Being a collector of indie/punk/etc records in New York City for any period of time in the 90’s/early 00’s means at least one of two things: 1. You’ve been in a record store somewhere below 14th St in Manhattan and had a burnt out, tattooed, older gentleman who reeks of cigarette smoke and/or cheap alcohol start a conversation with you just so he can tell you stories about bands he was in in the 70’s/80’s, famous musicians he hung out with/did drugs with in the 70’s/80’s, or sometimes outright compliment your taste in music based on a record you’re holding just as a way to ask for money, and 2. You’ve bought or at least considered buying a copy of the Tiny Desk Unit LP based solely on the cover and song titles. They were actually a D.C. band and seeing as every single vinyl shop in the Greater NYC metro area between 1992 and 2013 seems to have been required by law to have at least one copy of this record in either sealed or near perfect condition in stock at all times priced at $15 or less, leads me to believe that after this record was pressed, a band member or someone from the label drove 90% of the pressing to NY for distribution. The only other release on the label, 91/2 x 16″ Records, besides a Tiny Desk Unit 12″ EP is an LP by Egoslavia who, like Tiny Desk Unit, were also a D.C. area band with new wave tendencies, a slight nod to the artsier side of punk, and probably best known to punk collectors for the un-remarkableness of their music. Egoslavia’s only other release that I’ve ever come across was a track on an early Sub Pop compilation cassette that also featured one of the last tracks recorded by the great Ama-Dots. Tiny Desk Unit’s sole LP is a good listen and an interesting document of a band from that period but it also seems to be one of a few dozen records from that period that over the years I more often than not hear mentioned as one that collectors have high hopes for and are ultimately let down by. Too new wave for the punk/KBD/NYHC crowd, too artsy/weird for the skinny ties and Fonzies. But, you can always find a copy cheap if (for some reason?) you need one.
Another record I always equate with the Tiny Desk Unit LP in my mind, but sounds nothing like it and has nothing in common with it (as far as I can tell) is the Liz Bitters 12″ EP “Real Life”. I’m almost positive the first time I came upon a copy of this I was in a store with a listening station and I was able to hear it before I committed to buying it and my money was saved. I’m not sure how long ago it was but it was definitely when money was tighter and I couldn’t just buy a stack of stuff and figure out what I liked or didn’t like when I got home. I remember liking the handmade sticker cover, the very plain labels on the record and the haircuts of Liz and her two male bandmates. What I didn’t particularly like was the music. While now I can appreciate a record like this and it’s simplicity, it’s innocence, the kinda cliche “broken glass”, “look in the mirror”, “sleepwalking through life” etc new wave-y lyrics, but at the first time I heard it, it was one thing above all: Not punk. In retrospect I think what initially struck me was that the cover was not unlike the Mars 12″ EP on Infidelity which was released just a few years prior to Liz’s record, but nothing on “Real Life” would have made it past Eno’s desk when he was putting “No New York” together. I don’t know when I eventually bought a copy but I’m sure it was sometime in the last 10 years as my tastes slowly broadened and records like this began to give me a sense of comfort as they had become so familiar it felt like they’d always be there, even if I never actually bought a copy. I distinctly remember the last time I saw a copy in a shop: Other Music on E4th a week or two before they closed in 2016. I’m pretty sure I bought it just to give to a friend. No idea who that might have been now.
Every so often while flipping though my collection to find something I may have forgotten about or sometimes something I may have bought, forgotten about and never even played, I come across a record like Liz Bitters and put it on my “to listen to soon” shelf. Sometimes I even do some Googling to see if any new info has popped up on it over the years. Sadly, I’ve never been able to find any info on Liz, and as far as I can tell, no one has digitized the record and/or uploaded it to Youtube. The only info I have about the record and its history come from the lyric insert which says the 5 songs were all recorded from July to October in 1983 in NYC at THREE different downtown recording studios: High Rise Sound, Greene Street Recording and Song Shop Recording. Here’s a few other bands from around the same time that recorded at these three studios: Slick Rick, Material, Chaka Khan, Cause For Alarm, Kurtis Blow, Sonic Youth, Anita Baker, Ween, Joe Cocker, Shannon, Philip Glass, Bad Brains, Public Enemy, Suicide, The Dictators, The Mad, A Tribe Called Quest, James Chance & the Contortions, The Styrenes and Bill Frisell. Somehow Liz and her two bandmates’ efforts fell through the cracks while a lot that was happening around them in 80’s downtown NYC would never be forgotten. Rest assured though, as a wise man once said to me about another obscure punk-adjacent record lost to time, “Superior Viaduct can’t be far behind.
