Search - Scene Is Now :: Oily Years

A Pirate's Bounty

Grant Shreve | Tucson, AZ United States | 07/18/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I, like many people, discovered The Scene is Now through Yo la Tengo's classic album, Fakebook, on which YLT covered The Scene's song, "Yellow Sarong." After scrounging around and finding bits and pieces of information on The Scene is Now I decided to take the plunge and get ahold of this 10 year retrospective. Since the group never released a real album with a major or indie label that I could tell I was very afraid that I was going to hear a lot of the brilliance I had heard in Yellow Sarong deafened by terrible production values, poor sound quality and amateurish playing (something akin to Daniel Johnston's early material). I was very pleased with what is on this album though. This CD is a mixed bag, but I am of the opinion that every song included should be on it. The Oily Years isn't just about the songs this band released, it's abotu the band itself. Even though I know very little about them, listening to this album all the way through shows their amazing evolution both lyrically and musically, and though the very early songs are not done justice to due to unhearable lyrics and bad sound quality, the songs sound better and clearer as the CD moves forward. By the end of this album I loved the Scene, for everything they created. There are some real gems on this album, and The Scene's musicianship, lyrics, and overall feeling filled me with a sense of wonder and the joy of discovery at finding this diamond in the rough. In a musical world clouded by the idea of "cool," it's a breath of fresh air to hear a small humble, but undeniably brilliant outfit like The Scene. Also, thank god for Yo la Tengo being so brilliant and introducing me to a whole world of music I would have been completely oblivious to otherwise."