chained and perfumed

A few day ago, this dubious NME story hipped me to the existence of a prefame recording made by The La’s in 1989. It features the band recording a handful of never-released songs in a kitchen and is nearly as good as their album–it might even be better despite the fact that the songs are mostly unfinished and fragmentary. It has the feel of the white album demos that the fabs recorded at Kinfauns. Here‘s a link to an edited version that removes the between song banter. A Kitchen Tape Thirty Days if you will. All killer. No filler.

The La’s, guided by their perfectionist leader, famously recorded their only LP a handful of times and then even disowned the released version of it. I always assumed that Mavers was being a crybaby for insisting on making the record so many times and ultimately not being happy with any of the results–even though the released version is one of the finest debut LPs around. But having heard the rejected versions, I can see why he was so unhappy. They’re pretty lackluster.