Music:
Member Since: 11/14/2005
Band Website: velveetaheartbreak.blogspot.com
Band Members: Michael J.Bowman
Influences: Late '80s Cassette Underground, Hometapers like Ray Carmen, Don Campau, Dino DiMuro, R. Stevie Moore, John T. Baker and many, many more *** NYC underground stuff like Billy Syndrome, Astro Zombies, Smack Dab, Uncle Wiggly, Fly Ashtray and Azalia Snail *** The Beatles, plus early Beatles solo albums like McCartney's "RAM" and George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" *** Gong and other Canterbury stuff like early Soft Machine, Caravan "Land of Grey and Pink", Matching Mole, Robert Wyatt, Hatfield & The North, Steve Hillage "Fish Rising" and "Motivation Radio", Henry Cow, Here & Now band, Daevid Allen solo stuff like "New York Gong", "Now is the Happiest Time of Your Life", "Floating Anarchy" and "Bananamoon" *** Brian Eno's first four albums "Here Come The Warm Jets", "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy", "Another Green World" and "Before and After Science" *** the first few Residents albums "Duck Stab", "Not Available", "Fingerprince" and "Residue" *** Grant Hart "Intolerance" *** The Monkees *** early DEVO *** early Genesis like "Nursery Crimes" and "Foxtrot" *** prog stuff like Gentle Giant "Playing The Fool", YES up to "Relayer", King Crimson up to "USA", and the first two Peter Gabriel solo albums *** krautrock like Faust, Can and Amon Duul II *** heavy rock like Jimi Hendrix "Are You Experienced?", the first four Sabbath albums, the first few Hawkwind albums or Deep Purple "In Rock", "Fireball" or "Machine Head", plus Zeppelin *** punk stuff like The Damned "Machine Gun Etiquette", Ramones, Stooges "Fun House", Husker Du "Zen Arcade", Stranglers, Gang of Four "Entertainment" and Buzzcocks "Singles Going Steady" *** glam rock like T-Rex, The Sweet, Roy Wood's Wizard *** late sixties and early seventies Top 40 radio *** Jerry Garcia's first solo album *** Frank Zappa "Hot Rats", "One Size Fits All" *** Captain Beefheart *** early nineties indie-rock like Pavement, Flaming Lips, Olivia Tremor Control and Guided By Voices *** eighties new wave shit like XTC, Talking Heads, CVB and Robyn Hitchcock *** psychedelic garage rock and psych-revival stuff like Plasticland, Bevis Frond and Dukes of Stratosphere *** Hank Williams, Peggy Lee, John Fahey, Thelonius Monk, and any other good, classic American pre-rock stuff *** and of course PERE UBU *** I am interested in homemade, underground music as well as any truly independent and creative stuff like Chris Cutler's RER label or Cuneiform Records, plus I love trading my homemade CDRs and Zines with other obscure underground labels and artists-- take a look at my friends list, they're on there! ***
Sounds Like: "Jonathan Richman meets Neil Young at They Might Be Giants' house to trade a copy of Syd Barrett's "Opel" for a box of Good N' Fruity... 15 years of often brilliant lofi output... Mike is well on his way to becoming a legend in hometaping circles... This is the sound of a talented, confident songwriter who loves his 4-track and who would make this music even if nobody listened... if you're smart you'll be one of them"
Demouniverse
"There are great songs, catchy hooks, funny lyrics, strange sounds, a wonderful lofi buzz... MJB gets a lot of things right, including the really cute handmade packaging, clever song titles, and some nice sample manipulation. These are pretty impressive recordings given their lofi one-man-band origins... Music like this is indie pop at its best"
Splendid
"Mostly acoustic guitar driven catchy songs. Its amazing how catchy some of them are... MJB has a voice that is not really something I can listen to all of the time, but it goes with the quirkyness of the music quite well. Very hip indie rockers would be all about this record, as it does not compromise its independence in any way. Quite creative and quirky, this CDR is not something for the average music listener, but for someone who can appreciate a slightly different take on music"
1340 Mag
"Probably one of the most satisfying and strangest releases I've had the pleasure of listening to in recent weeks has been the self-produced and self-marketed CDR from MJB. Bowman has been putting out these obscurist gems since 1989. A self taught musician who delights in constructing strange and deeply memorable snippets from the pop spectrum"
Losing Today
"A glorious, clamorous, ingenious, incongruous mess of 4-tracked, grot-shop beats, home-made guitar and outer-space samples"
Electronic Robots and Brains
"Michael J. Bowman is good at taking pop music and turning it on its head"
Aural Innovations
"It isn't anywhere near as bad as I expected it to be when I first saw the CDR coated in permanent marker drawings and wrapped in a little plastic baggie with photocopied inserts and art drawn with crayons. The songs range from lovely little guitar and piano melodies to bizarre atmospheric electronica... First we have the fun, slightly off-center guitar driven rocker. Tracks like "I Shot The Invisible Man" and the ominously pounding, unfortunately titled instrumental "Smurf Nazi" are built upon solid hooks and up-front melodic pay-offs... If anything, MJB can kick out a mean groove"
Delusions of Adequacy
"Mostly sunny one-man pop circus. Songs that build on the handmade strengths of live drumming, layered guitars and harmonized vocals... Its awesome. A couple of the songs are like 'Medeski Martin and Wood' jamming with 'Ray Davies' in the land of basement pop-rock. The songwriting is very good, as usual, with MJB playing and singing and recording everything himself. Acoustic guitars strum happily in time with some damn fine drumming and an occasional Casio. Pop songs with swearing always works for me. MJB=DIY POP, simple"
Autoreverse
