Though it seems from the name on this CD as if the Squires of the Subterrain are an actual band, the "band" is actually made up of one person, known in music circles as The Squire. Though the Squire physically hails from Rochester, New York, spiritually and mentally he seems more rooted in the years from about 1967-1972, as the music he creates is influenced quite heavily by pop bands from that era such as The Beatles, The Zombies, The Kinks, David Bowie, and even The Beach Boys.

At least, that's the impression I get from listening to his music. The man behind The Squire persona is actually Christopher Earl (born Christopher Earl Zajkowski), a brilliant musician who, while playing in numerous bands in the Rochester area was creating some incredible pop music while sequestered alone in his basement (hence the derivation on "subterranean") lair and releasing it on a series of acclaimed cassettes as the Squires of the Subterrain. As an XTC side project was called The Dukes of Stratosphere, there is now The Squires of the Subterrain.

Coincidence? I think not, as one finds many elements of XTC in Zajkowski's work.

Zajkowski began his musical career by playing drums in a band with some high school chums, eventually morphing into a Rochester band called The Essentials, and by 1992 into a band called The Salamanders. The Salamanders developed a decent following in the Rochester area and even received a chance to play with some of the musician's in James Brown's famed '60's band.

The Salamanders released one album before disbanding and Zajkowski went on to become one-half of country duo The Rosey Beats as singer and spoon-player(!!). Eventually, this band accepted another member into the fold and turned into a trio, calling themselves The Hi-Risers and playing roots rock comparable to Whiskeytown and Uncle Tupelo.

All during this time Zajkowski was releasing homemade cassettes by his fictional group Squires of The Subterrain on his own Rocket Racket Records imprint. After the relative success of the first CD of Squires of The Subterrain material (culled from his various cassette releases) entitled Pop In A CD (released in 1998), Zajkowski abandoned all of his other bands and side projects in order to devote himself to his Squires of The Subterrain project. Since then Zajkowski has released at least one new CD a year of Squires material including a great album released in 2002 pairing Zajkowski with eccentric British rocker Pete Miller called Big Boy Pete's Treats.