MICHAEL J. BOWMAN - CASSETTE CULTURE CASUALTY 1989-2006
"Deliciously off-kilter goof troop sound"
Indieville
One drop of the needle on the title track and I went searching for the best place to stitch my Velveeta Heartbreak Army patch... a wonderful slice of low budget bubblegum pop... I'm getting the Robert Pollard/Paul Caporino overlooked pop genius feeling again." Razorcake
"It's the token adorable pop song of this playlist with massive Kboard appeal"
DJ Rick, Art For Spastics
"I Shot the Invisible Man is a pretty glorious little brace of power-pop, all angelic boy vocals and piano pound surrounding a catchy, substantial riff. Belongs on a Powerpearls somewhere down the line, I'd say."
Dusted
"Velveeta Heartbreak (or Michael Bowman to be more precise) makes short, concise, pop songs that shimmy out of your speakers like sonic smiles. Of the two tracks it was the b side that made the bigger impression as it's the slightly stranger and looser of the two... Summer music on a sunny spring day, life should always be this good."
Wonderful Wooden Reasons
"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
"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
"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
"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
"Why the hell did I bother saving any of your crappy cassettes?" Mike Jourgensen
cassette-culture links: Cassette Culture by Richie Unterberger Cassette Culture wikipedia article Cassette Mythos by Robin James Bill Berger and the original lofi cassette radio show Cassette Culture article 1987 CDs I played on: -Jason Trachtenberg: Together (drums) -Exeter Popes: debut ep (drums, bass, production) -The Brian Wilson Shock Treatment: Saviours Of Rock (drums) -John T. Baker: Rough Skeleton (drums) -The JFK Jr. Royal Airforce: Androids (drums, guitar, production) -Mummies Of The Insane (drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, songwriting, production) See also
droneforestBands I played drums for include:
Synaesthetics, Serious Journalism, Throbbing Pubus, The Sprockets, The Astorians, The Hungry Dutchmen, Bob Reuter, Sickdog, Junkbunny, Bite The Wax Godhead, The Brian Wilson Shock Treatment, Jason Trachtenberg, Billy Syndrome, The JFK Jr. Royal Airforce
