LIVE MUSIC FROM A DEAD CAMPUS (EVEN MORE LIVE MUSIC FROM WFMU) Various Artists 1998

 

Discogs

 


Bands recorded live on WFMU radio in Jersey City, New Jersey

 

 

Tracklist 

1-1	2 Foot Flame–	Peacock Coal
1-2	Amoeba (Raft Boy)–	Karma Bank
1-3	Harvey Sid Fisher–	Country Scat
1-4	Életfa–	Dance Suite From Szék
1-5	Richard Davies (3)–	Surface Of The Sun
1-6	Margaret Leng-Tan*–	Mirabella (A Tarantella For Toy Piano)
1-7	Danielson Family*–	Like A Vacuum
1-8	James Kolchaka Superstar*–	Show Respect For Michael Jackson
1-9	The Mekons–	Bomb
1-10	Baby Steps–	Popular Troublesome Heartache Plan
1-11	Vic Chesnutt–	Old Hotel
1-12	Jin Hi Kim–	Yellow Seed
1-13	Bubble (9)–	Ladder Of Success
1-14	Planet Filly–	Paper Moon
1-15	Pest 5000–	Crossing Things
1-16	Zusaan Kali Fasteau*–	Rapture
1-17	Momus–	Virtual Valerie
1-18	Quintron–	Ghost Rider
1-19	Logical Nonsense–	Hypo-Christian
1-20	Ronald Thomas Clontel With Tom Scharpling–	Rock, Rot, And Rule (Excerpt)
2-1	WFMU*–	Intro: The Price Is Beans (Excerpt)
2-2	Spaceheads–	Joyriding
2-3	Uz Jsme Doma*–	Kuzelina
2-4	Rancid Vat–	Testify
2-5	Chris Butler–	Cage-ian Disembowlment Of An Acoustic Guitar While Whoring For Marathon Dollars (3rd Movement)
2-6	Original Sins*–	Bethlehem / Shopping Trip To Mercury
2-7	Philip Johnston's Transparent Quartet–	Pipeline
2-8	Suddenly Tammy!*–	Beautiful Dream
2-9	Loren Mazzacane Connors–	Improvization
2-10	Mark Eitzel–	Mission Rock Resort
2-11	Karen Mantler And Michael Evans (2)–	My Life Is Hell
2-12	The Kropotkins–	Truck Stop Girls
2-13	The Frogs–	I Only Play For Money
2-14	Silver Apples–	Fractal Flow
2-15	Lynnfield Pioneers*–	Latoya
2-16	The Renderers–	Like A Virus
2-17	Untamed Youth–	Mailbox Jamboree
2-18	Oblivians–	Pill Popper
2-19	Happiest Guys In The World*–	Free Range Chicken

THE DEAD C The White House 1995

 

Discogs

Artist Biography by Fred Thomas

Long-running New Zealand trio the Dead C were early pioneers of noise rock, stretching traditional guitar and drum instrumentation into contained explosions of bleary improvisation and lo-fi recording. Active since 1986, the group quickly developed a signature sound based around meandering, blown-out approaches to more conventional rock sounds, crafting a catalog of records that obscured melodies deep beneath walls of murk, feedback, and otherworldly noise. Records from the Dead C's '90s catalog like Trapdoor Fucking Exit and The White House helped define a movement of home-recorded experimental artists and would prove influential on the next several generations of sound deconstructionists. The group remained productive without pause throughout the '90s, 2000s, and 2010s, releasing new material every few years with adventurous indie labels like Siltbreeze and Ba Da Bing. Later albums tended more toward instrumental pieces, but the band's sound stayed remarkably consistent, with latter-day albums like Armed Courage continuing the otherworldly tones they started with.

