HIP TO BE SQUARE
If, as Huey boy says, it’s hip to be square, then meet the hippest Squares of all. The Washington Squares—Lauren Agnelli, Tom Goodkind and Bruce Paskow—are neobeatniks from that quaint bohemian mecca, Greenwich Village. They wear sunglasses and strum acoustic guitars.
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HIP TO BE SQUARE
If, as Huey boy says, it’s hip to be square, then meet the hippest Squares of all. The Washington Squares—Lauren Agnelli, Tom Goodkind and Bruce Paskow—are neobeatniks from that quaint bohemian mecca, Greenwich Village. They wear sunglasses and strum acoustic guitars. They have an album; they call their music rock-folk.
Sure, I know what yer thinkin’, but no, it ain’t Peter, Paul & Mary attempting to relive their past. PP&M never opened concerts for Joan Jett or sang the MTV news. Nor did those ancient dragon puffers ever do a folk version of "In A Gadda Da Vida.” Never had a hit album on the college radio charts (only ’cause there weren’t any in their day) or named Lou Reed and Patti Smith as major influences either.
“We just want to give folk music to another generation,” says Tom Goodkind, who, like the others, left a successful New York new wave band to start the Squares in ’83. “The people who are picking up the album are for the most part college people. They’re looking at it as a totally new sound. I’ve heard it played between hardcore records on the radio.”
Agnelli, whose writing byline has graced this very magazine, would like you to think of the Squares as a folk version of R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock or the Replacements. Hell, might as well throw in the Cure, the Cult and the Smiths. They don’t sound like any of ’em, but if you think of them like that they’ll be on the cover of CREEM in no time.
“We’re more underground than those people,” says Paskow. "What we’re doing is totally against the mainstream. We’re just exploring another take on folk-rock, the same as where the Byrds first picked up. We’re just interpreting it with a little more of a modern eye.”
“When we first started,” adds Goodkind, “it was just like we had this idea. Now we feel that we’ve become it, that we’re modern beatniks. We’re comfortable with it now, even if people look at us weird.”
Which they do. But that’s never bothered the Squares. They’re on a mission. “We’re kind of hoping that groups like Bon Jovi and Cinderella and even Cameo pick up acoustics,” says Goodkind in all (well, maybe half) seriousness. “We hope they’ll start wearing berets and sunglasses. We figure we’re gonna start a whole new thing.”
It took them four years and several aborted attempts before their debut album finally came out this year. It’s a real fingersnapper. It’s no nostalgia trip or '60s revival con. The songs deal with ’80s-type things. “We’re not Peter, Paul and Mary,” says Paskow. “We’re coming from them and another 20 years of influences so we’re really quite different. And we’re not a folk Sha Na Na either. Once people hear the record they won’t think that.” Like, so Square they’re hip, man.
Jeff Tamarkin
