a r t i s t : The Dead C.
t i t l e : Vain, Erudite and Stupid: Selected Works 1987-2005
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : BaDaBing! (bing050)
g e n r e : Noise
r l s. d a t e : Aug/2006
t r a c k s : 22
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 204,4 MB
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All right, while Andee is the biggest Dead C expert here at
Aquarius, we're ALL fans of New Zealand's long-running noise
rock geniuses. And since he took responsibility for writing
the extensive and effusive reviews we've published in recent
weeks for the repressings / warehouse finds of The Dead C's
Harsh 70s Reality and Trapdoor Fucking Exit albums, I (Allan)
thought I'd step up and take over reviewing this brand new
release, which is in fact a sort of "best of" anthology
selected and compiled by the band themselves, featuring 22
tracks spread over two compact discs, spanning their career to
date. Not being as much of an expert as Andee, but still a fan
(I've got a few of their albums, and would have more but
missed out on some releases when I wasn't as 'hip' to this
band as I am now), this 2cd is just what I needed: a primer of
sorts on this sometimes confusional, confounding, and obscure
-but-important band. And as far as reviewing goes, what's to
review? THIS SHIT IS ESSENTIAL! End of story. It's an ideal
introduction for newbies and even the most dedicated Dead C
fanatic will want it as well. Even if you've collected every
last rare tape or vinyl track from these guys it's still nice
to have a few of 'em on cd.
You'll hear how The Dead C trio of Michael Morley, Robbie
Yeats, and Bruce Russell blazed their own unique path through
the down under underbelly of indie-rock experimentation,
pushing the boundaries of (between?) noise and rock in their
New Zealand laboratory. True originals, appreciated at first
only by a hardy few (themselves, mainly, as well as the likes
of Sonic Youth). Their deliberately lo-fi, song-subverting,
willfully 'wrong' music-making was and is perhaps an acquired
taste. We'd venture to guess though that at this point, few
regular AQ customers would have less than positive reactions
to The Dead C's seasick lurchings, to their sounds of droning
flybys from UFOs made out of straw, and feedback stomp and
damaged thrash. No complaints about caustic liquids somehow
coursing through guitar strings, amps, and ears. Thumb up to
their hazy hints of melodies, buried beneath solid static
storms of guitar distortion, or their moments of quietly
emotive indie-pop prettiness in the NZ tradition, left to rust
and decay.
The tracks are arranged chronologically, from "Max Harris" off
their 1988 Flying Nun album DR503 starting off the first disc,
to the track "Truth" taken from The Damned released in 2003
that ends the second disc. Disc one might be considered a
survey of their "songier" era, going up to about 1992's Harsh
70s Reality, while disc two deals with material from 1994 on
that saw them becoming less of a particularly noisy indie-rock
band and more of truly abstract, improvising noise band, still
with some rock and pop elements weirdly woven in. The tracks
selected comprise both some "greatest hits" (things we'd have
picked too, for sure) and some total rarities from long-
deleted cassettes and limited vinyl-only releases, like the
Clyma Est Mort LP, The Operation Of The Sonne LP, the
Xpressway Pile-Up cassette comp, and the Helen Said This mini
-LP, among others. Actually most of these tracks are rarities,
in the sense that a lot of their '90s cds on Siltbreeze like
The White House and Repent, and even more recent albums like
the incredible self-titled double disc on Language Recordings
from 2000 are out of print now too. There's two tracks from
Harsh 70s Reality, but strangely enough nothing from Trapdoor
Fucking Exit, by the way.
The thick cd booklet contains essays, in ascending order of
non-fictional detail, from Seymour Glass of Bananafish mag,
Tom Lax of Siltbreeze, and Nick Cain of Opprobrium fanzine.
And there's track-by-track commentary from Bruce Russell as
well, adding to the "primer" value of this release. It may be
true that this band's stuff takes a while to "get". Years
maybe. But this crash course gives a great head start.
The blurb sticker on the front of this proclaims The Dead C as
"the GREATEST noise/drone rock band of all time" and we really
might not have any argument with that at all! It goes on to
suggest that fans of Wolf Eyes, SUNNO))), Lightning Bolt and
Growing would/should dig The Dead C quite heavily. Probably
true as well. The implication being, though, that fans of
those bands wouldn't have heard of The Dead C before. Perhaps
-- and if that's the case, and that's you, you definitely
should check this out!!! We'd probably go on to say that as
much as we enjoy all those bands, The Dead C is much closer to
our hearts for sure...
www.aquariusrecords.org/cat/d5.html
www.badabingrecords.com
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Disc 1
01-Max Harris [05:36]
02-Angel [06:59]
03-3 Years [06:21]
04-Maggot [07:07]
05-Glass Hole Pit [01:09]
06-Helen Said This [10:58]
07-Hell is Now Love [04:07]
08-Highway [00:48]
09-Power [07:05]
10-Mighty [02:19]
11-Constellation [06:42]
12-T is Never Over Pt I & II [04:04]
13-World [07:53]
Disc 2
01-The Marriage of Reason and Squalor [14:29]
02-Bitcher [06:27]
03-Voodoo Spell [02:17]
04-Repent IV [11:54]
05-Head [11:04]
06-All Channels Open [06:31]
07-Tuba is Funny (Slight Return) [07:31]
08-Repulsion [10:39]
09-Truth [03:14]
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