The Tolnex Archives Vol. 1: The Metal Years (1992), by The Dead Tree

The Tolnex Archives Vol. 1: The Metal Years (1992)

by The Dead Tree

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David Key While the recordings sound more like the late ‘70s/early 80s low-fi British and US punk bands that I would scrape tapes of and play in the car on the way to various gigs and road trips in my younger days during the early 90s, they capture exactly what I loved about The Dead Tree - their energy, humour and irreverence. And they were from the Western Suburbs of Sydney. They should’ve been bigger. Much, much bigger.

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1.	Immortal Magician (mix 1) 05:00	buy track
2.	When A Man… 00:06	buy track
3.	Tube Orange Toy-Mic 01:56	buy track
4.	Death V (To The Track) 01:13	buy track
5.	Headband Geek-Thrower 03:19	buy track
6.	New Funk Song 03:00	buy track
7.	U.S.A. 02:37	buy track
8.	My Brother, The Demonspawn 03:02	buy track
9.	Immortal Magician (mix 2) 04:58	buy track
10.	Martin Fish 00:36	buy track
11.	Ritual Sacrifice (Song For Jay) 00:47	buy track
12.	Orange Tronfut 00:37	buy track
13.	Devourer (Of Stillborn Fetuses) 02:35	buy track
14.	Misery 04:48	buy track
15.	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (live) 00:49	buy track
16.	Death V (To The Track) (live) 01:15	buy track
17.	New Funk Song (live) 03:02	buy track
18.	I'm. Not. Dead. (live) 00:29	buy track
19.	Headband Geek-Thrower (live) 03:42	buy track
20.	Tube Orange Toy-Mic (live) 01:57	buy track
21.	Martin Fish (live) 00:38	buy track
22.	Get Sly With Me (live) 02:09	buy track
23.	Devourer (Of Stillborn Fetuses) (live) 02:54	buy track
24.	Misery (live) 05:23	buy track
25.	Theme From "Cheers" (live) 01:22	buy track
26.	Wotton (live) 06:30	buy track
27.	Debbie Does Hieronymus (live) 03:36	buy track
28.	Ritual Sacrifice (Song For Jay) (live) 00:51	buy track
29.	Immortal Magician (live) 04:56	buy track
30.	U.S.A. (live) 04:15	buy track

about

Tracks 1-12: "45 Fish Street" demo cassette
Tracks 13 & 14: "Devourer/Misery" demo cassette
Tracks 15-30: "The Final Band Practice" live demo cassette

The Dead Tree began as a one-off collaboration in May 1990 at a house in the Katoomba between myself on guitar, and Matt Drury & Andrew "Fraggle" Hale on vocals with a song called P.B.S. - a comedic metal/rap tune. With Frag moving to bass, we enlisted Stuart Beekmeyer on drums and took the name Casgaroth, rehearsing in garages and church halls 'til we got our first gig that December at Pendle Hill High's "Variety Night". We changed our name to Deathroach, then Lost Fly, then broke up (Matt & I did a one-off show at Northmead Uniting Church Hall as "Please Keep All Children Off Stage"), then reformed as The Dead Tree - performing our second gig December '91 at the next "Variety Night"!

January 1992 saw us take residence for a week at Daniel Wotton's garage in "Fish" Street, and with Anton Hamer manning the 4-track, we recorded our first demo. Listening to it now, it sounds a lot more "black metal" than I remember - rough 'n' buzzsaw-y. With a mix of thrash, death, doom, funk, comedy and even indie, The Dead Tree weren't your typical westie metal band. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is up for debate.

The second demo was recorded at some studio in Seven Hills (i think) by Dave Key - who played guitar in Fishhead at the time, and was later a guitarist in Lost (with Adam "Wes" Gregorace, who was later in the C Minus Project, Cult 45, Grace Emily & the Devoted Few, amongst others...). These 2 songs were recorded as part of Dave's sound engineering course, if I remember correctly. I think it was in October (or early November, at the latest) in 1992, not long after the Dead Tree became a trio, with Matt taking on bass guitar duties. We got Jenny Miller to sing along with me in "Misery", which also has the best guitar solo I ever played in my life. It was our only ever studio recording.

Our final recording was again recorded by Dave Key, at our final ever live show at the infamous "Cowshed" in Wentworthville in November 1992. Recorded live to 4-track, this collection omits 2 covers - "Twisterella" by Ride and "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure - because my guitar got awfully out-of-tune before tuning it back up!

credits

released February 13, 2018

Tracks 1-12: Stuart Beekmeyer (drums, vocals), Matt Drury (vocals), Andrew Hale (bass, vocals), Geoff Towner (guitar, vocals)
Tracks 13-30: Stuart Beekmeyer (drums, vocals), Matt Drury (bass, vocals), Geoff Towner (guitar, vocals)

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about

Geoff Towner Sydney, Australia

Geoff Towner is a Sydney-based musician & visual artist who has played in and done artwork for a variety of bands, including The Dead Tree, Sal Paradise, El Mopa, A Gold Star Secret, Decoder Ring, Darren Hanlon & others.
He currently is a solo artist. ... more

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