Pavement / 3Ds Live at Warners Hotel 11.06.93

                                   

This was a memorable gig. Tall Dwarfs, 3Ds and Pavement all on the same bill. Who could resist?

I remember rocking up to the pub and there was this weird guy near the entryway handing out bits of apple to those who entered. He didn't look familiar but I figured he was just some local weirdo. No apple for me thanks, I'm here for the Guinness (Warners Hotel Guiness was excellent & I believe at that time, imported from Ireland. Very welcoming in the middle of a Christchurch winter believe me). In the end, the apple giver turned out to be Gary, the drummer from Pavement. Maybe he was feeling fruity? Who knows.... It was the start of what was to be, a very excellent evening of good vibes, too many beers & a lot of fucked up noise. Good choice!

The Tall Dwarfs were up first, then 3Ds. Pavement were top of the bill of course. 'Slanted and Enchanted' had only come out the year before and I'd been giving it a good thrashing. I immediately picked up on the 'Fall' references in their music but they had their own thing going too. Just a heavy nod towards the Mark E Smiths song writing book there....not a bad thing for a Fall fan....They were big fans of NZ music too & the video link above will reveal such ties. Love their youthful enthusiasm!

After I'd recorded the 3Ds set, Chris Knox came up to me and said 'Oh I see you're recording the bands.... but you didn't record us did you?' looking me straight in the eye in a vaguely threatening manner. I quickly replied that I already had all his stuff (not a complete lie) and that was the reason why. He glared at me a few seconds longer and then sauntered off to harass some other poor soul. Phew, got outa jail that time! Tall Dwarfs were great too of course. I was just more interested in capturing the main act.

Again recorded on my trusty Sony walkman, this is relatively raw but there's enough detail in there to keep it interesting. Pavement sound a bit more dynamic I think because the 3Ds were so blitzingly ferocious that my walkman could barely cope with the onslaught. It didn't cope well with the high frequency guitar noise sadly. The 3Ds were really a force to be reckoned with in the early days of their existence. I saw them at Crown Hotel in Dunedin around 1991 it was just fucking insane. White noise.... white heat... you couldn't move in that bar, it was that jam packed full of crazed, wasted fans. If you never experienced that, this will give you some idea of what we endured that night.

Pavement were beyond great. They were just so happy to be there. Drinking on stage and just really relaxing into the south sea island vibes. I left quite a bit of stage dialogue in the final mixes as it really helps generate the feel of the evening. You can tell these guys are having fun. Took me a while to figure out what all the songs are (one of them is a Silver Jews cover) but I still have my old Pavement records to reference and of course youtube helped with the more obscure tunes. Some of them are earlier versions of songs they recorded later too so not quite so recognisable. The last song is from the EP 'Watery Domestic' which Nans from Kate in the Lemon Tree gave me one time. I refused to take it but he insisted!  'Texas never whispers' is probably my favourite Pavement song ever. Sadly the tape runs out on it..... that's the way it goes folks. 

In two downloads:

Pavement here.

3Ds here.

Bob Cadillac - Black dash Light

 

Toot toot......! (That's the sound of me blowing my own trumpet). 

Shameless self promotion here people. Peddling my own wares like Steptoe & Son.

Another dodgy rough as bags home recording I've been slaving over the last few years has finally been laid to rest like a free range egg.... rolled out of my very own bedroom studio workshop and splattered onto the unsuspecting public's face. 

Have a listen here on Bandcamp. A download will only cost you only $5.00..... mere chickenfeed......    I need to retire next year and those Gold Coast bowling clubs have fees! How else am I going to pay my bar tab?

There's also a run of 20 x Chrome Cassettes of this album courtesy of Lynton who rescued them from landfill & then also helped me dub them with his stack of vintage tapedecks. Much gratitude due to Lynton who also played drums on two tracks and recorded a few other tracks for me too. James Greig & Kat Black also feature on Guitar and Vocals respectively. Joanne Billesdon makes an appearance on Vocals (recorded by John Billows) and even my wife Jane jumped at the chance to sing on one track (ok I had to drug her and tie her to a chair for three days but in the name of rock 'n' roll, it was necessary folks.... (she doesn't remember it anyway).

The Dashboard picture used for the cover features a 'Magic Ribbon' type of speedometer from a 1959 Buick Lesabre. Some of these also changed colour as the speed changed. My dad had a Vauxhall in the 1970's with a Magic Ribbon that would start off at green, then change to orange as you accelerated until it finally hit the red (dad drove like a maniac so it was usually in the red). The 70's was when I also learnt first hand about the necessity of the seat belt. Dad came to a screaming halt one day & I hit the windscreen like a child projectile with my head. After that I didn't need convincing as to their usefulness :)

Buckle up and take a listen. 

