Graeme Jefferies and The Cakekitchen Official Website


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	DISCOGRAPHY
	Honeypod in My Head (Split 7" w/Dairy High) (2008) Wowza......an real first. A seven inch record for the Guinness Book of Records in that it is the actual first ever split single between something from the New Zealand underground and something from inside of the Russian Federation. A labour of red tape and a barrow load of e-mails to organise, it actually turned out to be really worth the effort to do this vinyl only release. Moscow band "Dairy High" took the train to Latvia to record their side in Riga and The Cakekitchen rattled a bit more plaster off the wall again in Germany. Hey, that's global. A good contrast in styles and a great exercise in filling out forms. The Cakekitchen song is fast and poppy and the Dairy High number is mid paced and long. An unexpected treat. At almost 100 gramme elephant slab proportions, the Czech vinyl factory cooked up such big pies with this sprudel that it will give your local postie RSI just getting it to your house. The groove has been cut very deeply into this plastic and it sounds great loud. Everything about it is different.The sleeve even has album like writing on the outside spine of the thick eastern block type cardboard. On the inner playing surface of the disc (on the Honeypod side), it has enscribed in the plastic "Sorry about Rob Muldoon". They get their beaks in their quick- don't they just mate? Another kiwi first. Sticky? Tricky? Ever-so-clicky? Hoot Hoot. Nobody involved in the making of this project will probably never be reimbursed for what it cost to do it (massive customs charges before final delivery were added on at both ends for good measure) so you'd better thank your Aunty Grizelda that some mammals continue to cross the border for these sort of things. Raise your vodka glass to the fire place with glee and polish your Sputnik with your favourite spit cloth. Please let us know where you want us to mail this to you as the postage will vary according to the size of your camel. A small but definitive charcoal statement, only 500 pressed. You lucky ducks.

	Stories for Late at Night (2007) First American domestic release in a long time "Stories For.....", adds another interesting chapter to the written and recorded in Germany songbook. Twelve songs wide and over 55 minutes in length it is the longest CD so far. Graeme is helped once again by German production honcho Michael Heilrath and long time collaborator, violinist and cellist Dieter Roseeuw makes another welcome appearance. The pallet of sounds ranges from the brain bending guitar chowder of Einstein's "Dancing with Me on my Car" to viola driven ballads featuring farms of elephants, Syd Barrett's gnome, bread, cabbages, rabbits, sheep tigers and crows. Roseeuw's melodies add a perfect counter balance to Jefferies accordian like viola parts and strings hover and cackle in the branches of the song structures in an old worldly way that is rare in todays digital world. Patrick Mathewson makes a remarkably strong song writing debut with his incredibly touching ode to the lost and institutionalised with College radio favourite "November Holiday". Rainstorms, old feudal pipes, wind up toy foxes and cocktail piano offset the POP SONGS and/or FOLKY or DISTORTED BITS with style and confidence, making a more rewarding and less predictable listen to than the standard rock or guitar album usually offers. Packaged with the eggplants with olives for eyes in the fridge on the back cover and recogniseable because it has an owl the size of King Kong on the front cover this is the last part in a four album set written on and about life on the continent. Strange surreal tales from the underbelly of small self contained european cities and rural ghost towns are cunningly interwoven with the more modern day upbeat numbers. Robert Scott's "he lost it on tour in Germany" stolen passport even gets a mention? Some of the material on this CD took years to get from the first note to the final mix and it is another strong chapter in the Cakekitchen cookbook of what's possible with a small amount of equipment and a large amount of patience. Bingo?

