| The latest in indie music -- See what we thought of "Mangled" With song titles like ”Insignificant Other” and ”Free & Lonely,” the mood of Steve Westfield’s Mangled is clear before you even hear it. In what could be called acoustic grunge, the Westfield, Mass., songwriter pens and sings laconic, acid-folk ditties about his lovesick torpor; call him the Leonard Cohen of alt-rock. When he’s not lamenting a breakup, he wants to stay in bed all day to think about it. Fortunately, Westfield has enough of a sense of humor to undercut the navel-gazing: ”Love fish that we bought, I’m sorry to say they drowned,” he moans in ”Missing.” | David Brown - Entertainment Weekly |
| "Former Pajama Slave Dancer Steve Westfield, often credited with being an inspiration for Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis and Lou Barlow, can turn deceptively simple roots-grounded hard rock into something vaguely profound and painfully funny". | Boston Phoenix |
| And the new Steve Westfield record is again not a real rock record, but a self-forgotten, beautifully instrumented country record, which often indulges in longer instrumental passages a la Neil Young, but without reaching the degree of distortion. Friends of LAMBCHOP or Vic Chessnut are guaranteed to like this, everyone else should at least give this charming eccentric a chance, as his understanding of country is highly unconventional and, above all, super entertaining. There is also a strange Heyrock song, but "Stuporstar" remains a calm, atmospheric affair with subtle highlights, some of which are really reminiscent of Neil Young, but without clumsily copying the master. | Ox-Fanzine / issue #33 IV 1998 by Thomas Kerpen |
| REJECT ME FIRST Steve-Westfield-Slow-Band-Glitterhouse"...*5 stars* Pick this one up!! Reviewed on September 12, 2001 For a Steve Westfield fan this is a must have for the ears. I enjoy all of Steves contributions to the music world and enjoy his peaceful musical orchestrations. (HA HA) Neil Young comparisons aside, there is beauty in this album right from the get-go to the closer. | spizzletrunk - Amazon |
| “,,,Sweet indie rock Massachusettss style. Horns, fuzzy leads, chill vocals, and super songwriting. All the Slow Band stuff rules. "Reject Me...First" was my entry point, Mangled was more intense, but all are worth your precious eartime", | SM - Amazon |
| Massachusetts singer-songwriter Steve Westfield debuted with a collection of sly and frantic songs on Mangled. "Missing" starts off the disc, ranging from gentle guitar-picking to a rousing, rock-fueled section in the middle of the song, with a guitar solo by the Pixies Joey Santiago. The title track is next, a purposefully sloppy and relaxed folk song. The mixture of the frantic bassline and the crazy wah-wah guitar at the beginning of "Crummy Little Town" makes it clear to the listener that this album is not the work of a traditional musician. Westfield seeks to break the rules every chance he can get, pushing hard to make the music powerful and complementary to his dry and direct lyrics. The soulful harmonica on "Free & Lonely" brings a new ingredient to the mix, as the mood of the album grows increasingly somber. Buffalo Toms Chris Colburn and Sebadohs Lou Barlow add instrumentation to one of the most howling ballads of this period of indie rock, "Alone at Last." That song is quickly followed by the silliest track of the disc, "Clappy Birthday," consisting entirely of handclaps. The mood soon becomes murky again, as Westfield sings the blues over a variety of instruments, including slide guitar, clarinet, recorder, and bongo. The music borders on a hard rock sound on "Electrocute Me," before the simple guitar chords of "Life Goes On," a heartfelt and optimistic epic. Mangled was recorded entirely in Massachussetts and was released in 1994 on BIB Records. | AllMusic Review by Stephen Cramer |
| One writer called Steve Westfields Mangled "without question the most depressive album of the decade." Westfields second album, Reject Me First, was no walk in the park either. So naturally, the Massachusetts-bred singer-songwriter-guitarist became quite popular in Austria and Switzerland. "I do really well there. I sign autographs, the whole rock star thing," Westfield said with a laugh. "I cant figure it out." Actually, Westfield does have a working theory as to why the Austrians and the Swiss want his autograph while few U.S. fans even realize he was a formative influence on such bands as the Pixies, Buffalo Tom, Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh. Westfield will open for Sebadoh at Orlandos Club at the Firestone Tuesday. "If you listen to Reject Me First, theres a country element to it," Westfield said by phone from Chicago where he had spent the day shoveling snow, asking his girlfriend to marry him and shoveling more snow. Reject Me First isnt really country unless you like to file Tom Waits, Nick Cave and the Violent Femmes in with your Hank Williams and George Jones albums. But the arrangements do feature pedal steel and violin. "So they (Europeans) probably had me sort of pigeonholed as this lonesome country boy or something, and they really go for that because they are kind of mountain folks. They are really into the "oompah. They identify with that lonesome country boy stuff. They read a lot of cowboy comic books. And somehow I got into that niche where I write about how Im the loneliest guy in the world. "Its going to break their hearts to hear I got engaged," Westfield added with a laugh. Actually, although Westfields lyrics are full of despair and disappointment, they are often as comical as they are morose. In Mangleds "Missing," for instance, he sings: "That stuff in the refrigerator is starting to turn brown and I dont think youre missing me when you aint around." Humor has been an important component of Westfields music since his days leading the Pajama Save Dancers, a "funcore" band that emerged from Western Massachusetts in the mid-80s. The group released seven albums, including two on Restless Records and one on the European New Rose label. The band was best known, however, for