11.19.2008
Messages for the Cakekitchen
Graeme Jefferies Messages for the Cakekitchen LP (Flying Nun, 1987)
One of the Big Lies taught in Rock History 101 is that there are Dead Periods when no good music is being made, a situation rectified by some savior band or artist. Thus, after its initial burst, rock & roll petered out and was about to die but then the Beatles came along and all was saved. At least until about 1973, when rock was taken over by bubblegum outfits and dinosaur bands, who would have sunk the genre if not for the rise of British Punk Rock, which saved the day...for a while. Come 1985, rock & roll was once again struggling to survive. Lots of bands but, man o man, they sucked. Rock was just about to be pronounced dead when Nirvana and grunge revived it. At best, this rundown is a surface level understanding of rock & roll. At worst, it is a lie created to market new trends. Either way, the line above is wrong. There are no Dead Periods in rock & roll.
While Elvis goes pop and invites Bill Haley and Pat Boone to further bleach rock & roll, rockabilly bands were still raging and so was a gritty R&B, code name for rock & roll made by Black folks. Instrumental surf bands, taking a hint from Duane Eddy and Link Wray, were multiplying, along with hundreds of teen garage bands. All there for the Beatles to "save." The mid Seventies saw glam, power pop, prog, krautrock, what we now call proto-punk, and dozens of Eastern European bands playing rock music underground, not to mention hundreds of loners and outsiders making private press records that are now gobbled up by collectors. And while the world suffered under the funk-punk and hair metal ballads of the late 80s, there was, at least in New Zealand, some fantastic records being made. One of the people making those records was Graeme Jeffries.
Messages for the Cakekitchen is Jefferies only "solo" record, sort of. It appeared after a couple EPs made under the name Cakekitchen and was followed by a few albums by a band of the same name. Prior to Cakekitchen, Jefferies played in Nocturnal Projections with his brother Peter, who later formed the 3Ds, another great Kiwi band. The brothers also recorded as This Kind of Punishment, making stand out records for Xpressway and Flying Nun. What Jeffries is doing now, I don't know. Searching for info on him doesn't lead very far.
Here are two cuts off of Jefferies Messages for the Cakekitchen LP. It is good, moody sounds for the approaching chill.
# posted by Scott Soriano : 21:28
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hey Scott, Peter J never had anything to do with the 3Ds? I'm sure I'll think of the reason those wire might cross in your memory as soon as I post this, but right now it's eluding me... Jon
# posted by 
: 14:56
: 14:56
Peter's still goin at it I'm pretty sure. He was back here in Auckland for a few months last year (oe maybe late '06). He'd just released a Cakekitchen split single with some band called Dairy High (from Russia!). Cakekitchen track is called Honeypod In My Head.
Nice catchy little old-school flying nun style pop song.
Pretty sure he's based himself somewhere in Australia now
Nice catchy little old-school flying nun style pop song.
Pretty sure he's based himself somewhere in Australia now
Graeme Jefferies has been leading a band called The Cakekitchen for the past decade. They just released an album last year.
You might have had trouble finding information since you spelled his name wrong. Not criticizing you, just sincerely saying that might be why.
Also, pretty sure Peter was never in the 3D's. The band's name came because all the members had names that started with D. David Mitchell (also of Goblin Mix, Exploding Budgie, Evil, etc.) and Denise Roughan (Look Blue Go Purple) were the main songwriters in that band.
You might have had trouble finding information since you spelled his name wrong. Not criticizing you, just sincerely saying that might be why.
Also, pretty sure Peter was never in the 3D's. The band's name came because all the members had names that started with D. David Mitchell (also of Goblin Mix, Exploding Budgie, Evil, etc.) and Denise Roughan (Look Blue Go Purple) were the main songwriters in that band.
Now? Oh my! You certainly are not paying attention. Rock & Roll is as rich now as it was any other time! Hundreds of quality bands, lots of great releases. Maybe not in the mainstream, but who cares about the mainstream. The underground DIY scene in lots of different subgenres is very vibrant.
I bought this album at the WFMU Record Fair years ago. I probably listened to it once and filed it away. Thanks for inspiring me to break it out again.
Also, I'm pretty certain Peter J. was never in the 3Ds, which is actually sort of odd since he seemed to be in just about every other NZ outfit in the mid-90s: Cyclops, Plagal Grind and a bunch of others I can't think of right now.
Also, I'm pretty certain Peter J. was never in the 3Ds, which is actually sort of odd since he seemed to be in just about every other NZ outfit in the mid-90s: Cyclops, Plagal Grind and a bunch of others I can't think of right now.
"Rock & Roll is as rich now as it was any other time! Hundreds of quality bands, lots of great releases"
Bullshit. Rock n Roll is fucking dead; the fact that there's still thousands of bands buggering its corpse doesn't change the facts. I wasn't talking about the mainstream, i was talking about the "underground" indie shit that's every bit as bad as anything i hear in a doctor's office.
Bullshit. Rock n Roll is fucking dead; the fact that there's still thousands of bands buggering its corpse doesn't change the facts. I wasn't talking about the mainstream, i was talking about the "underground" indie shit that's every bit as bad as anything i hear in a doctor's office.
# posted by : 01:56
: 01:56
Sorry, you aren't paying attention. If your notion of underground is about as deep as Pitchfork, than sure rock in in a bad place. However deeper down, lots of good labels putting out a variety of great stuff - Sacred Bones, Die Stasi, Locust, Topplers, Daggerman, Enfant Terrible, the list goes on. Rock & roll has been declared dead by every idiot since its emergence. It is not only a bad cliche, but proven false when you open your ears.
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