The 1980s New Brunswick, NJ music scene isn't well-documented, although with great effort one can piece it together via various band pages, random blogs, and other digital scraps strewn across the web. This is understandable in that the era produced no bands of commercial significance or influence (a point argued by Smithereens fans; I maintain the Smithereens' success did nothing to spotlight New Brunswick, proving their honorary status). Unlike Seattle, Athens, or even Hoboken, Brunswick generated little press outside its boundaries, which includes all of Middlesex County, and to a lesser extent its neighbors (Mercer, Union, Bergen, etc.). Lacking even the modest success of a Mudhoney (let alone Nirvana), Pylon (let alone R.E.M.) or Tiny Lights (let alone Yo La Tengo) to be its champion, New Brunswick couldn't rise above what it was.

Which was? "Overly insular," said Jerseybeat's Jim Testa. "Dangerously inbred," said the late David Aaron Clark. It's as if the movement sustained itself — that Court Tavern shows were attended solely by competing bands, college radio DJs, and fanzine writers (who were often in competing bands as well). But wouldn't that be cynical even by New Brunswick standards? Not necessarily — cynicism was the town's primary export. And if you called 80s-era New Brunswick a West Side Story of Indie, with Punks and Popsters playing the Sharks and Jets, that would be over-dramatization, given the lack of violence. Mostly the two camps just muttered about each other under their collective breaths and beers.

But 1980s New Brunswick was broader than Punk vs. Pop (or Punk vs. Hippie, better still). From 1984 on there was no identifiable "New Brunswick sound," which didn't help build momentum. In part the sprawl of styles was because New Brunswick was a performance hub, not the home base for most bands. And what a sprawl it was. As you'd expect in a liberal-leaning and artsy college town with a good radio station (WRSU), there was a sizable audience seeking independent music. While this was also true of neighboring Princeton (with the better-funded WPRB), what gave Brunswick the edge was its many venues booking live music. Off-campus, this included the Court Tavern, the Melody Bar, the Roxy, the Corner Tavern, Patrix, and J. August, all in walking distance (not to say safe walking distance) from the Rutgers College campus. On-campus, there were the RUsty Screw and Busch pubs as well, at least until wiser heads prevailed and shut off easy access for student consumption (and even then there were on-campus benefit shows, where the RU administration inexplicably sanctioned lecture halls and other locations for what amounted to mini-festivals: benefits could last six hours and feature a dozen bands). And as none of these venues attracted out-of-state talent at the level of, say, Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Brunswick became the de facto landing point for NJ music. Thus a band could hail as far north as Wyckoff (the Selves' home base) and still be swept into the vortex. During the latter half of the decade, it's unlikely many nights passed without a Jersey band playing there.

New Brunswick is a much different place now; most of the 80s-era clubs are gone. Bobby Albert's Court Tavern closed in early 2012; a cleaned-up version debuted in November. And few of the 80s bands remain, outside of a nostalgic presence on MySpace. So what does the era even mean at this date? For starters, I don't think anyone would argue that the 80s scene helped pave the way for more successful bands of the ensuing decades (Bouncing Souls, Grip Weeds, Nudeswirl, Thursday, Gaslight Anthem). One could argue that with better timing some of the 80s Brunswick bands might have made a similar impact; I've argued that point. You could just as persuasively argue the outcome was predictable: good bands + small stakes = modest results and no more; I've argued that point as well. But either way the era has earned a history lesson.