Sad news as I found out earlier today that Charlie Chesterman, frontman for the band, Scruffy The Cat lost his battle with cancer. If you've been following this blog for the past many years, you'll know how much this band meant to me and how influential their music has been in my life. They sit firmly in place in my personal top 5 alongside bands such as YFF, The Replacements, The Kinks, Velvet Underground and Wilco. Though their recorded input was small and consisted of only 2 full length albums and a couple of EP's (plus a split with YFF), their live shows and the live recordings (that I've heard) were outstanding. Charlie Chesterman's output post-Scruffy led to further fine recordings either solo or with his band, Chaz and the Motorbikes. If you have a chance to grab some of his solo recordings, you won't be disappointed. From The Book Of Flames, Studabakersfield and Dynamite Music Machine are highly underrated and Hit This & Kick That is a cool comp of the first three. Recently released (last week) is a collection of hard to find compilation tracks and previously unreleased rarities from Charlie between 1992-2012 called, Solid Gold Electric Chestnut Despenser. This is available for download now at charliechesterman.bandcamp.com. Proceeds go directly to the Friends of Charlie Chesterman Fund.
As a tribute to Charlie, I have some Charlie Chesterman/STC-related live shows to share. I've been collecting Scruffy The Cat live recording since the days of tape/CD trading and I've been downloading any shows I see posted on Dime. I've previously posted a couple of the better Scruffy recordings already and I'll dig around the hard-drive and my multiple "orange boxes" of CD's and see what I have of interest. Stay tuned.
Previous posts:
WERS- July 27,1986
Live at the Ritz- 02-04-1989
Spit and Paulish #9- live compilation (mp3)
This WERS recording is an interesting early Scruffy in-studio with a track from the first EP, High Octane Revival (Happiness), some early compilation tracks (Oldest Fire, Monkey's Hat), some unreleased and early versions of Moons Of Jupiter and Everything.
Enjoy!
SCRUFFY THE CAT
WERS Studio - Emerson College
Boston, MA
May 20, 1984
2nd Gen Cass>Sony Stand Alone>EAC>FLAC 08
01. Oldest Fire In The World
02. Little Mister Blues
03. Watusi Weekend
04. Everything
05. Happiness To Go
06. Burning Cross
07. Graveyard Of Love
08. Change In Life
09. Momma Killed Hate
10. Swearing Off The Women And Swearing On The Booze
11. I Feel Like A Spy
12. The Ghost Song
13. ??
14. Moons Of Jupiter
15. Big Fat Monkey's Hat
16. DJ
17. Lullaby
18. DJ outro
SCRUFFY THE CAT- 1984-05-20, WERS Studio, FLAC. rar
Thanks for this!! I was really upset to hear the news yesterday. Scruffy was a great band who I got to see a bunch of times over the years. Looking forward to seeing what else you have to post - would offer something in return but I think most of what I have was downloaded from here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. I am gutted.
ReplyDeleteI heard the news today... very sad. I've never heard a bad word uttered about Charlie.
ReplyDeleteWe lost one of the best.
absolute Rock
ReplyDelete