	Everything's Driving You Crazy Cos You Just Can't Get What You Want (2006) The new offering from the german pressing plants this side of the Atlantic sees the Cakekitchen in glorious form. Mixed in Munich with Michael Heilrath the new CD shows a progression only hinted at on the last offering of songs. The wonderfully clear and not too much batter pristine audio ethic the seems to be like wallpaper in Bavaria really shines through on these eleven new songs and it was worth the months of waiting it took for a time when Michael could work with Graeme on the project. Heavens above, the new album even has songs that one can dance to on it. We know that you Cakekitchen fans like to wobble back and forth in your own lounge staring Guy Stevens like into the speakers and now (as fate would have it) weve finally given you something good to wobble to as well as to sit and listen to. With such winning titles as Ill Buy You One More Frozen Orange Juice and Sometimes the Longer You Leave it the Less it Goes Away one wonders how Graeme managed to get the song titles onto the song registration forms. The instrumentation and arrangement touches this time around involves more prominently the 6 string fretted viola and cello that were last featured on Put Your Foot Inside the Door and prime cuts such as Bluebell Café and To Be Safe In Your Arms (without being too derivative) somehow recall the finer moments of early Robert Kirby string quartet style Nick Drake or Barrett period Syd Barrett. Fans of something with a little bit more meat and potatoes wont be disappointed either with the rock department side of the release righting the balance between night and day in just the right way with concise No Frills pop songs like If I Could Be You For a While or the anthem for this years disenchanted teenagers No, They Never Had Any Fun, which closes the album and invites the listener to hear a story. Lyrically Graeme hits upon convincing updates of observations from the smaller and to some extent mostly unseen or at least unspoken side of lifes underbelly that we have come to expect from his observations as wandering global outsider and banjo and piano are also used to good effect in The Prospectors Song and the Tom Waits/Alex Chilton cross of I Think I Had Too Much To Drink Last Night. Fans of the CD booklet department and the folks who dont much like a staring at a load of blank silver downloads will not be disappointed with the 12 page lovingly presented and much laboured over new booklet. Pictures of kiwis inside bottles and other exotic New Zealand animals fit snuggly in with hand puppets and mutated eggplants and we even managed a few bizarre shots with giant sized light bulbs that Dylan in 1966 would have been happy to look back with. The traycard sports a world first with a wonderful but maybe too close for comfort shot of the only found in New Zealand relative of the cricket, the mighty New Zealand Weta. With a limited pressing run and the rumoured demise of the CD format, one would be well advised not to wait to long before securing a copy of this very unique labour of love.

	Put Your Foot Inside the Door (2005) Often a Cakekitchen release can be many years in the oven and there is always a tremendous amount of thought and trouble that goes into each one. This is certaily true of the latest offering aptly titled “Put Your Foot Inside The Door“. Showcasing 10 very different from each other songs, this time with Graeme playing almost all of the instruments himself, its an accumulation of many hours spent working on musical structures and textures and is an on-going labour of love that started to be put together as far back as 1998. Like the critically acclaimed largely solo affair “Messgaes For the Cakekitchen“ it manages to feature a wide selection of musical colours. Cellos, violas, backwards and forwards guitars, drums, pianos and also assorted unusual “Off the Wall“ instrumentation, like toy guns or Mongolian Throat Singing all seem to find a place somehow in the mix. Viewed as a whole, the songs together, cast a very wide net and somehow set themselves just far enough outside the confines of independent guitar music, or folk, or new country to be interesting as well as original. The diverse styles and adventurish turn-on-a-dime song structures make for an interesting 51 minute musical adventure that is somehow held nicely together by Graeme´s distinctive guitar playing, curiously inventive songs and original baritone. At some points during the course of album, unexpected musical changes seem to occur as if by magic, such as when busy strings and acoustic strumming rapidly give way to a morning chorus of picking and birdcalls with what sounds like somebody rowing a boat down stream, on the epic “Voyage to the Sun“. From the opening and very danceable Velvet Underground guitar chug of “Strung Out“ to the closing cello filled ode “The Hop Hop Song“ the new Cakekitchen album is chocked full of interesting stories. The well respected studio wizard Michael Heirath once again worked with Graeme on the mixing of the album. This is the second release of the hopefully on-going winning combination that brought you 2003´s critically acclaimed Hausmusik album “How Can You Be So Blind?“ Viewers of the movie “Sonnenallee“ may also be pleasantly surprised to hear Graeme´s voice again and be reminded of his warm resonant vocals that featured on the movies title song.

