These Bands Could Be Your Life

June 15, 2018 10:14 AM

The McKenzie Tapes is a collection of live audio recordings from some of New York City area’s most prominent music venues of the 1980s and 1990s. It spans mostly from 1985 to 1993, and includes shows played not only at Maxwell's, but also The Ritz, Irving Plaza, City Gardens, and more.

The collection itself was recorded by David McKenzie, a Kearny, NJ-native and former Maxwell's employee.

Artists include Wire, Sun Ra, Sonic Youth, Jonathan Richman, Fugazi, Superchunk, Butthole Surfers, Jesus Lizard, Palace Brothers, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Feelies, T-Model Ford, RL Burnside, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Rollins Band, Husker Du, Poison Idea, Dag Nasty, Black Flag, Royal Trux, so much more …

posted by chinese_fashion (14 comments total)

Just dipping in - there is some *great* stuff here:

Alex Chilton at CBGB's (04-04-1986)

Maureen Tucker at Maxwell's (03-27-1987) [w/Penn Jillette singing "Heroin"!]

Bad Brains at Max's Kansas City (02-1979)

The Jesus Lizard at Irving Plaza (01-25-1997)
posted by ryanshepard at 10:30 AM on June 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this. Vintage recordings of The Fall, The Leaving Trains, Butthole Surfers, and tons of Husker Du, amongst other things. A teenage treasure trove!
posted by SystematicAbuse at 11:46 AM on June 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

This is great!
posted by namewithoutwords at 12:06 PM on June 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

GREAT POST
posted by rhizome at 1:24 PM on June 15, 2018

Every band live and at their peak.
posted by Morpeth at 1:34 PM on June 15, 2018

SO FINE.
posted by chavenet at 1:48 PM on June 15, 2018

SHITTY GARBAGE omg. *Great* post, cheers, and remind me to tell you my CBs stories sometime.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:52 PM on June 15, 2018

Oh my god I may have just died. Columbus, Ohio represents here with a Tape from Stache’s, a beloved club I deeply miss. There’s also a Tape of Columbus’s beloved, departed Jerry Wick fronting Gaunt in NYC. Blessings on blessings. I still see Dan Dugan around town and hold back from thanking him for all my great times at Stache’s and Little Brothers.

Also, there are like 4 Die Kreuzen tapes here, my favorite band from about ‘88 to ‘94. I actually saw them at Stache’s once and hung out with Dan K out front for a bit.
My car radio is now booked for the next few weeks. Thanks!
posted by putzface_dickman at 7:57 PM on June 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow, this looks like a treasure trove. Thanks for posting!
posted by Crane Shot at 8:07 PM on June 15, 2018

Man I was so into 1991 Goo Goo Dolls.
posted by rhizome at 8:45 PM on June 15, 2018

This is an amazing treasure trove, thanks!
posted by whir at 8:24 AM on June 18, 2018

This is fantastic! Thanks for posting it!!
posted by sarcasticah at 4:26 PM on June 20, 2018

OMG I was actually at a few of these shows!
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:39 PM on June 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

> Maureen Tucker at Maxwell's (03-27-1987) [w/Penn Jillette singing "Heroin"!]

It's less random than you might think! Jad Fair used " 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Watts Records " as the label name for a couple Half Japanese records. Penn Jillette later "revived" the imprint because he's a huge Half Japanese fan, and for a few years used the 50 Skidillion Watts label to issue a slew of releases from Jad Fair and his fellow travelers (as well as Penn's own band, Bongos, Bass and Bob). Around the time of that Maxwell's show there was a collaborative project featuring Jad and Moe Tucker, which kicked off Maureen Tucker's revived late-80s music career and several more solo records before the Velvet Underground reunited.
posted by ardgedee at 4:18 AM on June 22, 2018