Brian Teasley presents SAFE HARBOR: THE AUBURN INDEPENDENT AND PUNK MUSIC SCENE OF THE EARLY 90S

Get your eyes and ears ready! Cuz this is part 1 in a special 3 part series presented to you by the one and only Brian Teasley: Man Or Astroman? drummer, one of the driving forces behind Bottletree Cafe, owner of Secret History Productions, writer, amazing storyteller ... the list goes on and on ...


Here is Brian himself to set the mood and tell you all about this incredible playlist, which is only Part 1 of the Safe Harbor "trilogy" =


"In the early 90s underneath the main level of the Foy Union student center on the campus of Auburn University in a corner section of the basement floor, butted up against the cafeteria, was the campus radio station, WEGL. At the time it was a fairly nice, new facility, and, in retrospect, we were immensely fucking privileged to have the place to our whimsy especially being the feral little bastards most of us who worked there were. As decidedly trite as it sounds now, our radio tagline at the station was, “WEGL: Auburn’s Rock and Roll Alternative.” And in truth, that is rather accurately what it was. There were scant few stations (college radio included) that were playing the music we were pushing with our modest 3,000 watts of transmitter power. It was also a time where “Edge” Modern Rock formats on mainstream FM radio were coming into prominence, and there was a very clear, dare I say, enemy that we were structuring ourselves against.

At various times we were, astonishingly, even cleared by the FCC for "safe harbor" and after 10:00 PM (until 4:00 AM) at night we were allowed to play almost anything with any level of vulgarity and/or profanity in it, and, of course, even this was something we pushed the limits of--both in terms of frequency and decency. Often during the beginning of a safe harbor shift, a DJ would start off their set with The Warlock Pincher’s "Don’t Play This Song On The Radio"” which had the opening line, “Don't play this song on the radio, might say shit-fuck-cocksucker-motherfucker!" It was a classic way to piss off, well, anyone who would be pissed off by that sort of thing.

Anyway, it was here that I spent a behemoth portion of my early 20s both on-air and later, in my tiny, cramped music director office (that I shared at times with longtime friend, Carl Ratliff). There I would review new records that would be going into our rotation and pick out what I thought were choice tracks to play on-air. At one point I actually collected over $1,000 in parking tickets because I was consumed with listening to records all night, falling asleep in the wee hours of the morning and forgetting to move my car from in front of the studio before 7:00 PM when parking restrictions changed over. Nonetheless, working at the radio station, and this is not an over-exaggeration, ostensibly became my real college education. Partly because I got to listen to so much great music, but also because the more time I spent at WEGL, the less I went to class. It was at the radio station where I was indeed lucky enough to get to school myself in so many different forms of music and was turned on by so many disparate scenes, labels, and bands.

Most definitely did I spend far more time at the radio station than I did anywhere else on the campus of the University of Auburn. I was on-air at WEGL for over five years (1990-1995) and what follows are music selections from my final shift at the station. Surprisingly, I think it rather holds up very well against the test of time. You might think bits of the mix sound “very 90s,” but, there again, it is actually from the 90s--made in a world before blogs and popular music review sites have actually had the seemingly contradictory effect of homogenizing music.

I colossally miss all the things that went down in Auburn in the early 90s--especially at WEGL. One of my favorite things to do, when a new freshman DJ was doing their on-air test for the first time, was to light the connected glass door of the interview room on fire with lighter fluid so it would seem like the studio was burning down. The flames, of course, would dissipate in a matter of seconds, but we usually could get a good, "Holy Fucking Shit!!!" out of the already nervous, unsuspecting freshman victims on the radio. Of course, it was moments like those that made the University fight us again and again against maintaining our safe harbor status.

Truly, this was an immensely pure and anarchistic time filled with an unbridled enthusiasm for punk and independent music that was propelled forward by people who could care less about anything other than having fun and who didn't know fuck-all about what they were actually doing. It was a time when underground music was still pretty much, for all intents and purposes, underground, and the word “alternative” still had some semblance of substance. It is these recent introspections about WEGL and the people who were there during my tenure (indeed they were a hearty lot of freaks, fuck-ups, and art-damaged weirdos, who all of which were out of step with the much more prevalent culture of football and fraternities) that has made me realize "safe harbor" now has a much more literal meaning for any of us who were around then, and the resonating depth of the term now extends far beyond just the ability to play “fuck” on the radio. The station itself was a shelter, a literal fortification from the barrage of mainstream conservative, cover band, fraternity yahoo bullshit that was always pounding at our walls to crush the guerilla attacks of the sonic malice we would lash upon the community.

What follows is part one out of three mixes done surrounding the music scene in Auburn in the early 90s. The first being on the radio station, the 2nd being on shows we put on (which included having Green Day in a freakishly small bedroom), and the 3rd being focused on the bands that were actually from Auburn itself. Also included, will be a bonus on-air interview Carl and I did with Frank Black of the Pixies in 1992, which took place very shortly after the Pixies had broken up.

I hope you enjoy these mixes, and if you were there, or had a similar radio station in your town, that it brings up some fond memories of simpler times, great bands, and a shared collective love of independent music, in what now seems to be its veritable golden age. And thus, Radio Live Transmission..."


And, with no further ado ... Here it is ...

SAFE HARBOR: THE AUBURN INDEPENDENT AND PUNK MUSIC SCENE OF THE EARLY 90s ... part 1: WEGL =





(You can download the mix RIGHT HERE)


Here is the track list:


1. Spectra Sonic Sound--The Nation Of Ulysses

2. (I Don’t Like) The Man I Am--Thee Headcoats

3. Here I Come--The Fall-Outs

4. Adults And Children--The Gordons

5. All I Wanna Do Is Fall In Love--Robyn Hitchcock

6. Working for Him--New Fast Automatic Daffodils

7. Land of 1000 Dances--The Mummies

8. Neverland--The dBs

9. I Remember--MDC

10. Brackish Boy--Frank Black

11. Courage--The Bats

12. Killy Kill--Rocket from the Crypt

13. Here Comes A Headache--Hypnolovewheel

14. She's So Satisfying--The Untamed Youth

15. Junior Citizen--Poster Children

16. Barry White--Tar

17. Love Song Of The Waterfall--Slim Whitman

18. Our Love Will Still Be There--The Fluid

18. Green Hornet--Link Wray

19. Sinead O'Connor On T.V.--Alice Donut

20. White Hassle--Adrenalin O.D.

21. Hell Of A Message--Gumball

22. Lucky Guy--The Muffs

23. The Charm --Steelpole Bathtub J

24. Transmission--Low



Did you know that Brian is a Psychic Tuesday mixmaster veteran? ... check out his previous contributions through the years =

A. Alabama God Damn Mix

B. Xmas In July Mix

C. O Holy Shit Mix



Speaking of Brian, all of the following kick-ass videos were hand-picked by the man himself ... Take it away, Mr. Teasley!



The Mummies / "What a Way to Die"


The Gordons / "Adults and Children"



The Fallouts / "Here I Come"


Nation of Ulysses / Live at the 9:30 Club '91



The dBs / "Neverland"



Adrenalin O.D. / Live CBGB's '85



The Muffs / "Lucky Guy"



Low / "Shame"