WHEN E.F. Schumacher said that "the use of appropriate technology" should inform US foreign aid policies back in the Seventies, he probably (make that definitely) didn't know that his neat little phrase would be appropriated by a bunch of neo slackers in the early Nineties and used to usher in a mini revolution in the rock music recording process.
"Appropriate technology" for many small indie bands means that, out of financial necessity, they have to put their music down on cheap four or eight track recording machines. The sort of retro sound bands like Guided By Voices and Sebadoh were getting was "warm", vinyl friendly and several hundred thousand pounds removed from the bloated and over produced efforts of Meat Loaf et al. What began as a necessity turned into a choice and soon Pavement, Sonic Youth and Beck were all advocating the low-fi approach by moving towards lower production values.
To get the obligatory Irish angle on this, we decided to ask Stan Erraught of the Dublin band Sewing Room if he is now, or ever has been, a member of the lo-fi movement. "Yes, I have," he replies in the glib and casual manner one so readily associates with entertainment people these days. "I think the lo-fi thing is great in that it has given bands, particularly new bands, a choice in their recording. Not everyone is aiming for the same 24 track sound and lo-fi now is quite acceptable. What it really means is that you don't fail on a musical recording level, simply because you don't have a large budget. It's having the same effect on music as the French new wave of film had in the Fifties, when the use of natural light and hand held cameras in film became acceptable. It was a very unHollywood type of approach.
Now that you know Stan isn't your typical, culturally illiterate rock person, you'll be wanting to know a little about his band. Stan used to be in the Stars Of Heaven and on their demise he formed Sewing Room. Their debut album And Nico, from last year, was a delightful affair in its own understated way. Given his background it's hardly surprising there were country tinge moments around its every corner.
"Well, I've been listening to country music for 20 years, so it's bound to come through," he says. While and Nico didn't quite sell enough copies to get them on the front cover of Smash Hits, like The Divine Comedy they are picking up healthy sales in France. "It just seems that over there, they react against anything that is too enthusiastically received in Britain (like Britpop). They don't like musical cliques," he says.
The only person getting behind the band in Britain is good of John Peel, who plays it all the time, and with their new mini album/EP, Drug Free having a decidedly more commercial bent ("it's entirely coincidental" says Stan) we can all look forward to a gig in the Mean Fiddler on April 10th.
SOMEWHAT akin to the adage about Shakespeare, typewriters and chimpanzees, given enough time, tribute bands were bound to pick up on someone good and Mostly Men are the first Squeeze tribute out of the traps. "I'm not sure which one I'm more embarrassed by," says Glen Tilbrook from Squeeze. "The existence of Mostly Men or the fact that I'm going to be `done' on Stars In Their Eyes soon by a guy singing Labelled With Love."
Foolishly repackaged last year as a "godfathers of Britpop" band, Tilbrook will be showing why he has far more in common with Ray Davies than Damon Albarn when he plays a fabbo solo acoustic show at The Olympia tonight (midnight). Did you know Squeeze were the first ever band to do an MTV Unplugged? Neither did I. Listen out for all of Squeeze's "sarf London" classics tonight, as well as the sublime cover of (pause) Gilbert O'Sullivan's Nothing Rhymed.