Dead C. - Perform DR 503b

 

A while back I managed to score a copy of the elusive Flying Nun DR503 vinyl. A nice mint copy too....had to pay through the nose for it but that's how it goes these days if you want to buy a 30+ year old record from the venerated Flying Nun back catalogue. I was lucky enough to be around NZ buying up Flying Nun goodies back in the 80's and 90's so most of them I paid standard retail for and there's not much else I really require from that golden nun period thankfully but on occasion one will crop up that is a necessary addition to the shelf. Gotta have those Nun oddities!

Flying Nun (and spending too much on records) aside, this tape isn't DR503 as such. It's a live document from around that time including much of the material from the said LP plus or minus a few bits. A very different listening experience to the LP structurally & tonally of course but if you understand Dead C speak, you'll dig it. Yet another tape from the James Greig archives. Upload comes with artwork & details of where & when these recordings took place. 

Another Xpressway cassette rarity you need to get you hands on. Ripped at 320kbps and only volume balanced for that natural magnetic tape sound.....

Get it here: Perform DR 503b

Supertanker & Vortex - Live at the Dux de Lux, Christchurch 05-06-93

Ok this tape gave me heaps of trouble. It just refused to budge. I even transferred the reel to another case to see if that would work but no, nothing. It would play for 10-15 seconds and then start jerking around, spit out some horrid noise & the come to a halt. Finally I had enough of messing around with it & handed it over to Lynton who has several tape decks and the know-how to get things workin & though he also had a few issues, he got it ripped so you can thank our resident tape expert Dr Lynton Von Denhoven for this baby. Glad it finally gets to see the light of day!

Supertanker were one of the 'fab five' shall we say that made it onto Rob Mayes' 'Avalanche' compilation (Sept, 1993) which was three songs each from five Christchurch bands which were basically the biggest crowd pullers in town at that time. For good reason too, they all fucking rocked. This compilation put them on the map almost instantly. Student radio ran with it and the bands had multitudes of fans nationally almost overnight & garnered some international attention too.

'Vortex' were the support band for this gig and I managed to get most of their set as well so that's present in a separate download. Really like the first song which is a reference to the Close Encounters movie. Someone had a decent reverb unit in that band!

Supertanker were sort of in the middle of the scene stylistically I suppose, not too heavy / not too light, clever and emotive songs with twisted fuzzed out lead breaks and wall of sound distorted rhythm guitars. Nearer the 'My Bloody Valentine' or 'Ride' end of the pop spectrum to my ears but don't forget that in NZ we have our own home grown influences as well & The Straightjacket Fits / Flying Nun back catalogue would be buried deep amongst the subconsciousness of these youngsters without a doubt. That and the influence of the southern alps, the bleak winters, the rising damp, the prevailing easterly wind, the hostile locals..... the fact nobody even knew where NZ was....definitely defined the character of a local sound.

The early 90's were so much fun there.... too many good bands to count... parties & gigs every week....nobody seemed to have a real job.... just a great scene of creative types spending their money on amplifiers & booze instead of food.....

It's a pretty low-fi recording & not the entire gig either but whatever, this is free shit people! Really you should be paying me for dishing out this rare and wonderful stuff.

Supertanker Download Here.

Vortex Download Here.

And here's a video of Supertanker to wet your whistle. This song is also one of the live tracks in the download.

Live Dead C. X/WAY 1

When it comes to the numbers, the previous Dead C. Live recording by James Greig has racked up nearly 700 downloads (currently on 682 as I write this so I may as well bump it up to 700 to make myself look more important) and so it is by far and away thee download king of this blog and rightly so as it's a bloody good recording.

So the story goes, James Greig rolled up the other day with a bag of drugs and a couple of rare and unusual Xpressway tapes to tinker with. James has also received the blessing from label curator Bruce Russell for this upload just in case you were wondering.
Thanks Bruce!

I have a few Xpressway vinyls which are very dear to me. One I really regret not getting back in the day is the now extremely rare Plagal Grind EP. Practically worth it's weight in gold these days. 
If you're not familiar with the back catalogue of this label, get a move on and start digging through it because it's basically Flying Nun's better cousin. The compilations are a good place to start. I'm playing 'Pile=Up' right now in fact. 'Making Losers Happy', a singles collection released on 'Drag City' also incredible listening and a good place to start your collection.

The Dead C. Live is exactly what it says it is. A selection of early live recordings circa 1987.

I've uploaded it with the tape artwork too so you have all the relevant details.

So here you go all you greedy Dead C. fans.....

The Live Dead See.

(Oh and it was a complete lie about the drugs by the way).