Revised: Mega City Four - The Peel Sessions

I originally wrote some bullshit about the first of Mega City Four's two Peel Sessions all the way back in October 2008. It seems like a lot of people visit me to listen to this, so I felt I was overdue to revisit it. Here's what I rattled on about:

I had just written this moderately long screed about how you shouldn't trust hyped rock bands, and that's definitely true. But, in the end, it had nothing to do with what I wanted post today. Mega City Four is easily my all-time favorite Judge Dredd-related band. A lot of the kids here in Baltimore were/are totally fanboyish over MC4, or anything Wiz related. Two songs from this, MC4's first of two Peel Sessions, popped up on my iPod today, including "Clear Blue Sky", one of my favorite songs ever. I think this record had a different cover when it was in my dream the other night, but was definitely at the top of that stack. I can't believe this recording is 20 years old...

It'd only been a couple of years since Wiz died shortly after playing Baltimore when I originally posted this. Hearing my friends rave about MC4 led me to explore a whole world of early 90s British indie with their sandpaper melodies. It blew my mind that I hadn't heard more of bands like Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Snuff, Drive, and Senseless Things. "Clear Blue Sky" remains one of my favorite songs of all time; it, along with "Springtime" by Leatherface, come to mind anytime there's a nice April or May day.
Here's what you should know about this disc. It compiles a five-song Peel Session from 1988 (supporting "Tranzophobia") and a four-song Session from 1993 (behind "Sebastopol Rd"). Five years of regular touring and songwriting, as well as the various pop waves in the UK, have given the "Sebastopol Rd."-era songs a real shine that are not present in the 1988 session. That's not a bad thing, although I prefer the 1988 jams.

Is this era remembered fondly by any more than a handful of people nowadays? My gut says it's as small a group now as it was back then; the bloggers, the record collectors, the folks who still exist on the outskirts of the music industry. I hope this repost leads someone down the same path that I went in the early aughts. I think it's worth spending a tenner on.

Discogs

Click here to download.