Episode 034 - Syd Sustain: Syd Died Today Live!

Any college band worth its salt had to be able to perform in front of a live audience, and Syd Sustain was no exception.

Here’s a selection from the “Syd Died Today" concert at the college arts center, with a very receptive and active audience.  The songs include “Scam Wham Bam”, “Too Much at Once”, and “What It’s Like for You”.  Ray and John have quite the patter between songs. Apologies for the audio quality, but that comes with the territory of a live show.

One more episode to go, and a familiar concept in college bands—solo (in this case duo) efforts.

Episode 033 - Syd Sustain: The T.R. Ashe Collection

Moving on with Syd Sustain, and a more esoteric album.

GCC had it’s own poet laureate in the mid-80’s named T. R. Ashe. Rarely seen in public, Ashe published a series of compositions and became a type of muse for Syd Sustain.

Many of Ashe’s writings had a “you had to be there” quality to them, especially his epic “Sligo”. The second movement of “Sligo” has a real 80’s video game vibe as well. I had the good fortune to create a Sligo music video, although it did NOT feature Syd members due to a time crunch before a concert.

Clear your mind and receive the acquired taste of T.R. Ashe.

Episode 030 - Syd Sustain: Volume One

When you go to college, you’re gonna have college bands.  Electronica was big in the 80's, and anyone with a DX-7 gave it a shot at some point.  Four "townies" (locals who attended the school) had put together various music since high school, and continued at GCC as "Syd Sustain".  Ray Voltz (keyboard), John Trammell (keyboard), Chaz Owens (bass), and P.D. Gregg (drums) put out several albums (mostly distributed via dubbed cassettes) and had various gigs in and around the college and the Pittsburgh area.

My connection to this group?  I did some audio-video stuff for one of their concerts at GCC and shot material for videos that never saw the light of day.

They do have a Facebook page you can find here.

Ray was generous enough to allow me to post some of their material in what will most likely be the final batch of episodes for this series.

Let’s start off with their “Volume One” EP album and four songs: "See You", "Rocket Man", "One Love", and "Running for Cover". 

Episode 026 - Classic Radio Theatre - The Signal Man

WSAJ’s “Theatre of the Air” continues.  It’s back to gothic horror in “The Signal Man”.

There’s no cast list in the recording, so I was surprised to hear my own voice as one of the co-stars. I have no recollection of this performance, essentially doing a Graham Chapman (Monty Python) impression.  I also recognize Larry Bowald, P.D. Gregg, and Keith Parrish’s voices.  I’m not sure of my co-star; perhaps Martin Christoffel? My apologies if I’m in error.

There was a LOT of cleanup for this one, mostly balancing the voice level—damn my baritone!

Enjoy!