Zsu-Zsu's Petals

MP3s

Thursday, September 14th. I arrive home from work to find a plain brown padded envelope in my mailbox. "Oh boy, porn!" I exclaim. But no, it turns out to be even better than that. Brendan has sent me a cassette chock full of Zsu-Zsu's Petals and What Fresh Hell studio recordings, along with a letter which serves as an excellent framework for the presentation of this material.

James,

As chronicler of all things Petalian, I thought you should have this. You are now in possession of the entire studio output of Zsu-Zsu's Petals and its short-lived bastard offspring of the West Coast, What Fresh Hell. Kind of interesting to chart our progression as we gradually figure out what we're doing.

Here's the breakdown:

ZZP session 1: Recorded in August of '91 at Stinky's Studio, an aptly named couple of rooms in a building right behind Fitzgeralds ("Stinky" himself was one of the sound guys at the club and gave us a discount ' cause he liked us). Jerry's on keys and Michael Danburg's on bass. I was well on my way to bronchitis and sound like shit. I remember Stinky had a huge dog named "Scud".

Just A Reminder - 9.2 MB
Pure Genius - 4.9 MB
World Without Fred Astaire - 7.2 MB

ZZP session 2: May of '92, recorded in the hinterlands of Friendswood or Clear Lake or someplace at a very nice studio called Visions. Our manager set it up though we still ran out of funds before the final mix. I was dead set against doing "The Day" since it was a brand new song at the time (barely rehearsed, much less performed live). I was overruled -- and nailed it in one take out of spite. Hah! Anders played bass on that one, Jay on the others. Dwite on keys. And with a nice go on the cello from John Croft.

Just Another White Rocker - 5.1 MB
The Day - 3.8 MB
Memories of the Great Frog Rain of '48 - 4.1 MB

Hot Cup O' Joe session: October '94 at Deep Dot, a little hole-in-the-wall studio that was, surprisingly, one of the best we ever worked in. We had called it quits two years before, but Pat wanted a pro quality version of our rock operetta on tape before heading off to Boston with his new band Grand Wazoo. The plan was to have an album of the entire piece (including songs and characters that were never performed for either of our presentations of Joe), but it never materialized. All that remains of that idea is the second Victim's song which no one but our little family circle has ever heard. Enjoy! Carolyn was actually there with us at Deep Dot, Chad was recorded by Pat alone several months later in New York where the Chadster was living at the time. Pat still claims finally putting this album together as one of his life's goals. I hope it happens, because I'm still very proud of our ambitious little theater project. Matt played the bass for these tracks and also acted as producer/mixer.

Victim's Song 1 (Carolyn Wonderland) - 1.6 MB
Victim's Song 2 (Carolyn Wonderland) - 1.3 MB
Doctor Riland (Chad Smalley) - 5.4 MB
Joe (Brendan Jones) - 5.5 MB

What Fresh Hell session: Cut to January of 1998. San Francisco, CA. Our new line-up of me, Pat, Scott, Dave Parnall -- our amazing lead guitarist and handsome bald giant, and Jason whose-last-name-I've-forgotten -- our monster bass player and flaky alcoholic, had been together for six or seven months and had played a total of three well-received gigs (we rehearsed obsessively and were good and truly tight before we ever hit the stage). We headed off to Kurt Foster's Studio in the East Bay. A homey little studio that treated us right and who cut us a little slack on our overtime because they thought we kicked any number of asses. Three days, four songs. Still needs a final mix. But soon after this, Scott bowed out and that was that. I don't think we ever sounded better. Scott is prominent on the backing vocals on all of the songs as well as a five part harmony on the "ooooo" part of "Sweet Satellite" comprising the whole band! Fun shit.

The Ugly Truth - 6.9 MB
Think - 7 MB
Sweet Satellite - 6.4 MB
Traffic In Soles - 7.4 MB

There you have it, Jimmy-Cracked-Corn-But-I-Don't-Care, all we have to remember us to posterity. I hope you enjoy this stuff. I do, because it comes with great memories, but it's a bittersweet thing because I hear the unfulfilled promise of a very excited bunch of talented kids. Pat's very fond of saying "hey, you never know, couple of years from now we'll get the band back together". Sounds like fun, but how would I explain it to the grandkids? The long hair and tuxedo? The groupies and the three-hole punch? I never rule anything out and part of me will always secretly wish we were still rocking with our ever-lovin' cocks out, but it seems less than likely. At least we got some of that silliness on tape!

Take care man,
Brendan Jones
L.A., September '00

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I can use this stuff *myself* because it's in loving tribute, right?
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