PERSONNEL:
Lenny Zenith, guitar
Andy Moore, drums
James Pertusi, bass
Jim Santo, guitar
TRACK LISTING:
Side A – Live at Brownies, March 31, 1995
Here is the original Jenifer Convertible, with Andy Moore on drums, at our best! This show happened on a Friday night during the New York University Independent Music Festival (although, as The New Yorker clip proves, it was not an official festival event). But there was no cooler place to be in the East Village in 1995, and the place was packed. I surprised Lenny by taking the stage in a little black dress.
1. “Co-dependency” – Our first single and frequent set opener at that time.
2. “Wild Sugar Brown Thing” – Retitled “Rewind” for release later that year. I don’t remember why we changed the title.
3. “Awakening From A Disturbing Dream” – Different lyrics from the version on Wanna Drag?
4. “Speedracer” – Our next single. About to become that song we played forever.
5. “Beg” – It’s a pity this one never made it onto an album. So many decisions I don’t remember making. “My doctor gives me little courage pills.” I’m playing like a lunatic, cuz I was one.
6. “The Car Song” – New parts and body work made me what I am today. “The transsexual menace should unite!” We loved fucking with people’s heads.
7. “Timothy” – I had forgotten this song until today. Background vocals are dodgy, but we’re kickin’ ass regardless.
8. I forget the name of this song; I know there’s another version recorded. Let’s call it “Come Around Again”, though it probably had one of those one-word titles we liked so much in the nineties. The vocals probably sounded better if you were there, but I can’t complain.
A tight, 27-minute set. Happy about that.
Side B – In the JenCon rehearsal space, beneath the Hani Deli on First Avenue at St. Mark’s Place, Spring 1995.
Our space was under the sidewalk. Fluffer, Ultra Bide, Alice Donut, and D Generation all rehearsed there. A damp, squalid box, separated from the madness of East Village 1995 by a steel door in the sidewalk. Not infrequently, random strangers would lift the sidewalk door and invite themselves in. Just such a night is recorded here.
1. “I Need You” – A song of mine that I had forgotten until today.
2. An inexplicably better recorded version of “I Need You” or whatever we were calling it. I only ever had two songs in the repertoire, and that’s fine.
3. “Timothy” – Again with the dodgy vocals; we should have worked on them, but we didn’t, and that’s why I forgot about “Timothy” ha ha!
4. We introduce ourselves to our guests, Robert and Raymond, and play “Wild Sugar Brown Thing”. Why did we re-title it? The original title came from “Wild Thing” by the Troggs, plus Bob Mould’s band, Sugar, and, like, the Stones.
This is quite a good recording; I wish I could remember how we did it. I’ll bet Pertusi remembers.
Robert and Raymond are from Midtown West. Slummin’, James says, and they were.
5. “Wild Sugar Brown Thing” again. Great song.
6. “Speedracer” falls apart.
7. “Speedracer” holds together, but the recording does not.
8. “Awakening From A Disturbing Dream” – fidelity returns. Lenny’s vocal resembles the Brownies’ show, so I’m figuring this happened either shortly before or after the live gig on Side A. In any event, Andy quit in May, so these are among the last recordings with this line-up. So good!
9. Another forgotten JC song. Sounds like James on lead vocals? Heavy blues-rock groove on this one. I could not tell you the title, but it’s more than alright. “I don’t know why I get this way.”
10. “Used To It” – that’s TERRIBLE
Fin
