Amped in Mystic:

Early pioneers’ latest endeavor showcases Mystic music past, present and future

Matt Hannan

What start with little spark, soon come big fire.

The initial spark of creative inspiration sometimes delivers unexpected results. This is the exact situation that three age-old friends have found themselves in.

Steel strikes flint.

“I am going to build a recording studio in my basement,” – Alex Pellish.

Spark lights tinder.

“Let’s record a song!” – Mat Tarbox.

Ember ignites kindling.

“Let’s release a record!” – Rich Freitas.

Kindling catches log.

“We are going to need a web site,” – Tarbox.

Log catches kerosene-soaked pallet.

“Holy crap! We’ve basically become a small label!” – Freitas.

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Working for 18 months on the songs that became Sodium Lights “Post Signals”, the trio reached deep into the past and pulled together a super-group of ten veteran Mystic musicians. With an age range spanning decades and a geographic range spanning states, it quickly became obvious that this band would never make their bread and butter by playing live shows and touring.

Enter the World Wide Web.

Here this story takes an odd turn. Rather than doing what 99.9% of all other bands do, the trio agreed that they would host not only their own (amazing) music, but the music of other bands, as well. In a sense, they threw dry cord wood and gasoline on their burning pallet.

“When we setup the space for Sodium Lights, we realized we had loads of empty gigabytes and figured folks who liked what they heard with Sodium Lights would like to know the back story, and would probably like the older Mystic music as well. And then we realized one fine day that we were actually becoming a tiny music label. I am still not exactly sure how we got swindled into this.” – Tarbox

“Since Sodium Lights was done with a collection of musicians who have had a broad musical history we thought there might be several tentacles that could help create interest. Once Box figured out that the web space wasn’t costly, the idea snowballed into more of a “collective” space for music from the area.” – Pellish

Older fans of the Mystic music scene will recognize this idea of “collective”; the pooling of resources for the greater good. For the most part, it works... and turns out to be a hell of a lot of fun. So the three took the initiative and opened their new site for not only themselves, but to all those willing to post their music. In the pipeline are onDasher, Doug/Dayne Duranti, Lotus, Elastic Waste Band, Peter Vito, Skimbleshanks, Casey Cyr, $3 Depth Charge, Magpie and, the coup d’etat, Low-Beam’s last LP, which has never been released. They are, in fact, currently in negotiations with about 20 bands, and are adding them at a rate of about one a week.

Every artist we have approached has been a proponent of the concept. A few have been somewhat sheepish in addressing the music from it’s original content, mostly from poorly mastered tracks or tape hiss, which is understandable.” – Freitas

While the kernel of the idea was to provide an outlet for the moldering tunes from the Mystic scene’s heyday in the ‘90s, they have expanded the idea. In addition to just hosting the music and allowing folks to stream it, there is also the option to purchase the tracks for a buck a piece. While they would love to pass the entire dollar-a-song on to the artists, their current billing provider takes a 5.5% cut. Take that, iTunes Music Store! In addition, the site offers a bio/blog for the bands with a commenting feature for the fans and a forum dedicated to discussing music.

“We could care less about making any money on this. Our goal is to give listeners as much access as possible to the music. Income from the ‘house bands’ pay for the website overhead. It would be very easy to allow each band to run their own part of the site, especially as far as blogs go, but it hasn’t happened yet. Hopefully, as the site starts to get more new releases, it will happen more.” – Tarbox

That is right. New releases, too. Not only can you download 17 Relics 1990 EP ”Water”, but Luke Hunter’s brand new “Dizzying Heights” LP. The reaction of most bands has been highly favorable. And why not? Who couldn’t use a quick $20 in their pocket? But there is more to it than that. Take Shortbus. Please.

“The Mystic Music Archive is bringing the DIY mentality that we grew up with to the Facebook Era. It’s sort of like stapling fliers to digital telephone poles.” – Matt Curtiss

Dan Mickus, of Adams Onis, is currently working on re-mastering some songs from their “Magba Rue” album. Inclusion in the Archive came as a bit of a shock and has prompted him to rethink a lot of the ways he looks at his music.

“I think it is great that this is happening. I’ve been listening to some old tapes of Adams Onis and trying to decide what to put on the Archive. I think I will digitize a cassette and do some gentle mastering on it. Other stuff I’m intending on including is more experimental bits from practices and shows. Upon relistening to some of this old stuff I’ve been thinking things like ‘oh my god that’s corny’ and ‘i hate RUSH, why did i play that?’ and ‘well it sounds sort of like CAN, that’s neat.’ I feel happy to contribute and be a part of it. I think we were kind of outsiders musically, but apparently some people liked it because I get questions about the band now and then. Despite how different we sounded I always really loved the other bands in town.” – Mickus

Downloads are available only as high-quality (320bps VBR) MP3s at this time. While they would love to provide a lossless format like FLAC, they realize that the bulk of the music players available today do not support the format. But, who supports a cassette tape or 45 sitting in the back of your closet?

http://www.mysticmusicarchive.org – That’s who.