The Pattern

Real Feelness (Lookout!)
by Scott Hefflon

The Pattern are better than The Potatomen ever were, but that ain’t saying much. The comparison – for those lucky enough not to be into the behind-the-scenes shit – is that former Lookout! owner Larry Livermore always insisted on releasing his band’s records even though no one cared, and The Pattern is the hip, trendy, garagey new project by current Lookout! president, Chris Applegren, formerly of The Peechees. The band’ll probably do fine without me liking them, which is good, cuz I don’t. Like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a number of other nü garage “fun, party” bands heavy on hype, light on distinctiveness, the trendy kids are sure to flock to the jerky sounds presented here without ever looking deeper into the genre, and thus people mistakenly think they invented it, as opposed to watering it down for lazy morons’ consumption. I get blamed a lot for hating bands cuz their fans are shallow, and this is admittedly another case. If the band were to humbly admit they’re basically a cover band, and not an especially good one, and rattle off the greats again and again and again until “the kids” were finally convinced maybe they oughtta check out the pioneers of the style, hell, then maybe I’d stop hating these interchangeable genre-tribute bands. Naw, probably not…
(PO Box 11374 Berkeley, CA 94712)