Mezzanines
- S/T
other
Mezzanines releases
Mark Baldwin-Vocals,
Guitar, Drums, Miscellaneous Sounds, Bass
Marco Nieto-Drums, Guitar
Alexander Dawkins-Bass, Vocals
I
imagine the Mezzanines spent a lot of time alone in their
cramped home studio, curtains
pulled shut with the 4-track recorder, because this CD is
a world unto itself. Yeah, there are lo-fi basement geniuses
in every town, but this band is one of the few to ascend
the stairs with reputation intact. And now the short history…
…There once was a band called
Lovecup. Their massive debut CD …Greefus Groinks and
Sheet is considered around these parts as the best rock record
the Champaign-Urbana so-called "scene" ever produced.
When the bigwigs at Warner Brothers fronted the band $$$
for demos, Love Cup must have spent it on Super Nintendo
and Monster Magnet albums because they sent WB some no-fi,
live, basement recordings. Needless to say, nothing ever
came from those demos, though I bet they were brilliant in
their own right.
Mezzanines’ Mark Baldwin
was the singing, songwriting, guitar playing visionary behind
Lovecup (not that bassist T.J. and skinsman Jason weren’t
third-eye-seeing in their own fields!). Mark has sculpted
his songwriting prowess in recent years, balancing the visceral
bombast that made Lovecup such a thrill with a healthy appreciation
for the more playful pulses of pop, and the exotic reaches
of psychedelia. Influenced by genuine androgynous stadium
rockers T. Rex and David Bowie, Mezzanines is druid power
pop. The songs are at times raw, melodic, dreamy, and loud
with weird harmonies and lucid guitar work. Lyrically, "…the
most pitiful thing in the world, is the most beautiful thing
in the world…" gets me every time.
This band will NOT be playing
in your area anytime soon, unless you live in a 150-mile
radius of Champaign-Urbana.
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