The Paisley Underground (Episode 75)

The Paisley Underground might be the first mix-tape scene. Not
really a genre at all, but a collective of people who had similar
interests and influences who all happened to be in bands. The music
was defined more by what it wasn’t...not punk, not
singer-songwriter, not hard rock, not New Romantic. It was entirely
synthesized by openly combining parts of beloved sounds of the past
into a fresh and forward-thinking way. The bands were composed of
musicians who wore their hearts on their technicolor dreamcoat
sleeves with regards to their love and devotion of 60s music.
However, the sounds of the individual bands varied greatly, so it
makes little sense to call it a true genre. More a scene that
captured shared ideals and fashion sense. As Dream Syndicate main
man Steve Wynn aptly put it: “We had enough in common with each
other and almost nothing in common with anybody else.” It involved
a wave of kids who became tired of the punk scene which had become
what it initially railed against: stagnant music that was too
concerned with maintaining status quo uniformity as the kids were
getting too violent. Scores of kids who had initially fallen in
love with the thrill and DIY mindset of punk, who'd grown bored and
felt disenfranchised and left behind. Many of the Paisley
Undergroundlings described themselves as bad punks, making music
just for the sake of belonging rather than for the sake of the
songs. It was the spirit of punk but with a more expansive sound.
They started looking inward and backward to the more gentle and
pretty sounds of the 1960s. But this wasn’t a neo-hippy movement
with romanticized political ideals and stereotypical retro wear. In
fact, all the bands gleaned what they liked most about the 60s
without any concern for being true to their heroes or dedicated to
the sound and fashion.  Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the
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