	How Can You Be So Blind? (2003) Drawing on over four years of song writing and a year in the recording "How Can You Be So Blind" is perhaps the release that everybody was waiting for but probably thought would never happen. Lovingly put to disk by the watchful ears of Munich Studio Konig "Michael Heilrath" the production on this record perfectly suits all of the songs.For once Graeme´s compositions receive A1 recording quality and Michael even does the string arrangements and plays bass on a lot of the tracks. Fans of the "Flinty Guitar Heaven" need look no further than the first track, the new Summer Teenage Anthem "You Know I Really Like Your Sytle" to know they´re in the right place. Older reference songs like "Is the Timing Wrong" or "You Never Run Out of Luck" are given there modern day equivalents with "The Resurrection of Lieutenant Ghmpinski" and "Beautiful Hidden Lagoon" but this time there´s enough microphones and tracks to really colour what´s going on.Returned to the fold Cake Stickman "Markus Acher" contributes superb drumming throughout, adding both flare and melody to the proceedings and with Graeme´s right handed Syd Barretty type piano parts amd Michaels sympathetic bass and string arrangements all of the I´s are dotted and all of the T´s are crossed in just the right way. There´s still some weird disconcerting noises in some of the tracks such as the strange found sound noises that unbalance the quite ballad "The Love You Had For Me" and add the next chapter to the world of the match solos as featured in the earlier Cakekitchen release that Markus plays drums on.Happily released on Vinyl and CD by the Munich label "Hausmusik" both CD and LP contain a 12 page colour lyric booklet and the cover shows one of Graeme´s holiday snapshots of horses on an old Turn of the Century Handpainted Wooden Carousel that he happened to walk past in Bordeaux. How Can You Be So Blind? rates as one of the finest Cakekitchen releases ever.

	Live at CBGB's (2003) Live at CBGB's presents the first in an ongoing series of live recordings from the official Cakekitchen archives and was probably the groups most high profile show ever. We received great press for this concert and it was our New York City debut. It's taken 12 years to actually get a hold of a copy of this show ( we eventually got hold of it via an Italian source) and we've gone to every conceivable effort to master the tapes in the best possible way. It features the not often seen and not particularly well documented 2nd Cakekitchen line-up that made "Far From the Sun" with Keith McLean on bass and Huw Dainow on drums. The package is lovingly put together with good period stuff with and an 8 page handmade booklet including press and band photos. The liner notes by Graeme give a surprisingly honest account of what it was actually like to play the show. He seems to have the memory of an elephant and if you listen closely to the between song tuning banter (which is kept to a minimum) you can actually hear how nervous he was at the time. Jokes about the guitars getting baked in the back of the car on the way back from Pittsburg and other such mumbles and grumbles are wedged in between the quavers and listening to this release gives one ( as much as is now possible so long after the fact) a very good indication of what it was like to actually be at the show way back in the dark ages of 1992.This release is really only available directly from Cakekitchen HQ and we would much appreciate some feedback as to how many of you folks out there are interested in plowing through the archives with us. So don't forget when you get one under your laser don't hesitate to drop us a quick mail with your comments. It features material from World of Sand and Time Flowing Backwards and also a good amount of versions of songs from Far From the Sun before they were officially recorded back home in London after the tour. Set list was as follows: 1. Stranger Than Paradise 2. Airships 3. This Perfect Day 4. Big Fat Mouth 5. Trouble in the Underworld 6. Crimson To Gunmetal 7. Walking on Glass 8.Fahrenheit 451 9. Tomorrow Came Today 10. Dave the Pimp

	Talkin' To Me In My Sleep (1999) Two years in the making this album is largely a one man effort although German drummer Andre Richels does help out by adding drums to 4 of the live rhythm tracks. Recorded on 8 track and 4 track machines in Old German Railway sheds and bathrooms the CD kicks off with the classic Go Take Your Job and Shove It song "I Don´t Want To Work For Mr Evans Anymore", which strangely enough resembles the old This Kind of Punishment song "Northhead". This album was deliberatley never commerically available and only ever sold directly from the band.Sonically similar to "Stompin Thru the Boneyard" and equally left of centre from the standard stereo eq (and not at all a part of the new computer home recording generation) sound), these recordings are very much analogue and old world sounding. It kicks off in great shape with Graeme playing all of the instruments on the first two tracks. Features such classics as "Interisland Ferry" and "Post Office Tower Birdseye View" as well as weird fucked up backwards stuff like "Old Tin Shed" and "The Woodcutter´s Song". An interesting release with special handmade packaging "Talkin To Me In My Sleep" is another labour of love and was only manufactured in very small quantities and sold mostly by word of mouth. Offically on the bands own Eggbox label this CD is also not so easy to find but worth the effort to track down if you ever wondered what the next chapter of the story was. Contains the controversial One Man Recording Marathon "Island In the Sun" complete with marching to war section at the end of the song and containing live elements of New Years Eve in the Ruhr Pot and field recordings of a record company packing machine.

