The Optic Nerve

Emerging from New York’s 1980s garage milieu, the Optic Nerve shared with that scene only an unwavering resolve to disregard both the decade and its surrounding synthesizer-driven sounds. They bypassed the distorted guitar onslaughts and sneering garage-revival manifestos, instead channeling the chiming guitar figures of the Byrds and the Beatles together with traces of mid-1960s protest songwriters, fashioning a style that would have found ready acceptance had it appeared in 1965. By the middle of the 1980s, however, folk-rock modeled on that earlier era held scant commercial appeal, even among neo-garage enthusiasts. Although the Fuzztones, the Cynics, and the Lyres cultivated devoted underground followings, issuing multiple recordings and touring Europe, the Optic Nerve managed only two singles across their short lifespan and performed almost exclusively within Brooklyn. Bobby Belfiore, the principal songwriter and lead vocalist, established the band’s foundation in 1985. During the ensuing two-year period, numerous musicians passed through the ranks, among them participants from the Fuzztones and Gravedigger V. Lead guitarist and harmony vocalist Tony Matura remained a constant presence, and the interplay of his and Belfiore’s melodic harmonies with the jangling folk-rock arrangements supplied the Optic Nerve’s distinctive identity. In 1993 Screaming Apple and in 1994 Get Hip each issued a full-length collection drawn from Optic Nerve demo recordings made throughout the mid- to late 1980s. Every track had warranted release at the time it was taped, yet amid the era’s dominant garage revival and paisley pop currents the band’s country-tinged folk-rock struck an incongruent note and attracted minimal notice. The albums have since enjoyed renewed visibility. The group reconvened in 1999 for a show at Cavestomp in New York.