Thursday, October 15, 2009

Dukes of Burl

Cassette Rip (Split into 15 Tracks)


When I was 18 or 19 ('90-'91 ish) I went up to Olympia and Seattle. In Olympia I saw an amazing show at the Capital Theater of Unwound/Giant Henry, Some Velvet Sidewalk, Kicking Giant and a great garage-mod-surf band called "Dukes of Burl".
After the show I wanted a tape, so the bass player took me back to his pad (or place he was staying I can't remember) and dubbed me their demo (over a "James Gang" tape I had recently got at a record store "grab bag").
That bass player was John Quitty who was also in Honey Bear, Brent's TV, Tight Bros From Way Back When, Behead the Prophet, and did Hession Obsession zine. Also in the band was future Hi-Fives members John Denery and Chris Imlay, and drummer Greg).
When I got back home I decided I wanted to move to Olympia; literally everyone was cool as hell and welcoming. I met punks and skaters who also loved black coffee, and saw Melvins graffiti on alley walls. I got an issue of "Pulp" fanzine and it instantly became my new favorite zine. I never did move, and a couple years later Olympia was the "new place to be" and I heard the locals were less friendly to "outsiders". Understandably so. Thanks "Sassy".
I still kept this demo and the sticker I got at the show...and the Pulp fanzine. I also tattooed the K records logo on myself when I got home. What an impressionable youth I was, eh?
Anywho, fans of Hi-Fives, Phantom Surfers, Odd Numbers, monster movies, Groovie Ghoulies, POTA marathons, Buzzcocks, the Jam or just watching Ray Harryhausen films on a Sunday afternoon...check it out!

Shimmy Shake

8 comments:

  1. FYI -Al Sobrante (aka John Kiffmeyer sp?) was not the drummer, I was. My name is Greg. I was in a handfull of obscure Northewest bands. Also of interest, Nirvana was supposed to be the headliner of this show. It seems they had forgotton previous engagements to shoot photos, I think, for an album called Nevermind. Yup.

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  2. Thanks Greg! I made the changes. Hope you don't mind me posting this. It's a Great record! Or tape..or whatever..

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  3. Music is for the people, man, post away. I can't seem to get the tunes to play, but it's probably just my computer. I'll have to dig for the cassette. Sure hope I still have a copy. The tape was our demo, which could have easily been turned into an LP of sorts. Our only official release pressing was on the "Very Small World" double LP of various artists put out by the legendary Very Small Records label. This was my first real band and we had a heck of a lot of fun! Quitty was the master of the copy machine. He would crack us all up with the stickers he would make taking straight edge and other album covers (Public Enemy) and pasting Burl Ives face on them. "Fear of a Burl Planet"

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  4. Thanks!

    That's weird you can't get them to play. Drop them in iTunes, or VLC player they should work...
    I remember that Fear of a Burl planet sticker! I may have had more, but the Youth of Today one is all I have now.
    Cheers!

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  5. oh yeah, and make sure you uncompress the file first with unrarX or Winrar or something. You prolly did that already.

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  6. This is a great share! I, too, got a dub of this from a kind soul while I was in Olympia in the summer of '91 when I roadied for Screeching Weasel. It's a crime that this was never more widely released -- it's really one of my favorite listens. My friend Jason went through the trouble of digitizing this a few years back, but it's a copy of a copy of a copy (probably of a copy of a copy), and it's got some humorously wobbly bits here and there. While I'm about to download and listen to your very generously offered version, I suspect it'll be miles better in quality; I thank you very, very much in advance!

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  7. I'm enjoying the blog. Is there any way you can evaporate this tape back into the cloud? Thanks!

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