#straitjacket fits

Promotional photo for Dunedin, New Zealand band Straitjacket Fits (photographer: Stuart Page), issued by U.S. record label Rough Trade circa 1988.

This is but one of many band press photos I acquired via in the early nineties back when labels mailed these things everywhere, specifically:

To the record store where I worked

To the radio station where I DJ’ed

To me, care of my fanzine

Since this photo would have coincided with their lone U.S. indie release in 1988 on Rough Trade—before they got snapped up by major label Arista Records—I likely nabbed it from one of the many piles we had at the record store. Because I didn’t discover Straitjacket Fits until the following year, when I bough the In Love With These Times compilation CD at my local Newbury Comics.

Postcard for The Bats’ 1993 album, Silverbeet, and U.S. tour with Straitjacket Fits and JPS Experience.

The Bats had spent November of 1992 in the Boston area recording what would be their Silverbeet album. They also played some shows in the U.S. around that time, including this one at T.T. the Bear’s I recorded after interviewing frontman Robert Scott for my zine.

So news of a return U.S. visit? Hurrah! And with fellow Flying Nun label-mates Straitjacket Fits and JPS Experience? Double hurrah! While I’d been lucky enough to catch Straitjacket Fits when they swung through town the summer of 1991, JPS Experience hadn’t ever played in the U.S. This triple-threat bill was dubbed the “Noisyland” tour, which perhaps didn’t quite fit the amped-up folk-pop of The Bats, but was more than suitable for the Fits and even JPS Experience at that time. All three bands played to a very respectable crowd in the newly-opened Middle East Downstairs room. I was of course in Kiwi pop heaven.

especially Bessie's Last Journey

at the same time we also got introduced to the new zealand band Straitjacket Fits and this album is so cool, especially Down In Splendour