Various - Weird Culture Weird Custom. NZ National Student Radio (1986)

WCWC was the first of the compilation lps put out by the fledgling 'National Student Radio' group in 1987. This was an attempt by the managers of the university radio stations through NZ to get some new and exciting acts before the public and also to raise the profile for student radio. So each station ran a competition , and the two most popular acts from each town got money to record a couple of tracks for the LP. In Christchurch for example it was All Fall Down and the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - who at that point had recorded only a demo tape ( released to student radio in a can) ..the JPS effort was later repeated on their first album, as they thought the WCWC effort was substandard. ... SO the acts were recorded, the record pressed, and sold through retail outlets. This is a vinyl rip.

Weird Culture — Weird Custom (1986) was the first record release co-ordinated by the entire New Zealand student radio network. There were twelve tracks on the album, two chosen by each of the six member stations.  Radio Active selected the two  to represent Wellington: cow-punk combo the Crawbilly Creeps with “A Day in Lucky Gulch” and feminist-folkies Putty in Her Hands gave us “NZ Music” which became an instant favorite and was oft-requested for a long time afterwards. Putty in Her Hands were a duo consisting of Charlotte Yates and Christine Jeffs. Yates continues to write and record, continuing to release solo records and also putting together the acclaimed compilations of NZ poetry set to music, Baxter (2000),  Tuwhare (2008) and Ihimaera (2011). After the only official Putty in Her Hands release (trick of the Light in 1987) Jeffs took a different turn and became a filmmaker. Her first feature film, Rain in 2001, received tremendous acclaim and led to the Hollywood financed pictures Sylvia (2003) and Sunshine Cleaning (2008). Other notables on Weird Culture — Weird Custom were Jean-Paul Sartre Experience with the very poppy “Let That Good Thing Grow” but my favorite track (other than Putty) was “Happy” by 3 Leaning Men from Palmerston North, a band which featured Alan Gregg who later joined The Mutton Birds. According to Wikipedia, “Another member of the group, Rhys Bevan, moved to the South Island of New Zealand and began a career as a baker.”

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