Jessies - Thur Aug 11th (1988)

Graham Evans has passed along a pile of tapes from his pre-Huevos Rancheros days to help untangle the enigma that is Ev. Well, maybe not, but they're still a pretty fun listen.

We'll start with the Jessies, which features human metronome Jay Kreway on drums, propelling this four-piece through a Thursday night set (at the Westward Club, we assume). Ev is playing bass on here, while Rob Bolio plays guitar and Simon Carr sings and plays another guitar. This has a lot more in common with Ninth Configuration than Huevos, more skatepark than garage.

We stole the above photo from a myspace that appears to be for these Jessies. We were trying to get our heads around the picture of the guy in the batman shirt - from what we understood, that should have been Ev. But, as with all stories, this one has a twist - Ev left the band at some point, and was replaced by none other than Irv Francis.

We've also included a practice session - which includes a helpful tip on playing songs: faster is always better.

Get it here.

Lola - Lola (1994)

Another tape via Graham Evans for you today, this one from the former vehicle of Beatroute gooroo Brad Simm. We once saw Lola play at a frat party (!), just adjacent to a small room full of funny-smelling smoke (!!). Anyways, this is pretty similar stuff to Brad Simm's Blacktop 5, which also featured Graham for quite a while. Our donor (Graham) claims to have played guitar on this tape as well, which is probably of some significance.

Probably.

Color Me Psycho - Recorded Live in Forest Lawn! The Fools! (1985)

We've seen a version of this posted elsewhere (make sure you click that link to see pics of a peroxided (?) Al Charlton and 13-year old Tom Bagley), but holding a real tape in our hands courtesy of Graham Evans is making us quiver with nerdy delight. Plus, cover art by the inimitable Mark Igglesden! And limited edition, too! This is pretty great little package.

Color Me Psycho allegedly started in 1985, which means this must have been one of their first recordings, from their rehearsal space in the basement of a H&R Block in Forest Lawn. It's pretty raw, but it confirms what we've known all along: Tom Bagley has always known what he's wanted to do - and he's done it well. You could play this right alongside the new Forbidden Dimension record, and no one would know the difference. Well, we would, but that's again because of the nerdiness.

As you can probably tell, we're very excited to have this added to the CCPS archives. Get your own copy here.

Pavonine - Pavonine (1997)

Big thanks to Jeff Neily for passing along a tape we've been after for quite a while. Pavonine are one of those shortly-lived, much-heralded bands that we'd actually never heard/seen. There's no date on this tape, but we think it's from 1996 or 1997, shortly after Fire Engine Red and Placebo had called it quits.

Update: we got confirmation that it's from early '97 - and we also found the article below from the January 1997 issue of VOX. Apparently, this tape was release in super-limited quantities - like about 20.

We're big fans of Brooker Buckingham's guitar work (we remember an amazingly poorly-mixed Fire Engine Red show at Dinny's Den, where we think Brooker was making sweet guitar god love to his Fender, but we actually couldn't hear a single note), so this is a real treat to finally hear. Brooker's guitar break on "Lester Bangs" alone makes the wait worth it. Not to say that Elescia Eisler's contributions are any lesser - her Yo La Tengo-esque "Seiche" is candy.

Get it here.

White Noise - Dead and Alive (1983)

We never really expected to get our hands on this tape, so when we found it on a Brazilian blog this weekend, we thought we were hallucinating. After a cold shower and a download, we're pretty sure we're not.

If you're not clued in, White Noise is Ron Hadley, Jamie Kenney and friends pre-Beyond Possession. The liner notes to their Repossessed compilation CD tell us that the band had to change their name because of "legal problems," but it appears the band was quite active under their original name. These 15 tracks here allegedly pre-date the first Beyond Possession 7-inch, and we note that there are a few tracks on here which also show up on later BP releases (re-recorded, 'natch). This is pretty great stuff. It makes us wish we weren't so crap at skateboarding.

Grab it here, then grab your board and head to Millennium Park. If you see us there, can you call an ambulance for us?

Rocket Johnson - Eyewitness (1992)

Remember the 90's? When all the metal guys went grunge and started wearing flannel? Neither do we, frankly. At least, we don't remember this band.

Basically, we're killing time between now and next Saturday.

Rocket away!