Pop Music: June 2004 Archives

Money Mark, huh? I mean, really? Money Mark?? The keyboardist dude from Beastie Boys?? Seriously? Completely. "Money" Mark Ramos Nishita is like an old dude. Like, I think he is even older than those Beastie Boy dudes or at least the same age. I know, deep, right?? Dude was just a cool dude who laid down some keyboards for The Dust Brothers every once in a while, was a carpenter/handyman, fixed some keyboards, and gave some piano/keyboard lessons. Totally just a dude living his life, right? So the dude fixes the fence at the Beastie Boys house in LA. Beastie Dudes thought he was a righteous handyman so they had him start building a crazy studio for them, which became the studio they recorded the majority of Check Your Head and Ill Communication in. Well, building a studio takes a long time, so Mark hangs with the Beasties quite a bit and they get along famously and have tons in common. Mark ends up providing a lot of keyboards for both Check Your Head and Ill Communication and actually has writing credits for about half the songs on both of those albums and he is also a touring member of the band for about five years.

So old Money Mark makes a record in 1994, called Mark's Keyboard Repair, and it's released on a tiny album as three 10"s. James Lavelle, the dude who ran Mo'Wax records and also the dude who makes that band UNKLE, gets the record and is super in, and Mo Wax reissue's the album. Mark's Keyboard Repair is 30 short mostly instrumental tracks heavy on dimestore funk. The album features a vast array of sounds and it makes for an interesting album but ultimately more of a novelty than engaging. Money Mark takes an interesting turn here, though, it takes a couple years (3 years since the release of Mark's Keyboard Repair), but Money Mark hit back with a record (Push The Button) that expanded his vibe incredibly.

Push the Button came out in May of 1998. It took the instrumental funk of Mark's Keyboard Repair fleshed it out and also added some heavy pop songs. Mark is a suprisingly adept pop song writer. The combination of the pop songs with the instrumental songs really really works for me. I've always liked an album that gave me some words and voice and melody for me to think about for awhile, but then gave me some space with none of those things (words, voice, melody) and this album does it so well. The album is really well produced by Mark and by Mario Caldato Jr. (who is a Beastie contributor and producer). The album is a bit depressing in lyrical tone, and that really feels right on this record. Some of the standout songs are the xylophone laden "Too Like You," the latin instrumental "Crowns," the Costello-y "Tommorow Will Be Like Today," and the soulful jams "All The People in the World" and "I Don't Play Piano."

Push The Button was such an important album for me in the summer of 98. I was livin in a house with six other people (on my own and not in a dorm for the first time). I was working at a bowling alley as a short order cook. It was a special time for me. It was also a special time for Money Mark. He was the opening band for The Beastie Boys on their gigantic Hello Nasty tour. That summer Money Mark played for hundreds of thousands. That summer I learned how to make some killer nachos.

Money Mark put out another album in late 2001 called Change Is Coming. It was a another full instrumental album. Sorta a letdown. This man, this Money Mark man, writes a good song, and the only place where that is really displayed is on Push The Button, aka The Greatest Album Of All Time.

Another Sunday rolls around here at The Greatest Band Of All Time, and with it another guest writer: our friend and yours, Mister Zach Malm.

From what I can tell, the basic outline for a review here stipulates that my concluding line should be something to the effect of, And that is why the Left Banke is the Greatest Band of All Time. If you'll forgive my haste, I would prefer to sidestep convention and begin with the aforementioned declaration. The Left Banke is the Greatest Band of All Time.

Pioneering what critics called Baroque n Roll, the Left Banke's harpsichord rock often draws comparisons to their contemporaries the Zombies and the Kinks. With their first single, "Walk Away Renee," the Left Banke made 1966 the greatest year in pop music (Pet Sounds and Revolver also helped out slightly). Their 1967 album Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina is a remarkably assured and balanced work, filled with hauntingly beautiful melodies, orchestral flourishes, and lush vocal harmonies. The entire album succeeds, with the exception of the misplaced "What do You Know", an oompah-oompah country-style song that I imagine leaves most listeners scratching their heads.

Keyboardist and primary songwriter Michael Brown was 16 when he wrote "Walk Away Renee," about bassist Tom Finn's then-girlfriend Renee Fladen. Brown's infatuation with her was so incapacitating that he reportedly refused to play if she was in the room. "Pretty Ballerina" and "She May Call You Up Tonight," two of the Left Bankes best songs, were also about her.

Now that you're familiar with the band, I'm going to have to alter my original premise. You see, in 1967 Michael Brown, the proverbial brains behind the operation, decided to pull a Brian Wilson, and refused to tour with the rest of the band, staying home to focus on writing instead. Effectively (and correctly) announcing that he was the most important member, this caused a lot of tension. It got so bad that at one point, in a display of his sovereignty, Brown hired studio musicians and recorded the single "Ivy Ivy b/w And Suddenly." Released under the Left Banke moniker, the other members of the group were suitable incensed.

Eventually, Brown departed and started a Left Banke-styled band called Montage, while the rest of the band kept a few of his songs, wrote some new ones, and released an album called Left Banke Too. Neither this nor the first album are available on CD, however, the CD There's Gonna Be a Storm: The Complete Recordings 1966-69 contains both albums in their entirety, plus a few singles.

Although Brown was never an official member of Montage, he played keys on the album, and wrote the vast majority of the material, which, if you ask me, pretty much makes him a member. Montage released one self-titled album in 1969, which is damn-near impossible to find on vinyl, but was finally released on CD in 2001. It is well worth picking up, as it sounds much more like the successor to Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina than the lackluster Left Banke Too does. As well as containing a better version of Desiree than the one on Left Banke Too, Montage features "She's Alone," possibly Michael Brown's single greatest achievement. Akin to "Eleanor Rigby" in its subject matter and use of strings instead of guitars or drums, "She's Alone" is an astounding song, driven by a vocal melody that only Michael Brown could have written.

In light of all the evidence, I must conclude that Michael Brown, not the Left Banke, is in fact the Greatest... um... Band... of All Time.