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2 years ago
Alan McGee on - Mazes
With the music industry collapsing, it’s good to see the kids aren’t giving up on rock’n’roll. Mazes are one of number of bands who are leaving their garage and taking to the internet with their two minute bursts of noise, distorto pop, cheap drug psychedelia and doo wop.
Mazes have been bashing out their White Album-meets-Pavement redlined sound since 2008. The righteous buzz on their unique brand of acid singed rock has been inestimable, seeing the band opening up for Deerhunter, Wavves and Times New Viking. Instead of waiting for an elusive ‘big’ record deal (Mazes have recorded with Split Tapes and Sex is Disgusting) they are out having fun with music, playing shows, releasing home recorded songs on blogs and goofing off. The budget constraints are incorporated into the narrative of their songs and translate a sense of a pure blast of good times. Underneath the hiss is the sound of a band who are transcendent and untouchable. It is the bored-suburban-skater-kid-hanging-in-front-of-the-mall-starting-a-band energy.
It is a template akin to the 80s indie scene. Pop is truly eating it self, but with a band like Mazes I’m totally down with the retro revolution as cottage industry, especially when the songs are this good. Underneath all the fuzz and junk,20Mazes write anthems for the bored, anxious loser in all of us and make it fun to be an outsider. Their second single ‘Bowie Knives’ reveals a rushing urgency of pure pop lurking in the corners of their intentional lo-fi aesthetic.
Alan
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