its out-of-control live shows. "PSD was a total drunken, crazy, black-and-blue sort of band. We were burnouts, a little bit. We got kicked out of every single club we ever played. We couldnt go back anywhere, even the Rat and Ches Last Call," Westfield said, proudly naming two Boston punk clubs renowned for their anything-goes esthetic. PSD never made a real effort to break out of the New England market. The band was offered tours, Westfield said, but somehow the members were never all ready and willing at the same time. "I was just one of the guys. It was more of a democracy kind of band, so we never got to do anything. Thats kind of why I went solo," Westfield said. "Now I just say yes to everything, and its great." Nowadays, Westfield has a whole circle of musician friends he can call on when he wants to tour - enough for three groups, in fact. There are the raucous Burnouts, who played on Brainwreck; an Austrian backing band; and then the group hes bringing to Florida, the Slow Band. It features tuba, trombone and two saxophones as well as drums, bass, guitar and sometimes conga, violin and/or pedal steel players Westfield said both Sebadohs Lou Barlow and Barlows former Dinosaur Jr. bandmate, J Mascis, have been very generous with opening gigs. "The scene we came out of in Western Mass. was really friendly and nice, really supportive - no competition," Westfield said. "I feel good about it because there was a time when the Pajama Slave Dancers were kind of the king of the hill locally, so its nice to feel responsible that the scene headed that way. Instead of being nasty, it was fun-loving, beer-drinking and goofy. I can see a lot of humor in the bands that came out of there." When the Pajama Slave Dancers first formed, they practiced in a garage behind Barlows house. Westfield said Barlow recently told him that, as a 14-year-old, he used to come over to listen to the older teenagers practice. "He said he used to hang outside and dress as a punk rocker because we had vinyl jackets on and red hair and all that junk," Westfield said with a laugh. "He said he and his friend used to play the Buzzcocks on a little tapedeck so so we would notice them. It is funny. We never noticed them! Being 18 or 19, we wouldnt notice 14-year-old kids." When Barlow and Mascis formed Dinosaur Jr., they got to open for PSD. "We played together on and off, and then they sort of took off and we did not," Westfield said. "They are just local guys, and it is fun it got to the point where I helped them out in the beginning, and they are helping me out now." Westfield is also proud that the Barlow kid turned out to be such a talented musician . As many times as he has opened for Sebadoh, he said, he never tires of watching the band. "Other than being friends and prejudiced, they are just a good rock band," he said. "They have played so much, its a really tight, fun show. I get surprised that just three people can really make that much of a sound." Barlow made a guest appearance on Mangled as did the Pixies Joey Santiago. The new Brainwreck features two Boston luminaries, guitarist Rich Gilbert and basssist Rich Cortese of the Zulus, another great band that broke up after failing to make a mark beyond Massachusetts. Gilbert, who recently toured with Steve Wynn and is set to join Tanya Donnellys new band, also produced Brainwreck. Five of the six songs on Brainwreck are furious rave-ups. The sixth, "Bent and Melted Next to Paul Westerberg," is a hilarious but wise rumination on fame and fortune, or the lack thereof. Westfield said he actually performed that song in Westerbergs home town, Minneapolis. "I was kind of nervous, but it really went over well. We got a lot of comments, and I think we sold all our CDs that night. It was really kinda nice. I hope he heard about it." Westfield added. Westfield has just finished his next full-length album, called Underwhelmed. Like his last three recordings, it will come out on Massachusetts BIB label, distributed by Caroline. Westfield jokes about how he missed his big chance to get signed to Sub Pop when Barlow sent a Westfield single to the label and it wound up signing the band on the flip side, Scud Mountain Boys. In fact, however, he is pretty happy on little BIB, which lets him record whatever he wants. "I am in a lucky position," he said. "I just send em tapes, and they go, "What the hell is that?" "But labels, as long as they are not losing money, they are happy. . . . Whatever record I put out, it will probably sell 5,000 copies in the states, which is enough to get their money back. "So I can probably make as many records as I want for the rest of my life. That is what makes me happy." | Parry Gettelman Sentinel Popular Music Critic THE ORLANDO SENTINEL |
| This album, Stuporstar, is a strong piece - November 28, 2014 Format: Audio CD of course in the positive sense. A must for Americana fans. The fact that it appears on the German label Glitterhouse only confirms the original diet. Home also to the Walkabouts and the Dakota Suite. With irony Mr. Westfield goes to the lyrics. A certain seriousness would not hurt this band, because the marketing is a little sub par. I mean, for example the horrible cover. Too bad - the band deserves more attention. But even the title Stuporstar is an attack on its own seriousness - that is probably programed. Nevertheless, the band is good enough for the quality of Neil Young. However, the band goes their own typical way with bass tuba and high-speed guitar, which even in slow pieces are not a contradiction. Except for the strong title track, the album actually does not seem so "slow". Time and again, Steve ironically picks up on certain social quirks: e.g. at the Optimist, TVing, Is There Life Before Death. Everything fits: lyrics and music. I wish this band a lot of success because otherwise we lose a very idiosyncratic piece of culture. But perhaps the Slow Band deliberately wants to maintain their basement existence, because that can also be a quality feature compared to the flat mainstream. In the bands own words: Hopeless, but hopeful. | Klaus Scherbarth - Amazon, Germany |