	Everything's Going to Work Out Just Fine (1996) The first full-length release featuring Markus Acher, this album was mostly recorded on Wolfgang Petter's old Tascam ½" eight-track in the local Hausmusik practice rooms in various sessions over the course of a year. The first album to be conceived as an eight track recording from conception since World Of Sand. Some of the songs featured more overdubs than usual and were mixed at Uphon Studios in Weilheim under the watchful eye of local legend Mario Thaler. Contains such epics as 'You Never Run Out Of Luck' and 'The Old London Chestnut' 'Overground Rail Catastrophe'. The album sports interesting artwork and features one of Markus' paintings on the cover. Everything Is Going To Work Out Just Fine was not released by either Merge in the USA or Raffmond in Europe, but instead came out on a now defunct London label. Initially available on both LP and CD, this is one of the harder Cakekitchen releases to find. A favorite in some quarters most of the songs were written in Landsberg in the heart of Bavaria. As with all Cakekitchen releases Graeme's analog 4 track sneaks in on some of the songs, most notably Jessica's Secret Part One. The release closes with The Great Fire which contains the only match solo on any Cakekitchen release and tells the story of a small European village being burnt to the ground.

	Devil and The Deep Blue Sea (1995) Fifth album proper and second full length project featuring Jean-Yves Douet this release contains the second installment of the songs written in France as well as New Zealand compositions such as "Old Grey Coast". Jean-Yves and Graeme utilised some very interesting recording places to lay down the tracks including a Theatre inside of the ruins of an old 13th Century Castle and an unused Taranaki Library in New Zealand.Again only using one 4 track recorder they managed to improve the recording quality a bit and you can hear a healthy amount of real room acoustics adding their flavour to alot of the songs. Graeme´s three violins on "I Know You Know" were recorded on the library staircase and all around good guy Hamish Kilgour adds some inventive percussion to the written in London bitter music industry lament "The Ballad of Oxford Circus"(another recording originated in America at the "WFMU Sessions" with David Newgarden. Devil and the Deep Blue Sea sports many of the songs that Jean-Yves and Graeme premiered live on there two European and one American Tours while Alastair Galbraith pops back under the headphones in Dunedin to chase starfish along the beach in the cacophony turns to melody instrumental closing track "Escape To Fire Island".Released in the USA by Merge on CD and in Europe on LP and CD by those plastic loving Germans at Raffmond.

	Bald Old Bear EP (1995) Released in Europe after the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and in the USA before it, the Bald Old Bear EP features drums from both Jean-Yves Douet and "Notwist Mainman" Markus Acher. It contains "Down At the Cooler" which was written in the back of a car on the bands second American Tour and was the very first song that Graeme and Markus worked on together.Bald Old Bear also features other Hausmusik people with violinist Steffi Böhm making her first ever violin overdubs on a cover of Michael Hurleys "Wild Geeses" and Wolfgang Petters kindly donated his time and expertise to the recording of the EP on the trusty Hausmusik 8 track. The EP includes both songs from the Bald Old Bear 7 inch and the flipside of the Little Foxes single but also sports two exclusive tracks including the first song Graeme recorded on Wolfgangs 8 track, the cult classic "You Turn Me Inside Out". Released in the USA by Merge and in Europe by Raffmond.

	Stompin' Thru The Boneyard (1994) Fourth album proper, "Stompin Thru the Boneyard" was mostly written in Paris and Chateaubriant and was the first of two albums made with French drummer Jean-Yves Douet. It marked a change in labels for the band in the USA with the band shifting to the friendly North Carolina label Merge Records. "Stompin Thru" also saw a change in approach for The Cakekitchen with the band opting not to use bass guitar for most of the Indie Rock type songs and instead utilising as many different ways to play and layer the electric guitar as possible.Recorded on a two very broken down four tracks in Bretagne and Taranaki this release sports by far the worst production of any Cakekitchen release but more than makes up for it in song content alone. Contains such Cakekitchen standards as "Tell Me Why You Lie" and "Even As We Sleep" as well as the South London Paranoia Classic "Mr Adrian´s Lost in his Last Panic Attack" (a song especially composed for the never realised but much publicised Charles Hayward lineup.Harriett Row was the first song Graeme wrote in London (it was written on the roof of a Piccadilly Circus Tavern) and was the last recording to feature the Keith and Huw lineup. Alastair Galbraith adds some wonderful violin to "The Mad Clarinet" and things take a turn for the bizarre in the lengthy Found Sound Weirdo Shit Epic "Hole in my Shoe". Released on CD and Cassette by Merge in the USA and on CD and LP by Raffmond in Germany.

