Tony Coulter here, ready to share my favorite tracks from four wonderful, if sadly unknown cassettes. On the count of three, let's all fast-forward past the fold....
The cassettes in question, all taken from my personal collection, date from the mid-eighties to 1990. Folks on Fire, from Louisville, KY, were a slightly experimental new wave band with an audible Talking Heads influence, but also a strong identity of their own. One Big Square Foot of Sod hailed from New York City, and had a toe in the Downtown improv scene and slight echoes of No Wave. Triptic of a Pastel Fern -- oddball experimentalists originally from Virginia, but now based in California -- are perhaps the best known of the lot and are still going strong. Wifflefist was a Raleigh, NC collective, and the tape on hand is a compilation of tracks by affiliated bands and projects.
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Folks on Fire: Under a Hairy Sun (Hit-A-Note Records, 1985)
Folks on Fire: In the Living Room
Folks on Fire: This Line Has Been Disconnected
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One Big Square Foot of Sod: OBSFOS (no label, 1987)
One Big Square Foot of Sod: Prairie Clown
One Big Square Foot of Sod: That's My Horse
One Big Square Foot of Sod: King Day
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Triptic of a Pastel Fern: Fisty Stealth (Poison Plant, 1989)
Triptic of a Pastel Fern: Cassandra Sings/ Warm Sublimatus
Triptic of a Pastel Fern: Door to Density/ Identityless
Triptic of a Pastel Fern: Small Dog Hoy!
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Various Artists: A Wifflefist Compilation (Wifflefist, 1990)
Glockenspiel: Pain, a Sharp Pain
Polycarp: When I'm Feeling Blue
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That's it for this time -- see you here come December.
Hey - thanks for playing the Folks On Fire tracks. The album they come from was popular enough on college radio that EMI Records approached us for tapes. Alas by that time the band had broken up, and Bruce Linn and I were both in Chicago to go to art school. I've wanted to re-release our two LPs and various extra tracks as a CD twofer for years. Also tried to get a reunion set of gigs together last year but couldn't get everyone on board. Oh well. So thanks for the air time! I enjoyed hearing these tracks again.
Best,
Steve Jones
Chicago, IL
Posted by: Steven L Jones | November 18, 2011 at 02:58 AM
Great to hear from you, Steve!! Did your albums come out on vinyl as well, then? I've got "Under a Hairy Sun" as a cassette, and always thought that was the only way it was released. Hope you do get around to that CD reissue!
Posted by: Tony Coulter | November 18, 2011 at 05:14 AM
Both records came out on vinyl. For the second one (Hairy Sun) we managed to get it released on both vinyl and cassette. The cassette came with three bonus tracks - Living Room, This Line's Been Disconnected, and Got a Feeling (which was a send-up of a very popular local band called Nervous Melvin & The Mistakes, who were essentially a Beatles, etc. cover band). I still have a stack of both LPs. We really missed our moment for re-release. When Squirrel Bait put out their twofer CD (early 90s?) I thought we should have done so as well, while people still remembered us. So much time has passed now we're largely forgotten. But it may yet happen. If nothing else I plan to do a fan page on Facebook and upload tracks from the LPs. Anyway, really appreciate your support!
Best,
Steve
Posted by: Steven L Jones | November 18, 2011 at 12:46 PM
Thanks for the info, Steve! I'll have to search out those LPs. I'm glad to hear, though, that two of the four tracks I posted are only on the cassette (since this post is supposed to be about cassettes). You really should make those albums available in some way -- I'm sure a lot of people would like them, not just people who were your fans back in the '80s.
Posted by: Tony Coulter | November 18, 2011 at 02:06 PM
I'm happy to send you copies of the LPs. Just send me an email with your mailing address.
[email protected]
Posted by: Steven L Jones | November 19, 2011 at 02:48 AM
Yeeeaaah! This is what I love about WFMU!
Posted by: Kay | November 19, 2011 at 11:35 AM
In the future, people will transfer MP3s to cassettes.
Posted by: Tom Burgess | November 20, 2011 at 11:47 AM
Thanks again for your interest. LPs on the way. -SLJ
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Folks-On-Fire/206004606141839
Posted by: Steven L Jones | November 26, 2011 at 06:19 PM
Thanks Tony for mentioning the Wifflefist Compilation. This blog mention is probably the most press that tape compilation ever got..
Posted by: Skip Elsheimer | December 06, 2011 at 01:48 PM