"There is a charm and inventiveness that lifts this above the DIY norm. For as time I played this tape in my car over and over everytime I took a drive. There are some pretty good tunes here. This tape is chock full of pop, instrumental noodlings, short experimental dementia, pop, and oh yeah, more pop"
Pallid Pilgrim
"Michael J. Bowman is one of the kings of lofi indie pop. His drumming is filled with energy, his pop songwriting skills immensely talented, his guitar and bass work tight and melodic, and his vocals like a hyped-up Neil Young"
Turk's Head Review
"Gimme a balloon and some confetti, because I'm having fun. It's cool, poppy pink skies and homemade stuff... A kind of whimsical wimpyness, a bliss of emptyheadedness, coming through skillful but simple tunes. Call it psychedelic, artsy, lively"
Neo Barbaric
"One-man hometaper MJB crafts such delightful songs that blend all types of styles and noises and singing and experimentation, melody, rock and more. It's exciting"
Scorpion
"The sound quality is self-consciously lo-grade... The songs are too good to be buried under tape hiss and audio hum. Luckily, the material transcends the production values. At the moment, I don't feel like listening to anything else"
Gloomytunes
"New York's pope of homemade pop raises the flag yet again"
Taped Crusaders
"A single person band, MJB is in the vein of great mix n' match artists like Beck and has the essence of Pavement's unusually wired tunes. If you like music that's got a "homemade" feel to it, but also has good production values to it, then look no further"
hEARd
"He uses the word Rocktober in a song, he's a one-man band and he has a song called 'Smurf Nazi'"
Roctober
"I was quite impressed with this very DIY cassette of casually tossed-off pop brilliance. Really some amazing, edgy tunesmithery by Michael J. Bowman that fans of Mr. Chilton, Elephant 6, Bee Thousand and those Beatle fellas would certainly dig"
Intergalactic Dossier
"Recorded in a basement by one-man-band Michael J. Bowman, "C'mon Slacker" contains several pieces of very tasty power pop"
Tape Op
"Sheer genius!"
Shouting At The Postman
"I don't know what I can really compare this to, maybe Blind Melon meets Guided By Voices? Something kind of hippy, but something more interesting and good than that. I like it"
QRD
"This is the sort of music that my life so much more bearable during my adolescent years!"
Original Sin
"It's quite an interesting mix of guitars, keyboards and other electronic doo-dads"
Backwash
"More inspired, fun, melodic, original unforgettable songs from the one and only Michael J. Bowman. This cassette is full of the infectious melodies I've come to expect from this obscure, underground hero. Fifteen tunes of pure bliss... This is certainly one of the best releases of 1996! One of the best hometapers of this decade... Michael's peculiar pop with those strangely sincere vocals sounds like no-one else... Michael J. Bowman stands out in a world where too many people are trying way, WAY too hard"
Babysue
"An acid-dosed cube of unrefined sugar"
Alternative Press
"A little diamond in the rough on the tape trading scene by one Michael J. Bowman. Lotsa different styles here, from Dinosaur drench rock to acousticky goodies and guitar instrumentos... this is dizzy pop spun around a few times on its macrocephalic head"
Factsheet Five
"He whips out some great drum fills on nearly every track. The laid-back, homemade jamming feel reminds me of the first McCartney solo album... he's one of the best in the underground... Every song here is a gem... for some reason reminds me of a light-hearted Lou Reed"
Ray Carmen
"There's a kind of reckless abandon fused with hook-driven guitar pop going on here that's very hard to resist. And the drumming just kicks all"
Orange Street Press
"Oh the glories of 4-track lofi hometaping! Michael J. Bowman's cassette has 20 songs that bristle with post-pop exuberance. Live drumming, catchy riffs and witty lyrics"
Sparks
"Hopelessly obscure and equally as brilliant, MJB is excellent power pop with an ironic twist of dissent"
Jelly Slide
"Michael J. Bowman is MJB, writing the songs, playing all the instruments and singing. He's been putting out tapes for years, prolific, experimental, wildly eclectic. The crucial thing that makes everything work here is that his first instrument is the drums- no drum-machine sameyness here... every track is pop, every track an experiment"
Unhinged
"Having established himself consistently as one of the favorite hometapers amongst those who appreciate a gifted songwriting sense along with a healthy attitude of making fun of music for the fun of it. MJB's tape shows off his seemingly effortless gift of creating compelling songs... progressive pop rock with a heavy psychedelic bent...
Gajoob
"This tape is full of catchy psychedelic rock that possesses a ceratin skewered pop sensibility"
New Music Informer
"Its rock and it may even be pop, but it ain't bland or ready for radio music... there are rock instrumentals and even a touch of silliness. It works. The singing is raw and loose... and he comes up with some cool melodies"
Sound Choice
"Lightweight rock with cheesy synths and geeky vocals-- all mixed outfront... but once again Mr. Bowman wins me over with his songwriting skills... These tunes have breezy guitar, nimble basslines, decent drumming and hooks galore"
File 13
"Wonderfully crafted melodic pop that marries professionalism with homespun charm"
Pop Cult
"Mike Bowman has done it again... This stuff sounds like it was produced by entire orchestras, when in fact, one guy does it all. The music ranges from pure pop to some sort of deranged garage punk to experimental stuff"
Jersey Beat
"Some songs, some noise, some existential sense from all of this? What DIY is all about"
Under The Volcano
"Mike Bowman rips into some gleeful, ragged pop-rock on this 4-track solo outing"
Musician's Exchange
Type of Label: None
