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Pegasuses-HL Rocks The Boat Rod Offers Up Its Sounds For R Donation
impossible to detach this re
lease, or any Pegasuses-XL re
cordings, from the political and
aesthetic circle the band has
drawn around itself. Distributed for free via digi
tal download, the five tracks contained on the
local band's Third EP are a good value in that one
only has to invest time and electronic devices,
but there's a raw side to free goods, too. What
happens, nearly always, when art is available on
the super-cheap, is that it becomes devalued by
not just the listener, but by the artist as well.
Bands start to make recordings a little less-than,
because, you know, it's free anyway.
This may or may not wind up being the case
with Pegasuses-XL—Jeff Tobias (We Versus the
Shark, Dark Meat), Joel Hatstat (ex-Cineme-
chanica) and Mark Dale (ex-Disband)—which, in
the past, has made some truly awesome, heavy,
dance-beat music. And anyway, it's an uncom
fortable idea to connect a band's business model
with the quality of its music. However, it's not as
if the means of production and distribution have
no aesthetic value.
T he lead track, "Sunrises At Lake 2K7," which
is more lighthearted than could be expected
from a band that has rocked so hard in the
past, literally acts as an instrumental introduc
tion to the next track, "The Orchid," which is a
full-bore rock/ hip-hop song. The focus here is on
the lyrical content and musical arrangement. The
broadly stroked keyboard fuzz is very cool and
makes for a solid musical underpinning. Further,
there are punctuated moments in the track where
the vocals stop being barked in the traditional
rap style and turn more traditionally chorus-like.
With the rap-vocal being so confrontational and
the sung lyrics being somewhat upliftin^, the mix
winds up being a fairly good match.
Although Pegasuses-XL'sTyrics are hard to
discern, one line in particular stands out. Jeff
Tobias says, at one point, "The man in charge
rolling toward the great regret / but with no
ideas I ain't any better." But that doesn't matter:
there's nothing about declaring an unacceptable
situation to be such that requires the complain
ant to invent a different way of doing things. It's
also untrue for Pegasuses-XL, which has found an
alternative to the way music is traditionally dis
tributed and traded Tobias should give himself
more credit.
"New Domestic Paradigm" is a 38-second
blast of noise and screamed vocals that is more
predictable. By far, though, the standout track
on the EP is "Theme For AthFest* which was a
submission to this year's AthFest CD compilation
(although ultimately it wasn't selected for inclu
sion). The overall ballsiness of naming the track
thusly and then having the song act basically as
an introduction to the bandmembers and their
studio is a perfect send-up.
The final track, "Every House Is Not A Homie,"
is the most straightforward song, which is an
extremely relative term in this context, but its
melody is solid and forward-moving and the mid-
tempo keyboard work and sparse drums work to
good effect here. There's a spot at around 2:45
seconds into the track, too, where some keyboard
goofiness takes over slightly and it seems like
the whole point was fun. Which is a good point
to have and make.
T he label which
Pegasuses-XL has
entrusted to distrib
ute its music is Quote
Unquote Records, run by
Bomb The Music Industry!
founder and occasional
Pegasuses-XL contributor Jeff Rosenstock. "When
I was recording the first Bomb The Music
Industry! record, I was making it in my bedroom
in New York," he says, "and Jeff Tobias was living
in Athens and he came and visited me and told
me about Pegasuses-XL and the stuff they were
doing and how they were gonna make CD-Rs and
give them away for free. We talked and decided
it'd be good to put Pegasuses-XL on the free la
bel and let it be accessible to the most people."
Tobias says of the band's intention, "It's really
not that terribly high-minded. When we started
the band, Mark Dale said everything should be
free, and me and Joel Hatstat said, 'No problem."
Asked about his radicalized vision of music
distribution, completely free via a label support
ed completely by donations, Rosenstock says, "It
comes off as really radical because people think
it's a really weird thing to do. But the model
that has been used for the past 50 or 60 years
isn't working and the industry that exists behind
the celebrity rock-star scene has turned being
a musician into just another job—like being an
accountant."
But challenging a model which is so en
trenched as to be the default is radical. So far.
Quote Unquote has done very well with people
donating whatever they want, without require
ment, via its website. No specifics are available,
but Quote Unquote says it has received enough
donations to finance the recording of several new
projects.
The sustainability of the free-music model is
suspect, but not the intention of the band or the
label, nor its effect on both listeners and art.
Gordon Lamb
All of Quote Unquote Records' by-donation releases are
available for download at www.quoteunquoterecords.com.
\
WHO: Down With the Woo, Pegasuses-XL,
Ice Cream Socialists, One Man Machine
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, August 31
HOW MUCH: $5
V y
28 FLAGPOLE.COM • AUGUST 29,2007
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