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" Delible: Disappearing Independent Hits from the Golden Age of College Radio (1985-1990)" with Steve Gardner (archive)

I've been DJing for over 20 years. I try to whittle down an eclectic lifetime of faves into 2 hours each week.
Monday, April 18, 2011 | 20:00 to 22:00 | Specialty

Artist Song Album Label Comments
Dumptruck Back Where I Belong Positively Dumptruck Big Time 1986 - Band from MA. Tried to jump to a major label. Lawsuits ensured. Careers went in the toilet.
Lyres Not Looking Back Lyres Lyres Ace of Hearts 1986. Huge Boston band. Jeff Conolly from DMZ - a late 70s punk band that also featured David Robinson who would later be in the Cars.
Live Skull 5-D Dusted Homestead 1987 - Thalia Zedek (Come, Uzi) was in this NYC band.
Jacobites Son of a French Nobleman Robespierre's Velvet Basement Glass 1986. Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Nikki was in the Swell Maps. Epic Soundtracks was also in this band.
The Bounty Hunters A Picture of You Threads A Tear Stained Scar Creation 1989. Dave Kusworth's, from the Jacobites, band.
The Clean Tally Ho Compilation Homestead 1988. This song is pre-1985 but this record was compiled and released to us stateside via Homestead. The Clean was the first band on the seminal Kiwi label Flying Nun. The band is cited as a huge influence on Stephen Malkmus/Pavement among others. David Kilgour is the main guy. You'll still see his name around. Great stuff.
Tall Dwarfs Nothing's Going to Happen Hello Cruel World Homestead 1988. NZ again. Chris Knox and Alan Bathgate. Once again, this was originally on Flying Nun and this was their first big stateside release. One of the bands that started the lo-fi movement. Big influence on Neutral Milk Hotel.
Laughing Hyenas Kick Life of Crime Touch and Go 1990. Loud. From the Midwest.
Scratch Acid Eyeball Just Keep Eating Rabid Cat 1986. David Yow (Jesus Lizard) led this band. One of Kurt Cobain faves.
Green River Swallow My Pride Come on Down EP Homestead 1985. Some folks call this the first grunge album. Green River featured Mark Arm and Steve Turner who would later form Mudhoney. Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth is on backing vox, btw.
The Happy Flowers Mom, I Gave the Cat Some Acid My Skin Covers My Body Homestead 1987. Featuring Mr Anus and Mr Horribly Charred Infant. Pure noise and lyrics that sound like child nightmare material...but somehow, really fun and hilarious.
Half Japanese 1,000,000,000 Kisses Charmed Life 50 Skadillion Watts 1988. Jad and David Fair.
Bongwater Mr Soul The Bridge - A Tribute to Neil Young Caroline 1989. From the tribute album which helped (for better or worse) re-kick off the tribute album phase which still is popular today. Bongwater was Kramer (from Shockabilly and Shimmy Disc) and actress Ann Magnuson.
B.A.L.L. She's Always Driving B.A.L.L. Four Hardball Shimmy Disc 1990. Includes Kramer, Don Fleming (Half Japanese, Velvet Monkeys, Gumball, Dinosaur Jr, producer extraordinaire), David Licht (Shockabilly) and Jay Spiegel (Half Japanese, Gumball).
Biff Bang Pow! She Haunts Love is Forever Creation 1988. Alan McGee's band, and the first record on his new label, Creation. Jangly.
These Immortal Souls Marry Me (Lie! Lie!) Get Lost (Don't Lie!) SST 1988. Led by Rowland S Howard of the Birthday Party and Crime and the City Solution. With Epic Soundtracks.
Jazz Butcher Human Jungle Bloody Nonsense Big Time Pat Fish is the main man. This is a compilation presented to Americans for the first time.
Jasmine Minks Cut Me Deep Another Age Creation 1988. Also one of the first bands on Creation. This is the second album, their most successful thanks to touring with Primal Scream, the House of Love and Jazz Butcher.
Squirrel Bait Kid Dynamite Skag Heaven Homestead 1987. From Louisville, KY. David Grubbs was later a member of Bitch Magnet, Bastro, Gastr del Sol and the Red Krayola. Also has released a number of solo albums. Band members also went to the Lemonheads as well as 2 of them formed Slint. Also, the Breeders, Palace, etc.
Bitch Magnet Navajo Ace Umber Communion 1989. Bitch Magnet was from Oberlin College in OH, but later moved to NC. Lead singer Sooyoung Park left the band to form Seam with Lexi Mitchell. David Grubbs from Squirrel Bait was in this band, but left to form Bastro.
Doctors Mob She Said, She Said She Said EP Wrestler 1986. From Austin, lead singer said "the whole idea of the band was to have these really melodic songs that you played really heavy". This explains a great part of late 80s college rock in the US. Dinosaur Jr took it to the bank.
The Scientists Swampland Weird Love Big Time 1990. Australian. Their only released here in the states, but very popular and influential in Australia.
The Screaming Tribesmen Igloo Bones + Flowers Rykodisc 1988. Ditto, though they had more than one release here, I believe.
Negativland Christianity is Stupid Helter Stupid SST 1989 The band released fake press release saying that some kids heard this song and killed themselves. They sent it to the news outlets and they bit. It was a huge story before they found out it was a hoax, but by then everyone knew the band. A future stunt with their U2 EP didn't fare as well as years of lawsuits ensued. This is the end of the Reagan years as we led into the Bush years. College radio was in a tizzy.
Carmaig de Forest Dear Judas I Shall Be Released Good Foot 1987. Carmaig de Forest is an anti-folk singer-songwriter from Los Angeles. He mainly performs on the ukulele and was a warm up artist for the Ramones in the early 80s. This is one of the meanest most bitter indictments of Reagan I ever heard, and probably will ever hear. We ate it up.