The Dead C was formed in 1986 in Dunedin, New Zealand by guitarist/vocalist Michael Morley, ex-Verlaines drummer Robbie Yeats, and guitarist/vocalist Bruce Russell, who also ran the Xpressway label. Early on, the trio developed a drony, protracted approach to the trappings of rock music, releasing their feedback-heavy lo-fi recordings first on limited-run cassettes. Their first widely available albums were put out by Kiwi pop flagship label Flying Nun. The label, mostly known for downtuned indie pop acts like the Clean and the Bats released the Dead C's DR503 in 1988 as well as 1989's follow-up Eusa Kills. This was a highly active period for the band and before 1989 was over, they would begin a long-running relationship with Philadelphia-based fringe label Siltbreeze by releasing Helen Said This, a mini-album with two side-long jams. The band was still releasing cassette-only albums at a steady clip, recording live shows, practices, and other less traditional takes on what could constitute an album, and releasing that material to a growing international fan base. Key releases from the band's early-'90s output included 1992's dense double-LP Harsh 70's Reality, an edited collection of live recordings released the same year called Clyma Est Mort, the shiftless and meandering 1993 release The Operation of the Sonne, and 1995's somewhat more structured collection of wintery meditations The White House, all released through Siltbreeze. By this point, the band were playing their first gigs outside of New Zealand, with short tours of the United States. Members of the group were also busy with side projects, including Morley's solo moniker Gate (which had been up and running almost as long as the Dead C) and a Handful of Dust, Russell's abstract duo with Alastair Galbraith. Other side projects also formed around the nucleus of the trio, including 2 Foot Flame (a trio that joined Morley with Mecca Normal vocalist Jean Smith and New Zealand songwriter Peter Jefferies), Cobweb Iris, Brown Velvet Couch, and collaborations with members of Sonic Youth. Live album Repent surfaced in 1996 and the following year the band issued sixth album Tusk. This would be the last release the band would issue with Siltbreeze, and it also marked a relative slowdown to their high-volume productivity, as their next album wouldn't arrive until 2000 in the form of a self-titled double-CD collection of sessions conducted from 1995-1999. This eponymous album was released on the group's newly minted Language Recordings label. Their second album on the label was 2002's New Electric Music. Issued in 2003, The Damned found a more widespread American release via the Starlight Furniture label. Around this time, the band embarked on their first-ever tours of Europe, playing a festival in Scotland in 2004 and dropping by the U.K. in 2006 for an appearance at All Tomorrow’s Parties. A 2005 12" with African percussion ensemble Konono No. 1 was released as the 18th volume of FatCat Records' Split Series. The Dead C began a long-running relationship with American label Ba Da Bing, which released "Relax Fallujah - Hell Has Come" (a 7" of early recordings) and the double-CD compilation Vain, Erudite and Stupid, which spanned their entire career up to that point. A split LP with Hi God People on the Nervous Jerk label also appeared in 2006. The Dead C's first albums for Ba Da Bing were Future Artists in 2007 and Secret Earth in 2008. These were followed in 2010 by the new album Patience and reissues Clyma Est Mort/Tentative Power and Dead Sea Perform M Harris. Thirteenth proper album Armed Courage, consisting of two side-long tracks, appeared in 2013, as did a split LP with Rangda. The four-LP live box set The Twelfth Spectacle was issued by Grapefruit Records in 2014. A limited 7" single titled "Palisades" was released by I Dischi Del Barone in 2015. The five-song double album Trouble appeared on Ba Da Bing in 2016 and in 2019, over 30 years into their career, the band's 15th album arrived in the form of Rare Ravers. 

 

Tracklist

1	Voodoo Spell	2:33
2	The New Snow	12:27
3	Your Hand	7:24
4	Aime To Prochain Comme Toi Même	0:56
5	Bitcher	6:32
6	Outside	17:58

 

PETER JEFFERIES Elevator Madness 1996

by request

 

Discogs 

 

 

Artist Biography by Ned Raggett

Like his brother Graeme, who leads the Cakekitchen, New Zealand singer/instrumentalist Peter Jefferies' earliest musical performances were in Nocturnal Projections, followed in the mid-'80s by This Kind of Punishment (the dark but at times quite stunning cult band which achieved much greater notice after they were active). Following TKP's final dissolution, Jefferies actively pursued a solo career while also assisting and collaborating with a wide number of his fellow Kiwi musicians, serving as something close to an in-house producer for the legendary Xpressway label. As a musician, Jefferies has at times drawn comparisons to other artists; his piano skill and non-musical but affecting, deep vocals often call to mind John Cale. However, Jefferies is very hard to pin down; it's far more easy to see how his abilities at using four-track machines to create at-times intentionally rough, often very intimate recordings helped forecast the eventual lo-fi boom, while avoiding the typically sloppy feel that the term is generally associated with. In the early '90s, Jefferies' overseas profile started to grow rapidly after Chicago's Ajax label began issuing both a number of his then-current releases and singles, as well as licensing old TKP albums for release. Further musical ventures were the result, most notably with Mecca Normal singer Jean Smith, who collaborated with Jefferies in Two Foot Flame. Jefferies himself signed to Trance Syndicate sublabel Emperor Jones, resulting in two more solo albums before the parent label went bankrupt in 1999.

 

 Tracklist 

1	Elevator Madness	4:33
2	The Strange Case Of Stuart Townsend	7:09
3	World In A Blanket	4:16
4	Loop	2:18
5	Echoes	3:44
6	28 Years	1:59
7	Satellites And Sparks	7:00
8	Shut Out	5:07
9	Sunset	3:48

 

MECCA NORMAL Who Shot Elvis 1997

by request

 

 

Discogs 

 

 

 

Biography

Mecca Normal Biography by Steve Huey

A seminal influence on Northwestern indie rock (and especially on the riot grrl movement), Vancouver's Mecca Normal was the bridge between female post-punk primitives like the Raincoats and the Slits -- not to mention Patti Smith's punk poetry -- and the more explicitly political, feminist noisemakers of the '90s. Lo-fi, amateurish, and decidedly minimalist, Mecca Normal was essentially a duo, with occasional studio help; vocalist Jean Smith (also a poet, novelist, and painter) declaimed her stream-of-consciousness, aggressively topical lyrics over guitarist David Lester's clattering cacophony. Their prolific partnership lasted over two decades, during which time they earned a reputation for fiery concert performances and enjoyed stints on some of the era's most notable indie labels, namely K, Matador, and Kill Rock Stars.

