Miscellaneous Recordings

During the early 80's New York City was bustling with an underground rock music scene that had started in the 70's.  The center of the universe being Max's Kansas City and CBGB's, with bands called "The Ramones," "Talking Heads," "Blondie," "Television," "Richard Hell and the Voidoids" and the like.  There were so many bands and so many places to see them.  During those days, I envisioned my studio becoming a center of creativity.  Working with my brother, Dave, we collaborated with a variety of bands and musicians to produced their demos and in one case an indie phonograph record on our primitive 4 track equipment.  At the very bottom is a real curiosity that surfaced recently.  A tune written by my brother called "It's a Dull World, recorded in 1978.  One of the added "features" of 4 track recording is you get to mix each tune twice:  the pre-mix and the final mix.  Below are examples of what can be wrung out of meager gear.  All of the cuts presented in this section are taken from cassettes which were then re-mastered using modern digital tools.  Listening to this material for the first time after many, many years I was struck by the high level of musicianship in each of these bands.

Disturbed Furniture

The lead vocalist's name was Alexa, the bass player and male vocal name was Tod.  Rock/funk.

Let's Ignore It (Streams)
Let's Ignore It (Download))
(This file is 3.0 MB)

Pathetic (Streams)
Pathetic (Download)
(This file is 2.9 MB)

Carnival Crash

This style could be called "No Wave."  The lead singer was a prototype for the moping style of Morrissey.

Nostalgia (Streams)
Nostalgia (Download)

Edge of Night (Streams)
Edge of Night (Download)

Method One (Streams)
Method One (Download)

Corvairs

Phil Gammage was the name of the creative force behind this project.  He wrote the songs, sang and played guitar.  Sort of Tex/Mex.  Phil still fronts a group (a swing band, I believe).  The bass player, John Cormany, was the original Ravers/Nails bass player.  As you can see this "demo" became an EP and, yes, Dave and I were credited as producers.

Hands of Time (Streams)
Hands of Time (Download)
(This file is 2.4 MB).

Juarez (Streams)
Juarez (Download)
(This file is 2.8 MB).

Temple Fire (Streams)
Temple Fire (Download)
(This file is 4.0 MB).

"It's a Dull World" (1978)

This track is a real curiosity that surfaced recently.  Most probably recorded around 1978 on my 4 track and possibly mixed directly to cassette.  The song was written by my brother and he plays keyboard (a Crummar electronic piano), drums and sings backing vocals.  I sing lead and play the guitars and bass.  This track was recorded in mono so I could cram as many layers as possible.  The drums sound so murky that we probably did two pre-mixes and then a final mix so the drums are three generations by mixdown.  This was as primitive as you can get.  We had 3 or 4 SM57 mics, I used an Electro-Harmonix Black Finger compressor guitar pedal for the vocal compressor and a hand made spring reverb purchased at the local repair shop that was an absolute shock hazard.

It's a Dull World (Streams)
It's a Dull World (Download)
(This file is 6.6 MB)

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