Edgar Schwartz
by RICH ARITHMETIC
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this post was published in the 1980’s Cassette Culture Blog on June 12, 2025
Awhile back, my pal Darrell Draeger, who publishes the 1980’s Cassette Culture Blog, wrote about music whose sheer quirkiness was their selling point. Back in the ’90s when I ran the indie record label Optional Art Records, I released Milk & Cookies, a 1995 album by the band Edgar Schwartz, which was the nom de plume for the quirky-as-an-asset duo of James Nicholson and Dennis Steinseifer. To get an understanding of what that means, it’s instructional to know that Dr. Demento featured their music on his radio program that was all about quirky and twisted music.
In any event, I can never say too much about Edgar Schwartz’s cool and creative music.
For example, if ever there was a way to get from Point A to Point B, you wouldn’t have asked Edgar Schwartz how to get there because their directions surely would have been as full of detours and ups-and-downs and twists-and-turns — just as their music was. For every delicious background harmony you might find in one of their songs, there were as many, if not more, herky-jerky rhythms, angular melodies, and unorthodox hooks.
I used to compare Edgar Schwartz to XTC-meets-The Beach Boys. But, really, that’s far from accurate. A better comparison might be Frank Zappa-meets-Revolution Number 9 with a sprinkle of Jan & Dean.