Smith and Lester formed Mecca Normal in Vancouver in 1981, at which time both were working in design for print media. After several years of rehearsing, the duo made its first home recordings in 1984, and completed its first album in 1986; simply titled Mecca Normal, it was released on the band's own Smarten Up! label and sold chiefly at live shows. It helped lead to a friendship with Beat Happening frontman and K Records honcho Calvin Johnson, who signed the band for its 1988 sophomore effort, Calico Kills the Cat. A stream of albums on K followed, including 1991's Water Cuts My Hands, 1992's prettier and more subdued Dovetail, and 1993's Flood Plain. 1993 also brought Jarred Up, a compilation of the band's singles for various indie labels over the past six years.

Mecca Normal subsequently signed with Matador and debuted with 1995's well-received Sitting on Snaps, which featured musical involvement on drums and piano from New Zealand producer Peter Jefferies. Smith and Jefferies formed a concurrent side project called 2 Foot Flame, which released two albums over 1995-1997. Jefferies stuck around for the next two albums, 1996's The Eagle & the Poodle and 1997's more acoustic Who Shot Elvis?. Mecca Normal subsequently went on hiatus for a few years while Smith and Lester pursued other creative activities; in 2000, Smith signed to Kill Rock Stars and issued her self-titled solo debut. Mecca Normal returned in 2002 with The Family Swan, also on Kill Rock Stars. Album number 13, The Observer, appeared two years later, along with a spring tour of both U.S. coasts. Shoplifting joined them for the East Coast dates.

 

Tracklist  

1	Medieval Man
2	Who Shot Elvis?
3	Excalibur
4	The Orbit
5	Step Into My Sphere
6	The Way Of Love
7	All About The Same Thing
8	OK Here We Go
9	Don't Heal Me Like A Dog Just To Break Me Like A Horse
10	In Canada

2 FOOT FLAME Ultra Drowning 1997

by request

 

 

Discogs 

 

 

Taking a break from her full time gig singing for Mecca Normal, Jen Smith got together with Dead C guitarist Michael Morley and drummer/ pianist Peter Jefferies to form 2 Foot Flame in 1995. Jokingly dubbed as an "experimental super group, " the band took a hold of as many noises they could grasp and beat out of their instruments to record their self-titled album not too long after getting together. Their second full-length "Ultra Drowning" followed in 1997. 

 

 

Tracklist

1		Sample Stars	1:29
2		Resin Box	6:01
3		Peacock Coal	4:55
4		I Think You're The Weird One	2:18
5		Everwilling	4:50
6		Pipeline To Vertigo	4:17
7		Ultra Drowning	2:04
8		Salt Doubt	5:04
9		The Dance Alone	5:10
10		Lunar Intuition	2:04

2 FOOT FLAME 2 Foot Flame 1995

by request

Discogs

Biography

by Mike DaRonco

Taking a break from her full time gig singing for Mecca Normal, Jen Smith got together with Dead C guitarist Michael Morley and drummer/ pianist Peter Jefferies to form 2 Foot Flame in 1995. Jokingly dubbed as an "experimental super group, " the band took a hold of as many noises they could grasp and beat out of their instruments to record their self-titled album not too long after getting together. Their second full-length "Ultra Drowning" followed in 1997. 

 

Tracklist

1		Lindauer	4:53
2		To The Sea	5:29
3		Already Waiting	4:44
4		Mr. H.	3:39
5		Reinvention	3:43
6		Compass	3:37
7		The Arbitrator	3:55
8		Cordoned Off	9:54
9		Chisel	3:35

 

MATADOR RECORDS Intended Play 1997

Discogs

Tracklist

1	–Chavez	Unreal Is Here
2	–Yo La Tengo	Sugarcube
3	–Silkworm	The Devil Is Beating His Wife
4	–The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion	Wail (Video Mix)
5	–Pavement	Embassy Row
6	–Bettie Serveert	Geek
7	–Spoon	Waiting For The Kid To Come Out
8	–Cat Power	Bathysphere
9	–Run On	As God As New (Edit)
10	–Helium	Silver Strings
11	–Guitar Wolf	Link Wray Man
12	–Railroad Jerk	Well
13	–2 Foot Flame	Everything