Mark Ramos-Nishita was, and quite possibly still is, the Beastie Boys’ ivory-tinkler.  Or plastic-nudger.  Anyway, he plays piano, keyboards, Hammond, that sort of caper, and by himself he makes lovely lo-fi pop.  His first album, Mark’s Keyboard Repair, took lo-fi to its lowest extreme with snatches of half-produced songs and the odd gem shining through the demo fuzz, but 1998’s follow-up, Push The Button, was fully realised with proper songs that kept the cloudy edges and quirky interruptions but flicked the pop switch.
 
‘Maybe I’m Dead’ pimp rolls joyously through surreal imagery and creepy thoughts – “I’m just a spider making my way, underneath your house – maybe I’m dead” – getting ghostly with Hammond squirts and synthed horns.  It’s a shuffling piece of pop fluff that I should’ve put on many more tapes than I did.
 
More pressing concerns troubled Junior, who’d learnt minutes earlier that we’re going on holiday in a few weeks – burglars, don’t bother: we’ll be “between homes” – and banged on about “holiday” for the whole song.  She thinks we’re going to the impressionist African coast in the painting by the stereo.