	Far From the Sun (1993) The Cakekitchen´s third album and the first and only full length release featuring the London line-up of Keith McLean on bass and Huw Dainow on drums. Far From the Sun was written and recorded in South London over a period of two very cold English Winters. The album contains both band rhythm track type songs and non-amplified acoustic efforts in a 5 to 4 ratio. Recorded on two analogue 4 tracks in Old Railway Sheds and extensively overdubbed and layered by Keith and Graeme in various squats and bathrooms "Far From the Sun" narrowly missed never being released at all when the tapes for the entire album were reposessed by the Lambeth Council when they illegally reclaimed the place the band was living in.The tapes and recording equipment were only saved by Graeme daringly climbing around the outside of the 10 story Council Towerblock and breaking into his own house to rescue them. Two years in the making the project was released in America by Homestead Records on CD only and in Germany the tapes were remastered in Paris for the Raffmond European release on LP and CD.The song "Greater Windmill Street Blues" was recorded in America at the WFMU Studios in East Orange by long time industry figure "David Newgarden" in a mad all night recording session on the Stations 4 track. An out take from these sessions also saw the light of day on the Hayfever 7 inch that came out with Issue Two of the magazine.

	World Of Sand (1992) Second album and much delayed in it's initial release this album contains large elements of the original line-ups final touring set. These songs were written over a long period of time and were mostly composed in Auckland, New Zealand. Rigourouusly Road Tested and then recorded live to an analgue 4 track the tapes were then transferred to 8 track by South Island legend Stephen Kilroy at his home away from home 'Fish Street Studios' in Dunedin. World of Sand is definetly a labour of love. The band had actually ceased to exist after completing the rhythm tracks and Graeme went into debt for the first time in his life to complete the project. It´s a very layered record and when you consider that the whole album was mixed in only one night,(and at the same time as the 6 non-EP songs on Time Flowing Backwards) it´s an amazing testament to the determination of Stephen and Graeme that they actually managed to get finished mixes of everything in such a short space of time. Like "Time Flowing Backwards" World of Sand also contains some 4 track recordings using non-electricfied instruments and vocals.It was released in America on Homestead on CD and cassette and in Germany the project was specially remastered for a vinyl only release.

	Time Flowing Backwards (1991) The first real Cakekitchen album this release contains the debut Flying Nun EP and 6 other songs. The songs from the EP are stacked at the front of the record and the project was specially remastered in 1991 to remove all traces of Dolby A that was accidentally encoded on the Flying Nun master. One listen to the Robert Key's floor tom on the opening track 'Dave the Pimp' and you'll know why Graeme bothered to remaster it. The vocals also have more presence and you can hear more sub-sonics from the 1970's Ampex 2 inch 16 track analogue recorder that was used for the project. 'Is It Only Monday?' and 'Airships' are from the same session as the debut EP while 'Walked Over Texas' features Bug Eyed Guitar from the infamous David Mitchell and was recorded on a 4 track. 'One Plus One Equals One' was secretly put to tape on the day of the Auckland Mick Jagger concert when the studio wasn't being used and the band even made a video in London for 'File Under Filed'. Time Flowing Backwards was manufactured on LP,CD and Cassette by Homestead Records of New York and is currently only available as a handmade CDR made by the band themselves.

	Messages for the Cakekitchen (1988) Three years in the making Messages For The Cakekitchen came out under Graeme's own name and was made at the same time as the last This Kind of Punishment album.Largely a solo album with Graeme playing all the instruments and writing most of the songs alone, the disc does however feature Jean Paul Sarte Experience's drummer Gary Sullivan on two of the albums live rhythm tracks recorded at the Gladstone in Christchurch in 1987. Released in a limited 400 copies only by Flying Nun Records, the Messages For... album was re-issued in 1993 by Ajax Records in Chicago. Recorded on an analogue 4 track mostly in large empty buildings in the centre of Christchurch this release sets the blueprint for further Cakekitchen releases. Contains the 9 minute one man marathon`Is the Timing Wrong' and features Maxine Fleming singing and playing keyboards on 'Prisoner of a Single Passion'. Also contains 'Nothing That's New' which is one of the oldest songs Graeme's has released. This song predates both The Nocturnal Projections and This Kind of Punishment and was written in Auckland in 1979. Flying Nun issued Messages For... on LP only while Ajax opted for both vinyl and CD release.