The Negro Problem

The band’s moniker, the Negro Problem, carries deliberate irony rather than mere provocation. Its deeper purpose reflects the group’s core mission: despite late-’60s psychedelic experiments by Jimi Hendrix, Love, the Chambers Brothers, and the Fifth Dimension, a stark racial separation in music has since reemerged. The old split between supposedly “white” and “black” styles, once enforced through the “race music” bins of the early twentieth century, returned with greater force after the cross-genre fluidity of the post-Civil Rights years. Occasional breakthroughs by Prince or Lenny Kravitz aside, artists such as Chocolate Genius and Shuggie Otis are routinely confined by industry logic to the “urban” category. Mark Stewart therefore named his project the Negro Problem to spotlight this contradiction, given that his own influences range from Sly Stone and George Clinton to Jimmy Webb, Stephen Sondheim, Burt Bacharach, Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson, and Paul McCartney.

To distinguish himself from the British vocalist formerly of the Pop Group and New Age Steppers, Stewart performs as Stew. His songwriting blends sharply ironic lyrics with vocals steeped in soul, the force of hard rock, and the melodic elegance he admires in Webb; the band even cut a full-throttle version of Richard Harris’ “MacArthur Park,” altering the pivotal phrase to “Someone left the crack out in the rain,” and counts the 5th Dimension, Webb’s protégés, among its enduring favorites. Stew entered the professional music world only in his thirties, launching the Negro Problem in 1995 after settling in Los Angeles’ Silverlake neighborhood following time abroad. The first roster featured keyboardist Jill Meschke Blair, bassist Gwynne Kahn (ex-Pandoras), drummer Charles Pagano, and auxiliary Wondermints multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory.

A limited-edition box of five 7-inch singles marked the group’s 1995 debut, followed the next year by the pointed “MacArthur Park” single and the multipart suite “Miss Jones,” modeled on the Who’s “A Quick One While He’s Away.” Both tracks appeared on the 1997 album Post-Minstrel Syndrome, alongside eleven additional acid-tinged psych-pop numbers. Five unlisted bonus cuts deepen the record: three stark solo acoustic performances by Stew, the tense full-band pieces “Camelot” and “Racket,” and a collage of tour chatter and laughter intended as an epilogue for the original lineup, which disbanded during completion.

Blair departed first, then Kahn. A succession of interim keyboardists and bassists, including Gregory and Adam Marsland of Cockeyed Ghost, supported the band’s touring schedule until Heidi Rodewald, previously of Wednesday Week, joined and assumed both instrumental roles. The 1999 album Joys and Concerns was tracked as a trio with additional session players; darker and more ominous than its predecessor, the set centers on the dissolution of Stew’s marriage and originated as major-label-funded demos that the musicians ultimately finished themselves after label indecision.

Pagano exited in late 1999 yet returned for occasional shows. With Rodewald’s assistance, Stew issued his solo debut, the well-received Guest Host, in 2000. At the time he clarified that the Negro Problem remained intact and that the solo outlet would handle the acoustic material from the first two band albums, freeing future group releases to grow, in his words, “even freakier.” The 2002 album Welcome Black tested this approach, shifting toward ornate baroque pop while incorporating greater collective input from the musicians involved.