July 21-27, 2005

music

Watch It Happen Again

progress is lovely: Mazarin (L-R: Paul Cobb, Mickey Walker, Quentin Stoltzfus and Ryan Cobb) is back after a 4-year hiatus with We're Already There. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Mazarin rises from the grave with a bone to pick.

by Brian Howard

It's been easy not to care these last few years. At least, it's been easier than the alternative. For those of us who see our country drifting, blindly, down a path of Middle America-endorsed war-hawking, hate-mongering and global bullying, sometimes the only thing that makes any sense is just to close your eyes and hope that when you open them, you'll discover it was all a dream, or that at least the nightmare is over.

Call it the "New American Apathy." That's what Quentin Stoltzfus calls it. The leader of Philly's too-long-dormant Mazarin kicks off his band's third album We're Already There (I & Ear), their first since 2001's Tall Tale Storyline, with a song that's both an indictment and, in a way, a reflection of the sort of post-election hangover that's got lefties across the land shaking out the cobwebs as if it's the morning after a bender. Or a mugging.

A quick-pulsing drum beat. Extraterrestrial synth squiggles. Hand bells as if to introduce a decree from the town crier or a sermon from on high. Finally guitar, bass and more of those code-like synthesizer gurgles. Enter Stoltzfus, in his angelic, shaman-meets-drug-buddy voice:

Who wants to be oblivious?
The new American apathy
The news so safely keeps you occupied
with lies, some political weight
With all objective to sell security
Crimes sinks into anonymous
Intelligent eyes, if so success comes by
If so success comes by

The song is one stanza, seven lines, repeated three times. No chorus. No bridge. Just a looping dissection of the times and everyone living in them. Is this — coming from a guy best known for writing about broken hearts, drugs and the intersection therein — a political statement?

"It must be, I don't know," shrugs Stoltzfus over a Bushmills on the rocks last week at N. 3rd. "It must be, because I'm very upset about the current state of politics. I guess, with the repetitive nature [of the song]. It's kind of strange it's almost become this mantra for me."

"The New American Apathy," like many songs that appear on We're Already There, was written in the three-year gap between the end of the Storyline tour and last year, when the recording of Already There was completed. "I wrote that probably, I would say, early 2002, right after 9/11," he recalls. "I wrote it and I was like, "Yeah, whatever, I've got another song to write.'"

But the song, a snippet really, wouldn't go away. "The more I hear it, I'm like, "Yep, it's still the same.' It still holds true. I just wrote that line one day, and y'know, it so symbolizes how I feel about this country. There are all these people, they think that somehow being informed about what's going on — myself included — is enough. There are some seriously evil people who are trying to change the very nature of our country. Trying to sucker people into being patriots and blindly follow their political agenda. I kind of always feel, it's not really enough even writing a song. It's like, "C'mon, I can do better than that.' I don't know if that's all that's within my means, taking action against the government that I feel is completely corrupt, twisted and backward."

Whether writing a song is enough is beside the point. It's something.

If the last few years have been turbulent for America, they've been chaotic for Stoltzfus and Mazarin. The band's four-year drought began at the end of the band's 2002 European tour. The touring lineup, which included Stoltzfus' longtime friend and former Azusa Plane bandmate Jason DiEmilio, "basically dissolved as soon as the plane landed."

Stoltzfus won't reveal much other than that he and DiEmilio have not spoken since. "It was very, very unnerving," says Stoltzfus sadly. "I went into a serious depression for a long time because of that."

Mazarin's original lineup of Stoltzfus, producer/guitarist Brian McTear, bassist Matt Werth, guitarist DiEmilio and drummer Sean Byrne was something of a Philly indie rock all-star lineup cobbled together for live performances when "Wheats," the single from Mazarin's 2000 debut Watch It Happen, was suddenly and surprisingly dubbed single of the week by English music magazine NME. Stoltzfus and DiEmilio were the only original members on the European tour.

With no band and no money to record a follow-up, Stoltzfus dedicated himself to setting up his own studio, recording other bands, working on his house and playing with The Blood Feathers (a band he's recorded in his new studio around the corner from his Fishtown home). He also plays with Lilys, whose Kurt Heasley, a similarly brilliant, misunderstood songsmith, lives down the street from Stoltzfus and contributed to a couple of the new tracks.

After about a yearlong songwriting slump ("I think I needed a good long break"), Stoltzfus, at McTear's prodding ("He just called me up and said, "It's time for you to make another record'"), took out a home equity loan and set to work writing and recording We're Already There. Getting it released presented its own set of problems, with Stoltzfus eventually agreeing with upstart I & Ear after Sub Pop, SpinART and others turned it down.

This time out, Stoltzfus, whose two prior Mazarin albums are full of songs that test the balance between shimmering pop and fuzzed-out textural exploration, was looking to do something "a little less crazy, something a little more focused on songwriting."

That's not exactly how it worked out. "Inevitably [Brian and I] get to a point where we're like, "Well, we could do this,' and of course we try it," says Stoltzfus. While his knack for pop hooks is as evident as always, so, too, is his love for sonic jury-rigging. There are the hand bells, borrowed from McTear's neighbor, which were slated for "Apathy" and eventually found their way into several other tracks. "You can create these strange overtones," beams Stoltzfus.

There are "random things banging against each other"; autoharp manipulation; roaring, echo-y sonar sounds ("For Energy Infinite"); and even one song ("Another One Goes By") whose drum beat is run through a filter to form the basis of another ("Schroed(er)/Inger"). Then there's the "big coup," the ocean sounds on the haunting acoustic guitar–driven spurned-lover track "Louise," created by emptying a shaker onto a drum head and simply moving it around.

Tinkering in the sound lab is the fulcrum of the Mazarin machine. "I like the concept of sound being a physical form that, while being perceived, can be altered physically," muses Stoltzfus.

And while that may seem a far cry from sticking it to the Man, it's what makes Stoltzfus tick. With a steady lineup — stalwart bassist Mickey Walker along with drummer Paul Cobb and guitarist Ryan Cobb comprise the touring band — and what appears to be a sharpened focus, Stoltzfus seems happy, and at peace. And if he keeps applying the sound-manipulation yen to his newfound penchant for manipulating public opinion, well, then we should all feel lucky Mazarin's back, even if they were here all along.

Mazarin plays Tue., July 26, 6 p.m., free, with Mike Wexler, AKA Music, 7 N. Second St., 215-922-3855; and Mon., Aug. 1, 8 p.m., $10, with The Double and Mike Wexler, Silk City, 500 Spring Garden St., 215-592-8838.