2 FOOT FLAME

2 Foot Flame LP/CD

"Do you feel like something chocolaty?" asks Peter Jefferies from his usual spot -- flat on his back on the bed. Jefferies is the piano player and drummer in 2 Foot Flame.

"Not really," answers Smith as she separates the slats of the venetian blind to see if the red neon open sign is on yet at the bar across the street. It isn't. The blind snaps back in place.

"What the hell is Michael Morley thinking? Going back to New Zealand instead of touring with us? I suppose he's busy doing music for Melrose Place. It's embarrassing to be in a band with that guy! Let's kick him out!" Smith barks and rubs her hands together.

"Come on... he's got The Dead C, his art gallery and all that grant money to figure out what to do with. He's busy."

"Busy. That's something you should try! You haven't written anything decent in Christ knows how long!" singsongs Smith annoyingly.

"Hey, has anyone ever told you it's not just what you say, but how you say it? I'm tired of hearing how you can do everything better than me. I cannot figure out how David Lester has put up with you all these years," says Jefferies, shaking his head emphatically.

"Well it seems like he doesn't have to do it alone any more now that you've weaseled your way into playing drums in Mecca Normal, producing our next record and setting yourself up in a band with me!"

Peter Jefferies -- piano, drums
Michael Morley -- guitar, synth
Jean Smith -- voice, guitar

Ultra Drowing LP/CD

Ultra Drowning is the second album by 2 Foot Flame. It was recorded, in part, in Portland, Oregon at Laundry Rules with Lawrence Crane (publisher and editor of the wonderful zine Tape Op) during the last part of a U.S. tour in October '95. The rest of the album was recorded in Vancouver between and during the making of Peter Jefferies' recent album (Trance Syndicate) and Mecca Normal's touring for The Eagle and the Poodle (Matador). Peter and I listened to the final mixes of Ultra Drowning on the way to the airport for his return to New Zealand in September. He'll be back in North America, based in Austin, in March. Mecca Normal, the original duo, will tour south to meet up with Peter to start a 2 Foot Flame tour -- just Peter and I this time. Michael Morley, a busy anthropologist, made his apologies and continues painting, gardening, keeping his aviary clean and making music in the form of Gate and the Dead C in New Zealand. Personally I believe it's apparent (pardon the pun) that New Zealanders have been immobilized by the cloning of Dolly the sheep. (That's another story.)

This is a document of a band currently in temporary remission but far from dead. It's a walking, talking threat and if you happen to live behind a door don't be surprised if we come a-knockin' -- not on it but down.

In this trio you'll hear why there's a crowd of people who thinks each one of us is a saint, and the other two total assholes. It's a formula that's worked so far and we're not the ones crying ourselves to sleep over it.

Ultra Drowning convicts the spiritualist in a lunar garden where the pale skin of a soon to be forgotten "acquaintance" lies in a resin box heading for the waterfall through the pipeline to vertigo, buried alive in a watery grave. How fast can you swim? The prediction rings true; these songs were made for the future...which, by strange development, happens to be now.

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