I found so many diamonds-in-the-rough during that period that I secretly wish it never ended. Maybe it’s still going on somewhere, wherever there’s disenfranchised suburban kids with guitars and tape-recorders in their bedrooms. But ultimately, home-studio equipment has become too advanced, and too ubiquitous. Anyone can make an Aja-quality recording in his or her own kitchen these days with Pro-Tools and a decent computer. But back in the ’90’s, that stuff wasn’t as readily available. Talented songwriters like Varnaline’s Anders Parker had to use a 4-track and lots of elbow-grease to get their point across, and that gave the songs an extra power, an almost subterranean quality, that made them stand out from the pack.
