As you well know, Bedhead is one of my all-time favorite bands. When I had the opportunity to meet and chat with Bubba Kadane in Dallas during my cross-country voyage, I considered it to be one of the highlights of my trip. We spoke for almost four hours about the history of his bands and the changes that have occurred in his home state of Texas. I learned fascinating details about the formation of Bedhead, including stories about former members, most notably Marty from The Dixie Chicks, who played violin in the band containing Bubba, his brother Matt, and Mischo McKay (the drummer for Macha).
About that era of Bedhead, Bubba said, “it’s funny, because some of the songs that ended up on Bedhead records — the early ones — were starting to come about around that time, so she actually…”Dead Language,” on the first four-song EP, and “Unfinished” on the first Bedhead record, those melodies on guitar were originally written for violin.”
Those were the early days. The band disbanded in the latter half of 1998, maybe a half year after the release of their third full-length album Transaction De Novo, which is widely considered to be the band’s defining album. During my conversation with Bubba, he touched in the final days of Bedhead, stating, “The album came out at the beginning of ’98, and we toured through March, April and May. We had done the big six-week tour in ’96, which was the biggest non-stop tour we’d done to that point. The tour in ’98 was over seven or eight weeks long, with little breaks in between. It was all right. It wouldn’t be a big deal for a lot of bands. Next we went to Europe and by that point, that’s when it gets to the point where…I always say it’s like when you ask somebody who’s gone through a divorce to talk about it — they can’t really put it into words, you know what I mean? Everything just falls apart. Everything just fell apart in Europe and Matt and I just had it. So we broke up the band, I guess, after June or July of that year.”
The recording that I am presenting you with today was recorded during that final European tour, in May of 1998. There are live performances of several songs, and six interview segments. It is a fantastic recording that I believe was taken from a cassette tape that captured the radio show on which this aired. There is a quirky moment at the beginning of “Smoke” where the tape seems to be at half-speed, but it corrects itself rather quickly and the rest of the show is great quality. The interviews are insightful, and the songs all slow and beautiful. Especially listen for “Golden Brown,” originally written by The Stranglers, and “Dead Language,” which is mentioned above. I am sure you will enjoy this treasure.
Bedhead
May 20th, 1998
De Avonden; VPRO, Amsterdam
Megaupload Download Link
01. Smoke
02. Interview
03. The Present
04. Interview
05. Interview & Gasoline
06. Interview
07. Golden Brown [The Stranglers]
08. Interview
09. To The Ground
10. Interview
11. Bedside Table
12. The Unpredictable Landlord
13. Dead Language
14. The Dark Ages
15. Crushing
16. Bedside Table
