Mild 7
Unfiltered (no label, contact http://www.mindspring.com/~beaumontj/mild7.html)
by Marc Hirsh
Mild 7
Unfiltered (no label, contact http://www.mindspring.com/~beaumontj/mild7.html)
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in Space City Rock, Fall 2000
Lo-fi is a strange and mystifying aesthetic. It came about by necessity, since it used to be expensive (and in some cases impossible) for an artist to create a professional-sounding recording. But then a few lo-fi bands struck it big (or big enough) and something strange happened: even though technology finally caught up with the DIY movement, some folks decided that the sonic crappiness borne out of necessity was actually what they wanted in the first place and stuck with it. (Incidentally, the same thing happened with cheesy-FX television shows like Xena.)
There are plausible arguments for both sides of the debate. After a typically bewildering performance, I once asked Chris Knox why he released as albums what other artists would have as demos. His response, which I believe was totally sincere, was that many bands' demos were much more interesting than their actual albums. He was not, I believe, talking about Mild 7.
I can't be sure, however, since all I've got to go on is Unfiltered. It is a lazy and half-assed collection of half- and unwritten songs and it is portrayed as exactly that. The band's web site refers to it as a compilation of demos amassed by the group over the years, but that doesn't excuse it: a demo is supposed to sell the song, if only to friends and bandmates. The two guys who make up Mild 7 apparently attempted to record these properly and decided that this sounded better. I can't even imagine.
When Chris Knox puts out half-assed albums, it's half-assed in arrangement and production, not songwriting or (key) performance. They may be demos (or, as the case may be, not), but he puts everything into it. Mild 7 figure that it's enough to be a couple of guys dicking around with a 4-track (check out the appallingly conceived, written and performed "Fish Tacos" if you don't believe me). Everything about Unfiltered is lazy. The lyrics sound as though the duo wrote until they reached the first rhyme they found and then figured they were done (for the times they didn't even wait that long). A few songs, like "Barracuda" and "Two Negatives Make A Positive," could probably be pretty decent if the words weren't incredibly stupid. The closest thing here to a real song is "Love," which could be a sweet pop tune but is completely undone by lyrics that not only telegraph themselves but send out emissaries to announce their impending arrival.
Everything else is just a mess, from the "eek eek eek" thrown in to support the line "I wish I was a chimpanzee" in "Just A Boy" to the dead silence that cuts off "Steve Martin" halfway through to the Spanish-flavored version of the same song ("Estevan Martin") to probably the most aimless cover of "Little Red Corvette" you'll ever hear. I've always thought that the song was overrated, but not that overrated. And while I'm sure that there may very well be a great song to be written about Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, I can tell you that "The Last One With That Arm" is most assuredly not it.
Unflitered isn't on a label, and that in itself is telling. Not only is nobody outside the group willing to put themselves on the line for it, the group itself couldn't even get it together enough to create a record label for themselves to play with. It's an extra step that might cost money and certainly takes time and energy, so why bother? Hell, they didn't even list their URL correctly on the packaging. If these guys ever get another chance to record a real album, God I hope I hope that they take some time, spend some money and do it right.