here's a distinct possibility that you may never see this album in even your most reliable of indie music stores. Darcy Clay was an unusual talent, a young guy with a cogloose upstairs who reveled in being challenging and ad hoc. In late 1997 Darcysent a four-track recording of his latest track entitled 'Jesus I Was Evil' tothe bFM college radio station in Auckland, New Zealand to ask what they thoughtof the track. The quirky little number which sounded somewhere between Ween andthe Tall Dwarfs was immediately play listed and became an undergroundphenomenon. bFM used their promotional power to release the track as an EP,still in its crude 4-track recorded form, and within 2 weeks of release thetrack hit number 5 on the New Zealand charts. This success had never beenachieved by an independently recorded release since The Clean's 'Tally Ho!'back in 1981. All of a sudden Darcy was a celebrity, he appeared on NewZealand's (then local) MTV station in his signature Evil Kinevil outfit andformed a high profile backing band for the live shows that he now was being asked to perform.


Darcy Clay (born Daniel Clay) only managed to complete 5 of those gigs, whichwere usually beautifully chaotic messes, before taking his own life. He was only20 years old and left scores of people asking why, when he shot himself in thehead at his girlfriends house in March 1998.


The recording here makes up half of Darcy's tragically short career-output, alive recording of his last gig, which happened to be opening for Blur duringtheir New Zealand tour. The crowd is enormous, Darcy's only been on stage ahandful of times before, and absolutely everyone in the audience go crazy whenhe breaks into the opening bars of 'English Rose' in a haphazard Casio-tonedkeyboard style. No other truly creative and independent musician has ever metwith this complete an approval from a mainstream audience.


Moving into a full-band configuration, the band plays Darcy's unusual mix ofcountry-fried guitar-punk with vigour and chaotic glee, including the obligatorycover of Dolly Parton's classic 'Jolene' late in the set. Rounding off thenight Darcy announces they have one last song, his one true hit, 'Jesus I wasEvil'. It's a loose and heavy track, awash in guitar-feedback and sing-shoutvocals proclaiming the evils of his former past. The track makes a slickreference to Joe Walsh - 'I used to crash parties and Macerates, and I was evil'and has a demented shine that is indescribable.


And so his performance ends. Later, Blur came on stage and proclaimed that hewas the most enjoyable opening act they had ever seen. Darcy touched people. Heshowed that you didn't have to be a brilliant and slick musician to besuccessful, he did it merely on the fun and drive of his music and mere weeksafter his death was voted the 'most promising' of New Zealand musicians, in asad posthumous conclusion.


I recommend anyone who has the opportunity to purchase this recording, or hisstudio EP for 'Jesus I Was Evil', to pick them up immediately, so you may beable to understand what people saw in Darcy, and why those of us who cherishedhis music miss him so much.