Here are books I enjoyed reading that cover two important underground music scenes that may have escaped some folks’ notice. Needles and Plastic, subtitled Flying Nun Records, 1981-1988, is an exhaustive tome by Matthew Goody. It discusses every record released by the New Zealand label Flying Nun over those eight years. Artists like The Chills [Tape Op #4], Tall Dwarfs [#22], The Verlaines, The Clean [#22], Alastair Galbraith [#3], and many of my favorites are here.
A Really Strange and Wonderful Time, subtitled The Chapel Hill Music Scene: 1989-1999, is by Tom Maxwell, a former member of Squirrel Nut Zippers. Tom covers a more personal history of this North Carolina region, drawing in a bit of oral history as well as his own perspectives. Artists such as his band, Archers of Loaf [Tape Op #166], Superchunk [#76], Metal Flake Mother, Polvo [#78], Southern Culture on the Skids [#122], The Veldt, and many others show up here.
As I finished both books, what struck me most was the amount of discussion about where and how to record. In both scenes, it comes up over and over. Where can they make the album? Did they like the results? Did the recording people help or hinder the process? Was there enough money or time?
In New Zealand, there were not that many professional studios in the ‘80s and Flying Nun’s recording budgets were low. Chris Knox [Tape Op #22] would drag his 4-track reel-to-reel all over, recording some classics and even Top 20 New Zealand releases! Brendan Hoffman [#4] and Tex Houston both carried on this spirit; see their chat with Barbara Manning and me in the Tape Op, vol. I book. I even recorded part of an album (2 Foot Flame’s Ultra Drowning) with Peter Jefferies, who also lugged a recorder around New Zealand working with all sorts of folks (look for his incredible “Randolph’s Going Home” 7-inch with Shayne Carter). Dead C guitarist Michael Morley was also in 2 Foot Flame, and he shows up all over this book as well. How everyone made all these records, and with whom, is so integrated into what was happening at that time and is referenced throughout the book.
A Really Strange and Wonderful Time covers the next ten years on the other side of the world in Chapel Hill, NC. Recording technology goes past 4-tracks, and sessions with Mitch Easter [Tape Op #21] inspire folks such as John Plymale [#152] to get involved in the studio. Engineer/producers such as the late Caleb Southern, Brian Paulson [#78], Chris Stamey, and Jerry Kee [#145] pop up throughout the book’s covered timeline.
The point I’m trying to make should be obvious: If one tries to separate the recording process from the music scenes surrounding it, they are making a big mistake. Creativity and necessity must suffice, especially on the margins where budgets are low and time is short. Read both of these books, realize the lines between musician, engineer, and producer become hazy, and that these roles were always intertwined because there were records to be made and music to get out to the world.
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