1/6/2024 0 Comments Broken social scene vinylI didn’t realize until later that it was actually New Mexico in that film, but it looked better than having to deal with icy roads or having to heat up engine oil every day. I saw Arizona in a movie and I thought it looked great. My attitude is if we’re gonna be poor and in a band for the rest of our lives, at least we could live somewhere where it feels like we’re on vacation all the time. We’re playing with Marshall stacks at a coffee shop because there were no real venues left for us to play at. When we played our final show, we ended up having to do it at a coffeehouse. Also, a lot of concert venues there started closing down around that time. I was very disillusioned with Pittsburgh, especially with the weather. What was it like transitioning to a new community and musical scene after the band pulled up roots from Pittsburgh and relocated in Arizona? And I finally said, "Man, this is who you were at the time. It gave me a little pause about reissuing this - how on the nose it is. I started to write a lot more cryptically after this. This is definitely the most emotionally needy and bitter of the Pollen albums. But I take some comfort knowing that it’s all incredibly sincere and genuine, and I’d much rather have a record like this where I’m like, “Oh my God, Bob, calm down, we get it, you’re sad and lonely, you don’t think you belong anywhere, I get it, please shut up.” I just kept telling my wife when I was listening to this that my heart is breaking for 19-year-old Bob. Speaking as a guy in his 40s right now, listening to lyrics I wrote when I was 20 … some of them are really cringey to me. That emotional, confessional quality to your lyrics - did it make it hard to revisit this material? You’ve mentioned in past interviews that your songwriting at the time was your way of not going to therapy. Stephen mixed the record in a marathon - 48 hours straight of mixing - up all day, all night. It sounded great because Stephen Egerton is a fantastic engineer and producer, and he captured some really cool tones, very much in league with what we were hoping to accomplish. When I pulled up the original mixes of Crescent, I was stunned at how fantastic it already sounded. But to everyone else's stereos in the world it sounded super muddy, super thin on the low end, and just not very loud. ![]() I told the manufacturer not to mess with it, to leave it as is because it sounded good on my stereo. My home stereo was not a good barometer for that stuff. I was obsessed with the record sounding really heavy, so I took our mixes and ran them through some fancy EQ and played it on my home stereo, which has tons of mid-range for all the guitars on the record. I was very obsessive about how things should sound despite having no real background in engineering or recording at the time. ![]() Could you tell us about what happened with the original mastering on the album?īOB HOAG: We recorded it when I was 20. PHOENIX NEW TIMES: I listened to the CD version before listening to the remaster and I was struck by the dramatic difference in quality. Speaking on the phone with Phoenix New Times, Pollen drummer and primary songwriter Bob Hoag (himself a fixture in the local scene as the maestro behind Flying Blanket Recording) is candid about the band’s fascinating and tumultuous relationship with Arizona, their old record label, and with Crescent itself. Hampered by issues with their label and by the band’s own ambivalent attitudes to the record (that they’ve often called their “forgotten album,” the “red-headed stepchild” of their short but robust discography), Crescent is primed to finally get its due. These songs, once dusty flowers languishing in the dollar bin, are full of vibrant color and life once again. Tracks like “Freshly Broken” and “Relics” sound dissonant and gorgeous, epitomizing Pollen at their best. Remastered by Hoag and Jason Livermore, the re-release of Crescent is a revelation: An album that once sounded quiet and muffled, as though it were playing through a veil of mud, now has a forceful and dynamic presence. And now, thanks to a revelatory new vinyl remaster, you can hear it like it’s never been heard before. While their third album, 1997’s Peach Tree, is widely regarded by both Pollen and their fans as the group's high-water mark, their long-neglected sophomore album, 1995's Crescent, is worth a closer listen. From there, they made a lasting impression with their unique blend of aggressive punk guitars, power-pop melodies, and emo lyrical sensibilities. Hailing originally from Pittsburgh, the quintet of Dan Hargest (vocals), Kevin Scanlon (guitars), Chris Serafini (bass), Mike Bennett (guitars), and Bob Hoag (drums) moved to Arizona in 1995. They may have only had a handful of albums to their name but Pollen are nothing to sneeze at.
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