Warning: Explicit Language

Treacherous Jaywalkers
Two Early Practice Tapes

Cassette A. “1st Treacherous Jaywalk Talk”

Quinn’s House
Pacific Palisades, CA
2-Track 1/2” tape
11 November 1984

1. Josh’s Intro
2. Hey Joe
3. Spirit 30
4. The Wedding
5. Neighbors Will Get Pissed Man On A Saturday Night

Bonus Tracks - Spoken Word “Scribblings From The Past” (From Cassette A.)

Quinn’s House & Josh's House
Pacific Palisades, CA
2-Track 1/2” tape 11 & 12 November 1984

6. Flirtatious Rap by Josh
7. Death Is For Strong Men by Quinn
8. I’m Dead by Quinn
9. Hanging Out Downtown by Quinn
10. Flanger Poem by Josh
11. An Emergency Warning Of Power by Quinn
12. The Ruinous Task by Josh
13. Hanging On A Limb by Quinn
14. Turnips Which Never Died by Josh
15. Sex Noises by Quinn

Cassette B. “Live Tape #1”

Location Unknown (Probably Quinn’s House)
Pacific Palisades, CA
Boombox Recording
Late 1984

16. Spirit 30
17. The Wedding
18. Neighbors Will Get Pissed Man On A Saturday Night
19. Treacherous Jaywalk
20. The Wedding Prototype

Location Unknown (Probably Josh’s House)
Pacific Palisades, CA
Boombox Recording
Late 1984(?)

21. Josh Bass Jam With Skateboard Wheels

Location Unknown (Probably Josh’s House)
Pacific Palisades, CA
Boombox Recording
Early Summer 1985

22. Bass Freakout

Location Unknown (Probably Quinn’s House)
Pacific Palisades, CA
Boombox Recording
Late 1984

23. Hey Joe
24. Count Of Three
25. Meat Puppets-Influenced Song
26. Spirit 30

My grandfather’s mother came to America from Russia by steamship, alone, as a teenager, in the early 1900s. Her family joined her shortly after, and my grandfather was born in New York City in 1918. As a teenager and into his early twenties he worked odd jobs, at different points becoming a policeman and a fireman. His best friend started a distribution company for medical devices and soon my grandfather was working for his friend as a traveling medical device salesman. Some years later he parlayed his relationships with doctors and hospitals into a production company for medical instructional videos. This was before VHS tape was invented. The tapes my grandfather’s company used were bulky and the machines that played them were too, but my grandfather became very successful. His house was filled with audiophile stereo equipment, microphones, and all sorts of esoteric audio-electronic gadgets. That’s where I borrowed the 2-track reel-to-reel machine to record the first group of songs on this release. I don’t know why I didn’t use it more to record our music. Maybe because it was so heavy, or maybe my grandfather didn’t trust me with it.

In 1984 I was sixteen years old. On weekend nights Quinn and I would sneak out of his parents’ house late at night, meet J.J., a fellow high schooler who lived down the street, then continue on across the PCH bridge to the beach. J.J. was a talented drummer. I remember sitting at his parents’ house, getting stoned, and listening to him play along with Rush’s “Tom Sawyer”, over and over again, note for note, his double-bass drum set almost taking up his entire bedroom.

The spoken word pieces from the “Jaywalk Talk” cassette, presented here as bonus tracks, were heavily indebted to side one of Black Flag’s Family Man album, released a few months earlier, as well as the Freeway Records series of spoken word lps, especially 1983’s English As A Second Language, tongue firmly in cheek. The short story below is from Crossroads School’s literary magazine Writings On The Wall, spring 1984, when I was in ninth grade.

Josh Haden / Los Angeles / 10 September 2021