Friday, July 31, 2015

Kate in the lemon tree - Fifty years of shark




Well, finally I have a copy in my hot little hand.

Courtesy of Chris Tait himself (he even bothered to post it all the way from China!). Was so chuffed to get this. It's a brilliant piece of work. These guys ooze talent.... i mean, how is it that this stuff not well known? This is a question I ask myself while queuing at the supermarket, or getting my haircut, or simply sitting in a traffic jam (where I spend most of my weekends).

Lovingly recorded by Nick Abbott at York and Fish St studios, it kicks arse in the sound department too. These kids worked hard for their art & luckily they landed a decent recording to back it up.

As a general reference, fans of Slint, Shellac, Ween, Crazy carnival rides (not a band reference) and early Pavement will go gaga over this stuff. But it goes a lot deeper than that. They had their own thing going. I think it's very hard to find a band where all the people involved seem to have the same agenda. An agenda which somehow makes the band into something bigger than the sum of the parts. Some collective instinct that outsiders find hard to grasp. I knew them all & hung out with them on numerous occasions. It was almost like they spoke a different language. And don't forget these guys were really young when they did this. Some of them still practically teenagers.

Can I call this stuff 'Carnivalesque'? There's something in here that reminds me of being a scared kid at the fair. But then someone buys me some Candyfloss and I'm happy again. But then I have to get on the ghost train and that's no good at all......it all just goes to hell... the man with the chainsaw & leather mask leers at me in the dark. And the track goes up and down, round the corner & it's into the darkness again....there's no end in sight so you'd better buckle up bucko.....
Its a comedy but it's a pretty black one. And that's what makes it so good.


Here's a previous post I put up which will give you a little more background on these characters.

Please see discogs listing for further info: HERE

& Listen: HERE



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